Using Twitterviews for Information Gathering

Posted by Terence P Ward Jan 21, 2009

The microblogging platform Twitter is a uniquely transparent way for a writer to do research. When I was learning about subtleties of the service from hashtags to branding, I did so by interviewing my subjects via Twitter - a "Twitterview." In fact, I learned first learned about hashtags from comments inspired by such an interview.

There is a time and a place for everything, and twitterviews are not appropriate if when I need to keep the information confidential. However, since Twitter keeps every "tweet" (post) ever made, these public conversations can generate interest in my interview subject, which is a value-added bonus.

For local work I still prefer face-to-face conversations, and connectivity issues can make a twitterview all but impossible to accomplish. Those challenges aside, there's something to be said for a publicly-available transcript of the entire interview. Each of mine can be found on Twitter by searching for the hashtag #tpw. If you're interested in being interviewed yourself you can read my interview guidelines; if you just want to see how I use Twitter feel free to follow me.