Reflections on the Chicago Trib Twitter Tour
A few weeks ago, Dan Honigman, the Chicago Tribune's social media guy, invited fellow Twitter users to tour the Tribune building and sit in on a morning news meeting. It was great to see the newsrooms, etc. and I'm very glad I went. However, I wasn't sure what the point of the tour was and why local Twitter users had been targeted. After I asked, Dan shared that they hoped to give a more human face to the Trib and let us know what they were all about.
It took me a while to figure out what bothered me about the whole event, but I think it was the one-sidedness of it. The Trib wanted us to see them as human, but didn't seem interested in us as people who actively use social media or as potential contributers. I felt that we were seen as traffic for their site, promoters of their content, and builders of their buzz. There wasn't any interest in making the relationship two-way, and reciprocity is required for any relationship to be real. I really think it was a lost opportunity to talk to us about our thoughts of the Trib as an online presence and how citizen journalism could work in cooperation with their efforts.
They're promoting a meet-up event through Twitter for mid-August, and I'm interested to see how they do or do not further a relationship with local people. It's great that they're exploring this space, but weak efforts like this tour won't make me feel as though I have a relationship with my local paper.
My pictures of the tour can be seen here.
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NaNoWriMo
I'm intrigued with this viewpoint on the whole Tribune interaction with Twitter users, bloggers, etc.
Up until I read this, I considered the various events provided by Dan to be warm and inviting - a nice way to let content creators explore another side of the Chicago Tribune. This includes the Tribune building tour, as well as the Ale House meetup in June.
You do raise a good point on the one-sidedness though, and I'm still thinking this over on whether I agree totally or not. Are you referring to the Tribune as a whole, or Dan (and other Tribune reps involved in the meetups) in particular? Because I really don't see how Dan could be perceived as one-sided, since he is a very welcoming and open-minded person - one who is fun to be around and very much takes into account the interests of others.
If you're referring to the Trib as a whole, well then maybe you are correct. I don't know.
> There wasn't any interest in making the relationship two-way, and reciprocity is required for any relationship to be real.
I'm not sure exactly what you're getting at, but that doesn't mean I disagree. It seems Dan's efforts as "ColonelTribune," in person and on Twitter, allow interaction in a two-way format. He posts interesting stories on Twitter, and tries to spark conversations around topics. He also knows his Twitter followers pretty well, as he'll sometimes DM certain people about topics he knows they're specifically interested in. So, I'd say he's doing a good job on getting to know people for who they are, and not just using them as referrers or links back to the Trib site. He also knows a lot of Twitter users have blogs, so he'll link to blog posts from Chicagoans, just the same way he links to Trib stories. Anything interesting gets mentioned - raising awareness of local area bloggers.
Regarding the meetups, I look at any meetup with fellow like-minded individuals as a benefit for myself, since I can meet and talk about shared interests. It just so happens that Dan seems to organize a lot of the "loop" meetups, and there seems to be a generous following to his events.
Anyway, this is just my two cents. Good thoughts overall.
I've had a few DM's from Dan, but it's always in defense of a position that the Trib has taken. Which is fine, that's what he gets paid to do, but that doesn't indicate interest in me as a reader of the Trib site.
It's good to know that he does, in fact, send specific content to interested readers rather than shill for the paper. I haven't experienced that.
I do plan to attend the next Trib/Twitter meet-up, so I'll suspend further judgment until then. This was just the vibe I was left with after the initial event.
Thanks for commenting!