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Following locals on Twitter

I just saw a tweet from a follower on Twitter worth sharing with you. Note, this guy is a member of my community. I do not know him, but he randomly found my twitter a week ago and started following me so I started following him to see if there’s anything interesting.

His comment tonight? (I’d link, but they’re protected.)

“interesting spin to twitter when you follow local people.”

My reply? Agreed.

One day, I happened into a coffee shop while reporting a story and ran into a person I’d never met but who I knew from Twitter.

In fact, I just watched another local person micro-blog a focus group that I helped set up for my paper. I didn’t know he was part of the group until I saw the first post and put 2+2 together.

It’s very weird to follow a focus group that I’ll get a full report on later from the eyes, or hands I suppose, of a participant. Here’s his wrap-up/summation of what came from the group of college kids:

focus group done. I would say college students want: 1. local, local, local 2. simple 3. wiki calendar of local events 4. to kill flash ads

I’m not surprised by that, and wish the summary I get would be so concise.

My question to you: Who at your organization is watching the tweets of your citizens? Who are your citizens following?

I think I may seek out a few more locals to follow because it’s definitely interesting.

3 Responses to “Following locals on Twitter”

  1. Andy Says:

    I only wish Twitter still enabled tracking so it would be possible to track conversations containing your city or neighborhood, thereby making it easier to meet people. This was something that Dodgeball managed a bit better.

    I’d love to see geotagged or keyworded twitters on a map!

  2. Josette Says:

    Twitter’s keyword tracking comes through for me like a champ (though it’s phone/IM-only). A better option may be Terramind’s Twitter search engine, which includes RSS feeds for keywords.

  3. Ryan Sholin Says:

    I search for the town I live in every now and then, which led me to a local blogger, which led me to a local blog community that just started up. Which I’m interested in for personal and professional reasons. So it pays to follow locals.