ABC Experiments With Twittering the News
Tomorrow ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent George Stephanopoulos will conduct an interview with John McCain completely on Twitter. They are calling it a "Twitterview." As a journalist, the idea of keeping an interview subject's answers to 140 characters intrigues me, but I'm not sure how valuable the interview will be conducted within this type of platform.
I must admit I'm not much of a Twitter person. I don't have a Blackberry and I only text my friends and family. So it might just be me, but I'm not sure Twitter is the most appropriate venue for an established news organization to conduct such interviews.
John McCain, who during the 2008 Presidential campaign took a lot of flack for not being very technology-savvy, is trying to show that he has caught up and is in the tech game. And ABC News is trying to entice its audience with a new communications platform. One of the pillars of social media is to "be where your customers are," but what sort of interview will we end up with via Twitter? I think at some point you have to trade speed and accessibility for worthwhile content. Stephanopoulos says it will be a full interview, but how many subjects can they cover and with what sort of depth?
I think social media just for its own sake is not a worthwhile endeavor. But if ABC News supplements the interview with its other communication platforms, it might work out. So my question for Stephanopoulos is, "Was there a strategy behind all this?"
McCain has seemed to step back into a somewhat "maverick" role in the Senate, siding with issues he thinks are important, and bucking the standard GOP party line. I would be very interested to find out what he's up to now that the pressure is off and he can return to being a powerful force in the Senate. But as a platform Twitter doesn't seem like the right in-depth news source. But I am willing to check in tomorrow at 12 p.m. see how it goes. It could be the best interview ever.
In my experience covering the social media space, I think that for businesses Twitter makes the most sense as a customer service tool. Its immediacy and direct connection to individuals make it a great platform to share information and quickly resolve any customer service questions or situations in a very flexible way.
What are your thoughts on Twitter as a news outlet, or a customer service tool, or a general social media gadget? Will you follow the McCain interview on Twitter?
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