Posted by Jon Kerr | Posted in Tips | Posted on 29-03-2010
If you are a sports writer, nothing beats the feel of a live event. The energy in the arena or gymnasium can fuel your creativity. But so can Twitter.
You can do so much more with a laptop than just keep game stats. With a WiFi connection, you can now engage your readers in real time, which makes for a much more complete journalistic experience. Even with just a smart phone, Twitter has changed how sports journalists cover games. Here are 7 tips on how to use tweets to increase your audience and impress your editor.
Create a hashtag in advance. If you are covering your local high school, college or pro team, you may have your own Twitter beat account. Be sure to have an event-specific hashtag as well. You can use the same hashtag if you will be tweeting from more than one game. For example, I used our newspaper’s name “Beacon” and “Hoop” during the basketball season. #beaconhoop was attached to the end of all tweets. This allows your editor to tease this in print. As we all know, symmetry between print and online is very important.
Give more than scores and stats. Sure, as a good sports journalist, you want to give basic information. Scores and stats are a part of that. But unless you are covering a high school event, your audience can probably get that information elsewhere. Instead, be more observational. Tweet what you are seeing. Remember, your audience is at home, in the car or out where they can’t watch the game. What would they want to know? Are there any key injuries? Has the coach changed the lineup? How does the star player look? Give them more than the basics.
Storyshare rather than storytell. What is social media all about? It Conversation. Connection. Responsiveness. Think non-linear—by sharing my thoughts, how can I bring someone in? By initiating, you are inciting. Don’t just deliver content you are observing. Ask questions. Trust your fan base to respond in an intelligent way. By encouraging conversation, your audience can take you down an entirely different path.
Find your audience using Twitter’s search engine. This is a great tool to find who is on Twitter at the time of your game. You can type in the team’s nickname such as “Wildcats” or the city or school. If you are using the city or school as keywords in your search, put a distance limit, such as 30 mi (which is supported by Twitter’s search engine). I’ve also used the arena itself such as “United Center” (in Chicago) and found people sitting in their seats. A great way to start up a tweetversation with fans of your team.
Be photogenic. Whether it’s Tweetphoto—which is supported by most Blackberry phones—or Twitpics, part of being a social media reporter is using visual elements. And photos are easy to upload and post from whatever smart phone you have.
Encourage the innate. While covering a high school game recently, someone in the stands pointed out a Terrell Owens look alike. I took a picture, posted the photo, and by the end of the night, we had over 100 views. Now it wasn’t really T.O.—just the father of one of the players—but people love pop culture references (as I’m writing this, Justin Bieber is still a trending topic. Going on 5 days now). So do the search engines. By mentioning Owens in the tweet, our newspaper had over 100 exposures they would have never gotten. Remember, you are trying to reach an audience that is looking for a reason to tune in. Give them one by providing content they can’t get anywhere else.
Track everything. One of the great things about social media channels such as Twitter is we can keep score. Be sure to monitor your analytics—followers, retweets, photo views, etc. This is also valuable as you can show these metrics to your editor. This is doubly important in today’s climate as media companies are still leery of investing in social media initiatives. By tracking these numbers, you have more ammunition to present to your editor.
As for applications, I use UberTwitter as I’m a Blackberry guy. TweetDeck is nice platform for following multiple hashtags. If you have an IPhone, Tweetie is a great app.
Bottom line, Twitter can be a very useful tool when covering a live sports event. But consider this—it is just an instrument. It should not replace the basic tenants of journalism. Still get the facts, Jack. Once you do, just don’t be shy about tweeting them out.
Jon Kerr is a social media sports reporter at Sun-Times Media West. He can be reached on Twitter @jkerrsports.
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