Do we really need Twitter?

In the week when Twitter announces yet another overhaul - users or those on the fringes of becoming users will be asking themselves ‘do I really need to be part of the Twitter world?’

Aimed at aligning its formatting for mobile use and making itself more user-friendly (and more commercial, some may argue), Twitter is testing the patience of the millions of users who are still uncertain if this is the medium for them or not.

For anyone who might be doubting it, we did a little in-house research exercise for one of our clients today. Having helped them set up a Twitter account to start engaging with the world, our next objective was to set them a ‘following’ strategy and seek out the best tweeters in their sector.

The results were amazing. The scope to directly tap into your target audience is huge – it’s just a case of going about it smartly and having a planned strategy which you can maintain.

Out of interest, as of 10.00 GMT today, here are the volumes of followers currently engaging with some of the core national and local media. Interesting reading:

@FinancialTimes 505,732 followers

@SkyNewsBreak 412,994 followers

@BBC News 447,561 followers
@guardian 249,079 followers
@TelegraphNews 73,309 followers

@BBCRadio4 45,223 followers

@MailOnline 38,799 followers
@TheTimesLive 22,802 followers
@ITVAnglia 9,106 followers
@bbclincolnshire 4,125 followers

@peterboroughet 3,624 followers
@BBCCambs 2,013 followers
@TelegraphClub (for small business owners) 1,269 followers

@businessweekly (East of England business news) 1,375 followers
@Mercury1695 Stamford Mercury 1,183 followers
@PboroNet Community Website. 575 followers

Twitter currently has just short of seven million followers itself. If you’re one of those still sitting on the fence, we’d advise you to unruffle those feathers and get ready to take off and join the Twitter community. It might be a bumpy journey along the way but once you’ve landed, you’ll wonder why you left it so long!

Dawn Strange
Accounts director

Leveson Inquiry shines light into gutter journalism….

What a sad state of affairs when some tabloid journalists can’t distinguish between stories that are in the public interest and those which are not….

What is the public significance in a story about the lovelife of comedy star Steve Coogan or Charlotte Church? Or what Max Moseley is getting up to in the privacy of his own home? Or cropping a photo of Sienna Miller lying on the floor at a charity ball and claiming she was drunk, when in fact she had been playing with a disabled child?

As someone who worked as a regional newspaper journalist and editor for over 20 years I am both saddened and angered by such methodology.

It belongs in the gutter. There is no place for that in responsible British journalism. It certainly ignores the codes of conduct and ethics taught to trainee journalists about balance and fairness.

Press freedom in the UK is partly what makes this country so great. There is no censorship – but equally, it is what makes us in the media look so tawdry when irresponsible journalists go beyond what is both decent and sometimes legal to justify a steamy, sordid or shocking front page headline. Phone hacking is the worst personification of this practice.

Some editorial managers will weigh up the cost benefit of increased casual sales against the likely litigation costs – if it stacks, they publish and are happy to face the consequences.

And yet, some tabloid journalists have unearthed hugely important stories which are very much ‘in the public interest’ and which often bring our government and those in authority to account for their actions. We must protect that precious press freedom for all it is worth. It is the cornerstone of our democratic society.

I have no problem with journalists hiding in bushes or going undercover to unearth stories that are plainly ‘in the public interest’ – but let’s be absolutely clear on the meaning of that phrase.

The Leveson Inquiry is rightly shining the light into the darker corners of the British media and maybe this will provide the opportunity for all those in national newspaper journalism to review the meaning of the words ‘in the public interest’ – and if they need help, perhaps a more forceful Press Complaints Commission or similar body can assist. The alternative - a censored or heavily regulated British media - would be an erosion of our democratic freedom and a disaster for us all.

Peter Corder

Managing director