Twitter Talk: Why you should "get" it

I know Twitter will not be used by every person in the world. I've never expected that to happen. But for a very long time (search Twitter on this page, and you'll see years of me bringing it up) I've felt the need to explain why journalists should use it. I'm still talking about it... and not everyone believes me. Unfortunately, the more mainstream Twitter gets, the bigger mistakes people make when they take Twitter information and twist it around without even knowing they missed the point.

Here's the perfect example... and it's pretty terrible because New York Times journalist (who really knows her stuff around social media) Jennifer Preston was slammed by a conservative writer who claimed she was biased by retweeting a person running social media for the White House. Preston created a really helpful Storify that explains what happens:

It's funny how I started writing about this topic when I stumbled into a thorough discussion about why newspaper editors must be on Twitter by Steve Buttry. He openly criticizes leadership at the New York Times and I think he has incredibly valid reasons. I also think he brings up even more reasons why anyone involved in news collection and management should be inside social media to understand the conversation, the engagement and the community information that is actually delivered incredibly well inside Twitter.