- Been using since June 14, 2008, thru WhenDidYouJoinTwitter.com.

- 127 updates. I thought that number would be higher.

- 196 followers. I’m surprised it’s that many.

- We’ve had 392 visits to our magazine sites that originated from Twitter.

Just today I received a story lead through Twitter. I’ve followed public opinion on our industry through Twitter. So I’m going to keep it. I think we’ve only scratched the surface on what Twitter can do for us, and I predict I’ll have twice the followers by this time next year. And they’ll be quality followers.

And these are the tools that will help me do an even better job in my second year.

• Twibes.com. Great for following events and our industry in general.
• BackTweets. See who’s blogging about a URL, including yours.
• Bit.ly. URL shortener that also tracks how many people click.
• Twitter Feed. Send your blog posts directly to Twitter automatically.
• TwitPic. Send camera phone photos to your feed. I’d use yfrog if I had an iPhone.
• WhatTheTrend? Find out what’s trending and why.
• TweetDeck. Keep it up all the time and you’re on top of Twitter all the time.
• Help A Reporter Out. This guy links reporters with sources. I just found this, so we’ll see  how good it is.
• TweetStats. See how much work you’re doing on Twitter.

I’d also like to point out Angela Maiers’ 70-20-10 Twitter Engagement Forumula. I think this is a great guideline for us. Found at the Blog of Mr. Tweet.

70% of your tweets should share resources- sharing others’ voices, opinions, quotes, blog posts, articles, content and resources

20% of your tweets should engage in conversations with others, responding, connecting, collaborating and connecting with others.

10% of your tweets can be chirping, chitchat as Angela calls it, on trivial details or self-promotion.

I’ve always felt that it’s caveat emptor with blogs, but I can see the point. I like a nice separation of church and state, although the Internet has bent if not broken a lot of those rules.

If you set yourself up to look like a news source and you’re really just a PR service, the reader should be told what’s really going on. But are we not giving the reader enough credit? Can the average reader tell the difference between a paid blog and a legit one?

Poynter asks if this may amount to “rattling the saber at blogs and social media” by the FTC, but it’s definitely exciting to see web reporting legitimized by the investigation. The FTC is basically saying there’s good blogging going on out there, and it should be differentiated from unethical reporting.

So how are you using Twitter for work? I searched Twitter for the word “magazine,” and here’s some of what I found. Vermont Business Magazine has tweets that seem to link to news stories on its site. No chit chat. Just the facts. So here, Twitter seems to serve as an RSS feed for site content.

Punchline Magazine has a Twitter account that’s a lot more chatty, like a personal Twitter. It also links back to site content, including video interviews. Punchline has 75 followers on Twitter, and the interaction with the editor(s) is really good. Having a lot of loyal followers who like to talk seem to make or break a magazine’s Twitter. Otherwise, you’re just talking to yourself. Only thing – who’s tweets are these? What’s your name, Punchline tweeter?

I thought this was really cool – Craft magazine uses Twitter as a repository for How To tips. This seems perfect for Twitter. I get a quick list of story headlines (HOW TO – Recycle Old Crayons) delivered to me, and I decide which are interesting enough to click. And these aren’t all full-blown articles. Some are quick blog posts.

Are you using a Twitter feed on your site or linking to a magazine Twitter page? What’s the theory behind yours? Letting readers get to know you a little better? Promote good content? Just messing around?

Personally, and I hope my opinion does change someday, I’m not too hot for video. We’re having enough trouble meeting quotas for copy. I don’t think readers want to tune in to hear me drone on about something just to meet some Web standard. Plus, I don’t want to be on camera.

Sure, we could interview people/readers for our Web video, but our company isn’t set up with the budget, personnel or training for this type of work.

And I don’t watch too much online video, anyway. I find video players have compatibility issues about 60 percent of the time. I’d much rather just read than have to watch. Unless it’s the talking baby commercial from Super Bowl Sunday.

“I personally don’t like working with people who get paid a lot and do very little,” he is quoted in the newsletter. “Promote your superstar editors and fire the rest.” Actually, I guess it’s not so much hilarious as sad. I think we all see this problem sometimes.

I like the culture change Howard Owens is quoted talking about on Poynter Online:

“Reporters and editors would take seriously their roles as community conversation leaders, concentrating on getting it right on the web first — Web-first publishing, blogs, video, participation — and using the print edition as a greatest hits, promote the web site vehicle. Old packaged-goods-thinking about the newsPAPER would disappear overnight.”

This is a huge change and I’m sure a lot of people out there don’t want to do the homework. Editors need to experiment to find out how things work. And I think it’s critical that they use at least Web basics in their own lives.

So to expand on Jeremy’s thought, here’s my list of things every editor should know how to do to avoid being fired:

• Use an RSS reader
• Blog
• Get stuff posted on your magazine’s Web site, whether you do it personally or not
• Take a picture with your camera phone
• Send a text message
• Set up Google Alerts
• Send a meeting request in Outlook

Have any to add?