DISQUS

I should clarify... I like Bob Mondello reviews. He's just not a personal friend.

I think the line between personal and professional in terms of using something like Twitter is a moving target -- from person to person, station to station, service to service. Andy's right in pointing out the "Wheaties" example -- okay for one kind of Twitter account, not okay for another. Context is, again, king.

To me, tweets that are aimed at building, shaping or sustaining an online community as a complement to a streamed media audience and a local physical audience should be personal, much as the BPP folks have shared. But it should be personal within the context of the relationships of that community and station/program/service. The BPP examples are spot on:

* people tweeting their way to work
* people picking up bagels for the office on the way in
* "man it's early and I'm tired but I'm gonna do this show for you anyway"
* people showing excitement over an interview or a musical act coming to the studios

These are all contextual tweets -- they involve both the people and the situation of doing the show. They add texture to the experience and humanize the people that bring us this thing we like/love enough to listen to it almost every day. We already had a relationship with these folks, but now it's a deeper one and a more playful one and -- ta da! -- now it's a two-way relationship.

For the record, this isn't the first new media example like this. Blog posts have been around a lot longer and they can do the same things, albeit in a different way. Twitter reduces the cost, or "friction," of interaction to a much lower level than blogs or forum systems. It's what some call "cheap interaction" (but not in a bad sense of "cheap").

Let's keep in mind that the "audience" develops, in some cases, a deep attachment to stations and programs that "live" with them every day and share the drive to work, the office, the drive home, weekend errands and so on. We need to respect that affection and recognize it goes deeper than getting news headlines read to them over the air.

I like this discussion, by the way. This is exactly at the heart of what we're starting to discuss in Anchorage. Some of us recognize that the future will not be found in bigger and bigger Arbitron reports (though those things are important to a degree). The future will be found in the depth of our relationships with a committed community audience, not a mass audience that's marginally engaged.

Twitter is one tool that allows us to deepen that engagement, if used effectively. And it may indeed mean tweeting that you saw Iron Man this weekend and loved it or hated it. Because in a growing number of cases a tweet from someone I trust in my "community" carries more weight than a Bob Mondello review on ATC.

Thanks for the post, Todd. I don't travel too much, but you don't have to go far in Alaska to go offline!

I activated Google Gears this evening with RTM and was amazed at how automated and simple the process was for getting started. Much smoother experience than I expected.

Congratulations on the exciting changes, Leo. I'll be watching these developments for two reasons. First, because your work is entertaining. And second, because public broadcasters need to find a way to follow in your footsteps. We need to be engaging, live, focused on a community and interactive in ways we've never been before. You're blazing a trail I hope we in public media can follow.

Best wishes!

--John

Todd -- Thanks for posting this. I wasn't going to read the Fortune piece just because it seems like there are so many of them on Apple and Jobs. But the applicability to the public media universe is spot-on. At least if we're doing it "right," I would say.

Ironically, local public media outfits are best positioned to take advantage of this weakness in commercial radio. But only if we focus locally and stop trying to reach beyond our means. Or at least that's the problem I'm experiencing in Alaska at this time. I see tremendous opportunity for us to dig in and become part of the local social DNA. Commercial radio gave up on the community years ago in favor of corporate / shareholder profits.

Either existing pubcasters will transform into locally engaged entities or someone else will come along, startup the same thing in an online context, and beat us to it. Risk and opportunity, all at once.

Todd, you are too kind! I'm hoping a few of us -- those of us blogging, sharing ideas -- can continue to wrestle with these issues collaboratively online. I'm delighted to participate.

I'd love to hear more of your thoughts on these issues, of course. But I know you're really busy with your own transitional situation right now, too. Perhaps you can expound upon the ideas/strategies that you hope to bring to the PRP in Louisville as you go along. More stations need folks like you to help reshape their thinking, their approaches, their mindsets.