So I'm minding everyone else's business on Facebook yesterday afternoon when I see a post from my former editor announcing that she has been named the Times first-ever "Social Media Editor." Immediately I sent her a congratulatory note. And then the calls, emails and instant messages began to fly between myself and all my former colleagues.
Question number one of course, is what the hell is a "social media editor"?
Gawker, the snarky media/gossip site, speculates that my former boss will be policing Times reporters who have been tweeting with abandon, sometimes criticizing the Mother Ship. But the Times brass said that policing would be only a small part of M.F.B.'s (My Former Boss's) responsibilities. She will also be "helping everybody figure out how to use social media as a tool for journalists."
Anyway, I checked out her new Twitter feed to see what I could learn, because the truth is I find Twitter baffling. I know what it is - a microblog - but I have yet to figure out how it is useful. First I had to get through the last 10 tweets in the last hour from media reporter David Carr, who seven minutes ago told the world, "Pretty sure that damp, inhospitable weather is direct message from God that I need not take training ride on bike today, right?"
MFB started with "Hi, I'm the NYT's new social media editor. More details later. How should @nytimes be using Twitter?" Well, shoot, isn't her job to know that? Anyway, I await her discoveries with baited breath. Sorta.
So glad to know that even those on the inside, or , urh, outside the inside, but closer than I am, are still perplexed by the twits. I cannot possibly take on one more KYF (Know Your Friend) app, particularly when inaninty seems to be the theme of every thought.
Of course that's what I said about blackberries and look where that got me. . . Adele
Posted by: Adele Brown | May 27, 2009 at 12:56 PM