Time, Slate and others have begun using Twitter to post rapid-fire updates from the campaign trail and at primaries and caucuses.
And if they can do it, why can’t you? You can.
Twitter is easy. Signing up takes seconds. All you have to know how to do is type 140 characters or less and hit submit.
It works with many smart phones, and it can help take coverage to a whole new level. Don’t believe me? Check out this NY Times article about how Twitter is changing political campaign coverage.
Here is the thing: what have you got to lose by trying microblogging or beat blogging? Nothing. In fact, you stand to gain a lot.
To Josh Tyrangiel, the managing editor of Time.com, “the business thinking is the same as almost all of my business thinking: Why not?” The more exposure to Time.com’s material, the better, and no one can afford to be choosy about the setting. So Ms. Cox also has a Flickr feed for her photographs from the campaign trail that Mr. Tyrangiel is happy to promote. Ultimately, he said, it is a hopeless fight.
“If you tell people how to consume their content, they will ignore you,” he said, a truism that experience had taught new-media executives. “Let people do what they want to do and try to be in their circle of choice.”
Let that last quote marinate for a bit. That’s how you succeed in the 21st century.
