PS) I need a Twizzler.

I just thought it was neat that you had tried and I wondered if it had bore any fruit.

Also, I kind of like Rick’s idea of an outlet creating a Twitter account for something less than a breaking news story, but because I’m outside of the Valley, I’ve found that I have to explain Twitter and the further away you get, the less-value such a venture might have.

Though still, a Twitter account is free, so it wouldn’t cos a lot to try.

But back to Twitter. I think it’s one of those things that an interesting technology looking for a killer use. Using it as a way to send “hey, guess what I had for lunch” messages to friends seems like overkill. But it doesn’t quite work as a one-way broadcast medium, either.

FWIW, I think using it for something like very specific breaking news makes sense.

Say, a twitter account that would send a message every time Barry Bonds was at bat (until he broke the record).

Of course, I could be a completly wrong about this. Actually, it’s probably likely.

It’s Friday. You know you smiled when you thought of a Twizzler.

We tried it with the Emmy nominations a few weeks back. We sent the major noms via a Twitter account to maybe 300 people. And while it worked fine, I don’t know that it’s worth doing on an ongoing basis.

Anyway, I have 300+ followers on Twitter, and maybe one-fourth are Minneapolites. None of them seemed to have any first-hand accounts or media. (And, thankfully, all of them were safe.)

We (MSNBC.com) did really well on the UGC front, but nothing came in via Twitter — a lot did come through other personal relationships, though.

yesterday’s links to streams are now links to specific stories at various local stations.

AND

links to local bloggers - although the one that is label “mexico” does not belong. otherwise, me thinks they have stumbled upon a new business model.

go for it.

Hey Rex - I saw that you were twittering for witnesses, video and the like, once things got rolling. Considering all of the questions about the reach of Twitter outside of the Valley - How’d that work for ya?

On the other hand, it’s scary that they don’t have any affiliation with a station in Minneapolis. If they could do it there, what does that say about their ability to aggregate content and localize it if something like that ever happened in my neighborhood?

And as for traffic I totally agree TMC and Jason. We saw a moderate spike in traffic yesterday as we did after the Virginia Tech shootings and we’re nowhere near either location. The online “market” really is global.

seems like only days ago someone was commenting that amid the helicopter crash in phoenix one station refused to even acknowledge the competition.

how quickly the internet teaches.

cool.

i found that odd too since milwaukee is a long walk from minneapolis.

the “problem” with jason’s ‘assurance’ is quite common; nd’s look at this traffic spike and might think it’ll last forever.

if something major happens tomorrow in BFE the traffic will be gone. if not, in a few days it will be. just look at graphs for wlky.com when the story (heartbreaking as it was) broke about the young girl losing both her feet to an amusement ride.

that’s why it is essential ALL you guys realize your traffic is from EVERYWHERE online and plan accordingly.

you are now global.

carry on.