MEStream - A Question Of Interaction

Although it's supposed to be about conversation - or that's my view at least - sometimes web 2.0 becomes a MEstream. Millions of people around the world use twitter, flickr, viddler, youtube, soup.io, tumbler to broadcast the latest of me me me-ism.

It's no longer limited to our multiple blogs which can turn into our own version of CNN's constant loopy stream of what they consider to be information we need to know - or more likely their opinion about what's happening and what we should think about it, but don't get me started on CNN because we all have our filters after all.

Its not all one way streaming though.

In an interesting quirk of timing, just as Kristin Forbriger's tweet brought to my attention that the Philadelphia Inquirer was not only tweeting but was  being interactive I saw a tweet from Julia Roy that she was flip - filming us.

Julia's deadpan photos aways make me grin, so I had to go look. And then I got to thinking,

Julia's looking at us. Kristin's looking at us. The Inquirer is looking at us.

Are we looking back or just streaming US?

Lately my own stream of broadcasting updates gave way to our good new baby news, And who could miss the Frozen Pea Fund that started as two women tweeting ideas about how to show support for me when I got my cancer diagnosis in December?

There's an innate curiosity hard wired into me offset by a deep frustration that there's not time for everything. Not as social as some, I hope that's offset with placing being interactive high on my priority list.

Truthfully, I miss a lot. Commenting on blogs or videos gets little of my time in the past six months, though I do a little better sending conversational @ messages on twitter and looking through, talking back and marking other's flickr photos as favorites. (some of those pictured here)

But for many of us these are surprising and mind expanding times full of opportunity. We started small (thus say my tweetstats), learned about others in the interactive web community, got more involved and didn't try to become anything but participants. Sometimes we talk more about us and sometimes more about others. 

Steady - and genuine - interaction matters

And I think that's what the Inquirer is attempting. It's early for them in their experiment with twitter, following and being followed by less than 100 others as I write this.

It's not just because I went to school in Philly that I'm in their corner. It's because I believe in the potential of the very interactive, personally engaged Jim Long @NewMediaJim and Andy Carvin's NPR twitter model

It will be interesting to see how they develop their tweet presence and I'm rooting heavily for them to help show the other news outlets how it can be done.. . interaction by interaction; engagement by engagement; relationship to relationship.

Comments

[Chris Krewson]

Thanks, Susan. We're trying several new things around here. http://twitter.com/PhillyInquirer is just one; I'm also working some things out on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Philadelphia-Inquirer/23332703568 is one example, but I've also created fan pages for two of our metro columnists.

I don't know whether any of this will stick, of course. And yes, we're still below 100 followers in Twitter; I have no frame of reference to know whether 78 followers after one week is good, or bad, or whatever. But it's a start.

And - after looking at Twitter for a few months on a personal account - the interaction was what made it click for me. I can't tell you with any certainty what the Inquirer's tweets will do, but I want it to be interactive.

Thanks for noticing!

Chris Krewson
Executive Editor, Online / News
The Philadelphia Inquirer
www.philly.com/inquirer
twitter.com/PhillyInquirer

[Kristen Forbriger]

I AM looking at you (does that sound creepy?)

In all seriousness, thanks for your insight, Susan. I have to say that you are one of my original twitter friends, and responsible for sucking me into this crazy world I now call my online home (Buckeye fans stick together!)... and for that I'm forever grateful!

As I was tweeting about earlier, I'm thrilled and very impressed with the Inquirer right now. And again, not just because I live in Philly (although it does give me a sense of pride), but because they are showing that they GET IT. At least one person gets IT, and the Inquirer has given him the freedom to experiment... to interact, engage, and create relationships on behalf of the media outlet.

I hope we'll be using it as a case study for best practices in the near future!