On Friday, I started to follow the Huguely trial on Twitter, @NBC29Huguely, after hearing from a co-worker about the horrific story of college student George Huguely, who killed his on-again, off-again girlfriend Yeardley Love, a student at the University of Virginia.
The account, @NBC29Huguely, did a continuously great job tweeting live. The account strategically carried the story of the trial by using the correct tone, creating an effective hashtag, limiting who they followed, and associating themselves with a news station.
The account live-tweeted everything that happened in the court room, in the compelling tone of a novel. @NBC29Huguely created a hashtag, #Huguely, and used it effectively when referring to the defendant, or the case in general, encouraging the story to trend. They also asked their followers if they had any questions about the case, recognizing that there might be some discrepancies and conversations to be had.
Another beneficial thing that the account did was only follow six users, other outlets that were exclusively following the case. By only following six users, it limits the disturbances in the timeline when a user, or rather follower, is reading the case. The users that they are following add more detail and contributing to the case and the account’s pre-existing tweets, giving the follower a better picture of the courtroom environment.
Finally, by associating itself with a news outlet, @NBC29Huguely, it highlighted its ethical obligation to report the case objectively.
If you’re thinking about tweeting live, follow @NBC29Huguely for a great example.
3 comments:
Thanks for the kind words.
Developing the special Twitter feed (@NBC29Huguely) has been far more valuable as a news tool than we had imagined and has paid dividens across all of our platforms as this case continues.
David Foky
News Director
NBC29, Charlottesville VA
As future PR professionals, we value outstanding work in the field and look to accounts like @NBC29Huguely as forward thinkers.
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