Here's the third in a series of notes on Twitter Best Practices, developed by Pat France, Lee Feldman and myself. This one is directed towards our journalists and how they can gain value from utiltizing Twitter.

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Unlike other social media sites, such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn, many journalists have been early and active adopters of Twitter, in large part because of the numerous ways Twitter can be used to support and extend reporting, readership and media brand building.

In previous notes, we’ve discussed general guidelines for Twitter usage and techniques for building follower lists on Twitter. Establishing personal and publication brands on Twitter with active followings represents the foundation for leveraging Twitter to support editorial activities.

But initial steps, such as creating a Twitter identity and a newsfeed for posting Twitter story links, are only the beginning. Like most Web 2.0 tools, Twitter’s unique value lies in its ability to foster interaction and engagement across large, targeted groups.

Here are some additional ways journalists are using Twitter:

Track breaking news stories – Twitter can be a valuable resource for early warning of breaking news stories, as many news organizations are now making Twitter one of their first posting activities. A good way to start is by adding relevant reporters and news organizations to your Twitter follower lists and reviewing their tweets on a regular basis. You can find lists of well-known reporters, bloggers and media organizations on Twitter here, here, and here. Many legal blogs and online publications are now on Twitter and can be found on Lextweet or using Twitter search tools like Twellow.

Live Twitter from Events – Twitter’s mobility and immediacy make it an excellent tool for live reporting from events. Some recent examples include Legal Time’s Twitter coverage of recent DOJ confirmation hearings, Scott Graham’s Twitter streams from the California Supreme Court on Prop. 8 oral arguments and Aric Press’ tweets from a recent Georgetown law firm symposium.

Track story trends and competitors – Once a representative follower list has been built, reviewing tweets and posted links can represent a valuable way to track reader interest, story trends and competitive reporting. It can also provide valuable feedback on whether stories are gaining traction through multiple retweets.

Identify story ideas and sources – Twitter queries on potential stories can help generate and refine story ideas, and identify sources for reporting, while increasing reader engagement and building brand presence. HARO (Help A Reporter Out) is an example of an intermediary that often uses Twitter to connect reporters and sources and is available to all reporters. And, using the Twitter search function, can provide a quick list of posts for scanning on a specific topic.

Crowdsource reporting – Twitter’s velocity and brevity can make it an effective tool to gather information, opinions and referrals quickly through direct communication with a large and diverse group of individuals. And remember, through retweets, this group can wind up being considerably broader than your own follower list.

Generate Feedback - Many journalists and media organizations are actively soliciting realtime feedback on specific stories, columns, blog posts, etc. on Twitter.

Drive Traffic to Your Website or Blog -- It is very common for bloggers and journalists to use Twitter to let their followers know when they have posted something new, or when a particularly big story has broken on their site.

A number of software applications exist which can help organize and manage Twitter functions and information for the activities outlined above. We’ll be writing about what they are and how they can be used in our next note.