#Tip of the day for journalists: Take a look at this list of Twitter tools

Image by shawncampbell on Flickr. Some rights reserved.

Here is another list relating to the best of 2012 or predicting useful tools for next year.

The SiteVisibility blog has created a list of  the top Free Twitter Tools for 2013.

Perhaps the most useful tool in the list from a journalist’s point of view is Tweriod, which tells you the times of the day when the greatest number of your Twitter contacts are online.

For more on social media optimisation – or SMO – see this guide (published last year).

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link.

Similar posts:

• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – best social media tools for journalists
• #Tip: 10 online tools for reporting, storytelling and engagement
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – 11 social network search engines
• #Tip of the day for journalists: Use this tool to find out when a Twitter contact amends their bio
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – how to get more Facebook likes, comments and shares

#Tip of the day for journalists: Use Tweetbot to mute tweets auto-posted by other apps

Yesterday’s tip of the day for journalists suggested using the new Tweetdeck as a journalistic tool. That sparked some debate on Twitter clients with recommendations for Tweetbot, available for Mac (at £13.99) and iPhone (£1.99).

Tweetbot launched for Mac desktop last month and was hailed by Matthew Panzarino of The Next Web as “probably the last great Twitter client for Mac” and “powerful enough to replace Tweetdeck for some users”.

Data journalist Adrian Short has a tip for Tweetbot users, recommending them to ‘mute’ tweets sent by third-party apps, such as Foursquare. Therefore when using Tweetbot to view your Twitter stream you will not see Foursquare updates from people checking-in and auto-posting to Twitter.

Short has created a picture of some useful Tweetbot mute suggestions.

Due to Twitter restrictions, Tweetbot can only sell a certain number of Tweebot accounts. If you are a Mac user and have a spare £13.99 it is worth buying now.

Similar posts:

• #Tip of the day for journalists: Use the Twitter phone app for alerts
• Twitter limits third-party apps access to your DMs
• Tweetbot partners with Storify to allow Twitter conversation sharing
• Ten technical Twitter tips for journalists
• A guide to newspapers on Twitter

#Tip of the day for journalists: Be careful what you tweet and retweet

Image by shawncampbell on Flickr. Some rights reserved.

The fact that Lord McAlpine’s lawyers have said they will sue for defamation those who tweeted or retweeted the name of the former Conservative party treasurer in reference to the Newsnight allegations highlights the pitfalls of sharing such information on social media.

Richard Kendall, web and social media editor for the Peterborough Telegraph, has blogged about it.

He reminds journalists:

When you post online on social networks or blogs, you become a publisher and those publications “are subject to the same laws as those of professional publishers, such as newspapers”.

The post is at this link.

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link.

Similar posts:

• #Tip of the day for journalists: Twitter tools and ideas
• #Tip of the day for journalists: Five ways to use social media curator RebelMouse
• #Tip of the day for journalists: 12 tips for using Storify
• #Tip of the day for journalists: Verifying Twitter content
• #Tip of the day for journalists – newsgathering with social media

#Tip of the day for journalists: Search for Sandy tweets sent by SMS

Did you know that you could tweet by text message? A useful option if you find yourself without wifi and 3G and reporting on a severe weather event such as Hurricane Sandy. And did you know you can search for tweets sent by SMS?

If you want to search for tweets mentioning #Sandy sent by SMS, use the search box in Twitter and type #Sandy source:txt

If you want to search for tweets sent within 30 miles of New York by SMS, type near:new york within:30mi source:txt into the search box.

If you are ever caught without data services and want to send a tweet, here’s how you do so by SMS:

Save the number 86444 to your contacts (for UK Vodafone, Orange, 3, O2 and Sure customers). (Other country codes are listed here.) Text ON to the above number and you will be able to follow the commands to receive and send tweets.

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link.

Similar posts:

• Ten technical Twitter tips for journalists
• ‘If this then that’: ten recipes for journalists
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – capturing tweets for your blog
• Three ways to get a round-up of news shared by your contacts without checking Twitter
• MediaGuardian: Phone records suggest 100 accounts hacked by NOTW

#Tip of the day for journalists: Twitter tools and ideas

Image by shawncampbell on Flickr. Some rights reserved

Richard Kendall, web editor for the Peterborough Telegraph’s site peterboroughtoday.co.uk, has written and curated some helpful Twitter tips, tools and ideas.

Many of the tips will be particularly useful to those just starting out using Twitter as a journalist.

Take a look at the Twitter advice.

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link.

Similar posts:

• #Tip of the day for journalists: Take a look at this list of Twitter tools
• #Tip of the day for journalists: Be careful what you tweet and retweet
• #Tip of the day for journalists: Pointers for covering events live on Twitter
• #Tip: Become a better smartphone photographer
• #Tip of the day for journalists: Blogging pointers for those starting out

#Tip of the day for journalists: Twitter’s tips for ‘best practice’

On its blog Twitter recently offered four “best practice” pointers for journalists using the platform, aimed at helping to “increase follower growth and engagement”. As the blog post explains:

The team analysed thousands of Tweets from more than 150 news brands and individual reporters around the world, determining four specific areas of focus: tweet your beat, use hashtags for context, @ cite your sources, and share what you’re reading.

See the full post here.

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link.

Similar posts:

• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – create Flipboard sections with Twitter lists
• Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – track Twitter with Tweetbeep
• TwitterJournalism: Reasons to use #hashtags in your tweets
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – media law tweeters
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – 20 free Twitter tools

#Tip of the day for journalists: Ideas for your Twitter header image

Earlier this week Twitter introduced a new personalisation option: a header photo can now be added to a user’s profile page.

10,000 Words has highlighted a few news outlets and journalists who have amended their profile pages. Take a look at the post at link for inspiration from others.

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link.

Similar posts:

• #Tip of the day for journalists: Different ways to use Pinterest
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – newsroom resolutions for 2012
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – Facebook guide to improving page search rankings
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – who journalists should follow on Twitter
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – Ways to flag up breaking news on Twitter

#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – try an advanced Twitter search using SocialBro

Twitter management tool SocialBro has an advanced search facility that could be particularly helpful for journalists.

SocialBro offers a pro account or there’s a free Chrome web app.

This helpful post on SocialBro’s advanced search syntax is worth a read. Here is an explainer and a few of the commands:

In SocialBro, the Advanced Search Syntax can be very useful and powerful to search with different criteria. In the search box in the top navigation bar, you can combine your search in different ways. For example, if you are searching your community for people who are from Boston and London and have in their bio Marketing or Social, you have to write the following:

Here I have carried out a sample search for people with “journalist” in their bio who are from London.

So, the basic rules for the Advanced Syntax are:

- All characters without spaces.

- The sign + means “OR”

- The sign – means “NOT”

- Double quotes mean you are searching an exact phrase, like “social media”.

- For Name searches write: name:_____

- For Bio searches write: bio:_____

- For Location searches write: location:_____

The full post is at this link.

Tipster: Sarah Marshall

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link.

Similar posts:

• Data Miner: Social searching – who has the story?
• #Tip: Read this post on searching social media
• #Tip of the day for journalists: Add Twitter search to your browser
• #Tip of the day for journalists: BBC News advice on headline writing for SEO
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – try SocialBro for real-time Twitter analytics

Tool of the week for journalists: Conweets, for tracking Twitter conversations

Tool of the week: Conweets

What is it? A tool to track Twitter conversations between two people.

How is it of use to journalists? If you have ever had to look for a public Twitter spat or conversation between two users you may have used Bettween or the conversation tracking function in Tweetbot (which can turn a conversation into a Storify from within the app).

Bettween has now closed its doors but a new platform called Conweets launched earlier this month that allows you to track conversations between two users. You can get conversations going back several months.

Another handy function is that if you enter just one Twitter handle, you will see a list all the conversations that user has had and be able to track a conversation from that list.

This could be a really useful tool when reaching out to new sources. For example, find a key person contributing interesting tweets to an unfolding news story and see who they are speaking to and how frequently.

Similar posts:

• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – use Bettween to track Twitter conversations
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – tracking Twitter conversations
• Ten technical Twitter tips for journalists
• Innovations in Journalism – tracking conversations and researching stories with YackTrack
• Tool of the week for journalists – TimeKiwi, to create social media timelines

#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – what and how to tweet as a journalist

Image by shawncampbell on Flickr. Some rights reserved.

Continuing his series of #twutorials on his blog The Buttry Diary, in his latest post Digital Media First’s Steve Buttry outlines the different ways journalists can use Twitter, and what sort of things they should be tweeting about. His opening statement pretty much sums things up in a couple of sentences:

Tweet about what you’re working on. And if no one cares about what you’re working on, find better stories or find another line of work.

But the post also goes into a lot more detail about the different sorts of tweeting journalists may find themselves doing, from breaking news or updating ongoing developing stories, to tweeting stories by others. This includes looking at best practice in offering an alternative to the original headline, or adding your own context within the character limit.

See the full post here.

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link.

Similar posts:

• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – aggregation guidelines
• BBC Research and Development blog: Could the Mythology Engine be applied to online news stories?
• Slideshare: Steve Buttry’s ‘Twitter for journalists’ presentation
• DNA09: Journalism.co.uk coverage from the digital conference
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – Twitter techniques for journalists