Twitter best practices: Advice from the journalist who oversees the BBC’s feeds

The BBC Academy asked Mark Frankel, who oversees the network’s Twitter accounts, a series of rapid-fire questions about best practices for journalists.

Because of the 140 character-friendly nature of his answers, the interview has a certain “Rain Man” quality, but there’s a lot of good advice for journalists. A sample.

2. What should you think about before you write?

Truth or rumour? Share with colleagues first. Can I explain it clearly in <140 characters? Do I need to credit someone? #bestpractice

3. Who are your tweets aimed at?

Not just existing followers. Think trending words & hashtags & cc others with Twitter influence to help your tweets travel #bestpractice

4. What ingredients make for an effective tweet?

Brevity, clear language, humour/light touch, judicious hashtag, a good pic and link (when relevant) #bestpractice

Definitely good advice. Definitely. And there’s more where that came from about double-checking sources, attribution, being careful with breaking news and more.

That #bestpractice hashtag isn’t all that useful because it’s used so widely about all sorts of things other than Twitter best practices. But Frankel does link to other sources of best practices for using the social network.