Just for kicks, a screen capture of @bengarvin‘s instructions on how to take a screen capture pic.twitter.com/WSED5jlqDc
— Amy Nelson (@AmyPioneerPress) January 7, 2014
When Jen Westphal shared the email below with me, I quickly asked Jen and Ben Garvin, who wrote the email, if I could use it as a guest post. Ben’s Twitter bio describes him as a “Multimedia producer, photographer, photo editor, blogger at St. Paul Pioneer Press.”
I did a little editing and added some links and embeds to make this part of my #twutorial series. So here’s Ben’s advice on using photos with tweets (with tweets from Ben interspersed between the paragraphs):
In late October Twitter changed the way it shows images within your stream–images now automatically appear if they are tweeted from Twitter itself, not a third-party app. This small change has allowed for images to have much more impact and is something I think we all should be taking more advantage of!
(graphic photo) it’s so dangerous outside, be careful. #Frostbite patient at Regions http://t.co/VERk3gr1q6 pic.twitter.com/wh14hFvFzq
— bengarvin (@bengarvin) January 6, 2014
Before you hit send on a tweet, ask yourself–what can I illustrate this with? A staff photo, a mugshot, a map, a screenshot of a website or headline, scene of a crime, even a selfie? Anything and everything is game. By attaching an image — any image — you immediately give your tweet a certain visual importance that will increase its reach. You will get more retweets, favorites and followers and slowly help the Pioneer Press TAKE OVER THE WORLD.
Who will sit on me? Lonely seat waiting for buyer at #Metrodome sale, by John Doman http://t.co/lbHTTMiWPv pic.twitter.com/TvUD7PrVrq
— Pioneer Press Photos (@PiPressPhotos) January 7, 2014
Keep in mind, your image need not be amazing, it simply needs to meet the high bar of mildly interesting. That said, every day the photo department produces compelling visual journalism from our community. Did we photograph something for your story? Then tweet that shizznit! Sports writers should be regularly tweeting our best photos from the games we shoot — what could be more relevant to their followers than a great (and exclusive) photo of Kevin Love dunking or Adrian Peterson scoring?
Thanks, Ref. #mnwild #Sabres pic.twitter.com/QSdy4Jpbyn
— bengarvin (@bengarvin) January 3, 2014
When you do tweet a photo don’t feel as if you need to waste character space to credit it unless you’re feeling the love (they’re always credited on our site and in the newspaper). Also, attaching a photo need not make the tweet all about the image. You can write “Kevin Love led #Twolves over Miami Heat 150-44 http://www.twincities.com/story” and then attach a photo of Love being amazing. You don’t need to say “here’s a photo of Love being amazing.” Less is more. Also, keep in mind that tweeting an image uses 23 characters so you’ll have to leave room for it.
.@bengarvin and his magical beard pop up on @BuzzFeed! – http://t.co/jqYYhDURHr pic.twitter.com/pgUwznVmsE
— Kyle Potter (@kpottermn) January 5, 2014
Tweet mugshots for crime stories, maps for zoning ones. Is there a house fire in Woodbury that’s breaking? Take a screen shot of the google map of the neighborhood and tweet it. How useful and relevant is that? Don’t know how to take screenshots? Learn how or just take a photo of your screen with your phone and tweet that. Writing a weather story on the cold? Ask the photodesk to send you their best cold photo or just grab it off our site by right clicking and saving it do your desktop (the images need not be hi resolution). Or ask the photographer you were working with to send you their best picture–I will try and get in the habit of doing this.
Wow, I’ve been GIF-ed by @Buzzfeed. It’s all downhill from here http://t.co/o9yOHCQVLk pic.twitter.com/Pxi04X6GQf
— bengarvin (@bengarvin) January 3, 2014
For those who don’t know, we’ve started a new @PiPressphotos Twitter account and are tweeting our best photos and galleries every day (check out our stream to see the value of tweeting photos). You can also grab photos from that account (right click to desktop) for your own tweeting pleasure.
Loved the strib’s front page today. pic.twitter.com/UN3QfXVrJA
— bengarvin (@bengarvin) January 7, 2014
Most news organizations have yet to fully understand and capitalize on Twitter’s new visual world (this includes us and definitely the Strib). In my view this is a real chance to take our social media efforts to the next level. Trust me, folks will notice and appreciate your effort to provide more information in a more accessible way. If I can help in any way call or write (or tweet) to me any time.
MN’s Kate DiCamillo named National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature http://t.co/ofh8yVoBad pic.twitter.com/aI37z0K55N
— bengarvin (@bengarvin) January 2, 2014
Ben added another tip in a follow-up email:
Another way to generate useful images quickly, as pointed out to me by Richard Chin, is by taking a screen capture on your iPhone. If you hit the circle button and the top turny offy button simultaneously, an image of the screen you’re looking at will appear in your photos folder. You could take a screen shot of a map, a cool app you’re using, your high score in Pac Man, an annoying post someone made on Facebook, even a photo off our own site. Whatever. And when in Twitter just click the image icon and dig through your photos for your screenshot. Easy and quick with some creative potential.
Downhill unicycling? Thank you photo feature gods, you didn’t have to do that pic.twitter.com/orhcyXaRPj
— bengarvin (@bengarvin) January 5, 2014
C.J. Sinner added this bit of advice in a response to Ben’s email:
AND, if there’s something in the screenshot — phone numbers, email addresses, something else you’d want to keep private — the Twitter photo uploader has an option to crop the image. Look for the little icon in the lower right corner.
RT @PiPressPhotos: Candygram! Giant snow shark in New Brighton by @bengarvin http://t.co/H4myUGKtBf pic.twitter.com/y6nHqtEpuD
— Pioneer Press (@PioneerPress) January 8, 2014
And if you’re not one of the 4 million-plus people who have watched Ben’s “Magic Beard” video (referenced in a couple of the tweets above), well, it’s about time:
Exhibit A: A DFM tweet about “beautiful photos” without one of those photos attached to the tweet:
Even RTs can have images. I added one when I retweeted the DFM tweet:
LikeLike
When Ben’s excellent write-up was initially distributed via e-mail, it prompted a number of responses. I’m not comfortable grabbing and posting those written by others (they can do so, if they wish), but here are mine (with minor editing):
I’ve been making images in tweets a priority for a while now, almost to the point of only tweeting with imagery (not counting tweets that consist of conversations with others). I even do this when retweeting tweets that link to interesting stuff. If the original tweet lacks an image, I grab one from the corresponding site and embed it in the retweet using the edit-and-retweet option in TweetDeck. I, of course, use imagery when tweeting about my own stories; if the story page lacks an image, I find and use one that is relevant. Imageless tweets are boring!
I have come to regard tweeting as a form of blogging. Bloggers generally agree that posts need at least one prominent image to properly draw attention (the same is true of Facebook and Google+ posts). I now add tweets to this list and use images in them almost by default. Twitter has been called “microblogging,” and with the use of imagery that has never been a more apt description.
LikeLike
I’ll admit first that I probably don’t use enough images on this blog (and some of my most-viewed posts don’t have images, which I think says more about my audience than about whether images are a good idea). I’ll endorse Julio’s point with this caveat: The image should be relevant (not excellent, but relevant). Art for art’s sake doesn’t add anything to a tweet or a blog, in my view. But again, I need to improve here on blog and tweets. Do as Julio does, not as I do, as long as your art is relevant.
LikeLike
My imagery in a tweet is *always* relevant, as in closely related to the tweet 🙂
LikeLike
Of course! I’m unsure whether my content doesn’t always lend itself to relevant imagery or whether I’m not good about thinking of the images. Or whether I tweet too much. Probably a combination. If I tweeted an image with every flight delay tweet, that could be a bit much, even if relevant.
LikeLike
Yep, bloggers are in roughly two camps, those who see imagery as required, and those who see it as optional. I’m in the former camp; every post on all of my blogs (and in most of my non-conversational social-media postings) has an image. It’s a rule. That’s just me. Many prominent blogs (Daring Fireball comes to mind) are at the other extreme, never using images, and letting their text do all the talking to powerful effect.
LikeLike
I see imagery as strongly desired, but not required. If a requirement forced me into an irrelevant image, that would be distracting or confusing and wouldn’t help the blog post or the tweet. So I want to get better at thinking of and using relevant images without requiring them. But I’m not big on requirements anyway.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Learning as I go and commented:
Good tips. All of our journalism students should pay heed. Sending photos with your tweets is another good way of practicing your photography. Notice that I said photography, not photojournalism. Use the Twitter medium to express yourself in anyway you want. You’ve got the smart phone with you, you have the app. So when you see a moment you like capture it and send it.
LikeLike
By the way, about every other attempt to comment here generates an error message (repeatedly). I have to log out and log back in.
LikeLike
Good post, which reminds me to talk with my photographer.
Do you know how many people use the Twitter app vs. Hootsuite or other third party apps? The visual tweet shows up on the Twitter website and app only.
LikeLike
I don’t know those answers, Andrew. I’ll ask folks at Twitter.
LikeLike
Many third-party apps, such as Tweetbot and Twitterific on the iPhone, also display images embedded in tweets.
LikeLike
Reply from Twitter is slow and not very helpful (not surprising on either count): “Here are the metrics we share publicly: https://about.twitter.com/company Sorry I can’t be more helpful!” You’re welcome to hit the link, but it doesn’t have your answer. But if you want to know how many hard-boiled eggs Twitter HQ employees consume in a week, they’re all over it. Seriously.
LikeLike
[…] « Ben Garvin’s advice: Illustrate your tweets […]
LikeLike
[…] pair of New Year’s Day posts on journalism scenes in movies, Garvin’s guest post, my workshop handout on organizing a complex story and a reaction to an interview with Clayton […]
LikeLike
[…] Ben Garvin’s advice: Illustrate your tweets (2014) […]
LikeLike
[…] Ben Garvin’s advice: Illustrate your tweets […]
LikeLike
[…] While some believe it is a waste of space to include a credit to the original creator, many others believe that sharing without credit is an ethical violation. If the creator of the work is incorrect, having credited the origin also allows distance from the mistake should it need to be corrected. In general, erring on the side of crediting the source is safer, ethically and legally, than the reverse. […]
LikeLike
[…] Moran (and his Berkshire Eagle colleagues) also contributed on Project Unbolt. Jeff Edelstein and Ben Garvin contributed other guest […]
LikeLike