The SCN Encourager – Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Twitter newsjackers. First the Super Bowl. Now the Oscars.
After sharing with you yesterday about how a couple of marketing experts described Twitter as the #1 communications tool for complaining, criticizing, and negative messaging, I thought I was done writing about Twitter.
Frankly, I’m not smart enough to drag out this topic much more. And I know you’re smart enough to not want me to go round and round (and round) any more than I usually do. So this seemed like a classic “win-win” arrangement. I could stop writing about Twitter and you could stop reading about it.
However, a web link came my way that changed this. And I’m glad it did, because I was still wrestling with a Twitter related question. (and not in the same way Hulk Hogan would…)
My question was this: if 50% of Twitter is used for negative messages of some kind, what’s the best way for school folks to operate in that other 50% domain? Playing it safe with utilitarian and bland tweets may not be negative, but I doubt if they’re effective or even all that useful.
So what’s the best way to add some “edge” to our intended brand-building positive tweets?
My take-away from this web article by HubSpot is that we should always look ahead to upcoming major events (and popular local community ones as well) and get creative in finding ways to “newsjack” our school news and programs via Twitter into the public attention spotlight these events are hogging.
The HubSpot article presents Sunday night’s Academy Awards show on TV and illustrates how a number of brands “attached” several of their products or services in real-time to some well-known components of the Oscars (movie titles, James Bond, the Red Carpet, etc) and then tweeted out a series of hilarious images and messages. See the article and all 10 examples.
For now, I’m going to get a few “you’re invited” flyers printed up. Then I’m going to ask a number of staff members in my district to join our first-ever “Newsjackers” club. Just the name alone – “Newsjackers!” – should grab great attention and inspire a singularly cool t-shirt design. Can’t wait!
I’m curious to see who responds first. (Hope it’s not the police…)
Tom Page, SCN managing editor
