Twitter, A Journalist’s Best Friend

April 25, 2008 by Jonathan · 2 Comments 

Here’s a little nugget and inspiration I’d to get some feedback from the masses on:

I wasn’t actually able to take in any of this live last week, but the amazing power of Twitter can do a reporter’s work for them. Take a look at the first-hand accounts of people who felt the earthquake last week.
In 140 characters or less you really get a feeling for the state of these people are in and what they want to know, things that the - could provide to them in a similar fashion, and with similar speed and agility.
Earthquake Tweets:
mention in NBC Nightly earthquake coverage:
(Thanks Jim Long for the to those tweets and the resulting coverage) 
Simple communications tools like bring new meaning to ‘urgency’ and ‘transparency’, there is no holding back information for a newscast, just pure here’s what’s happening now and here are some potential answers to help you navigate your own life.
I’ve put to work for me, and in fact have gotten calls and emails from potential employers because of the ideas and thoughts that I share with the 300+ people who “follow me”. 
It’s a great way to get a feeling for what’s really going on at any given moment in time, and when I have a question about nearly any topic I have an immediate forum of people much smarter than I who will chime in and help out.
To see how I use , take a look at http://www.twitter.com/jdcoffman 
-Jonathan
http://www.jonathancoffman.com
713-965-7370

Filed under: Blog
Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

How I Want To Use Twitter

February 8, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment 

I’ve been on for a while now, and my usage just keeps climbing, I really feel like a part of the and want to share not only my with , but others as well. works for me in several ways, it provides a way for me to share my thoughts and ideas, a way to communicate and share with others, and a way to keep abreast on information no matter the topic.

I make generous use of the ‘Track’ command on for my cell . Although I sometimes get carried away and Track too many, or too hot a topic. During the Macworld 2008 Keynote a few short weeks ago, I tracked ‘MacWorld’ and ‘Steve jobs’ so yes, I’m partially responsible for the crash of during the keynote.

The information that I gained from hearing what others has to say about the product launches and the Reality Distortion Field was very interesting and useful. Getting that kind of insight into public opinion and thinking should prove extremely useful for the modern marketer.

Granted, I got over 1,100 text messages that morning alone, basically 1 every second, as fast as my iPhone could process them and them on screen.

It’s times like that when really shines, it truly is an aggregator of infinite . I now have almost 200 followers on and I’m very proud for getting to that point, but the thing is this, I’m not doing enough to the minds of those who follow me. That’s the problem I’m currently working through, how do I motivate them to interact and ask and answer questions.

Some people like and have been on much longer than I have, but they have that special mix of followers (listeners) and true audience (interacters).

I’ll cut this particular post off at this point, but I think that I continue to use , that’s my goal, to interact more without loosing more time to using the web/ interfaces, I need more interaction and networking within that I can integrate into my existing workflows.

Filed under: Social Media, Software Reviews
Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,