Twitter: proving the value to journalists

My US colleague Dan Blank has done some interesting work on The ROI of Journalists and Magazines Using Twitter.

Dan looked at the 277 tweets from the School Library Journal during January. He concludes:

So, at the most basic level, how much exposure did this bring to School Library
Journal. It’s a difficult metric to pinpoint for a variety of reasons but a conservative estimate is: A few thousand page views.

Dan analyses the kinds of tweets and identifies three further areas that Twitter has delivered beyond merely traffic:

• Engaging the Top 10% of Your Audience
• Improving Editorial
• Marketing across more networks

Highly recommended it and I'll be adding it to my "Must Read" list for journalists:

• 10 things every journalist should know in 2009:
  http://blogs.journalism.co.uk/editors/2009/01/13/ten-things-every-journalist-should-know-in-2009/
• How journalists can master Twitter:
  http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2008/04/30/how-journalists-can-master-twitter/
• Twitter to journalists: here’s how it’s done:
  http://eatsleeppublish.com/twitter-to-journalists-heres-how-its-done/
• Five barriers to journalists using twitter:
  http://sarahhartley.wordpress.com/2009/02/15/five-barriers-to-journalists-using-twitter/
• Twitter for journalists:
  http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/twitter_for_journalists.php
• Twitter can still work for journalists without tech-savvy readers:
  http://beatblogging.org/2008/10/21/twitter-can-still-work-for-journalists-without-tech-savvy-readers/