A simple task every reporter has to deal with: Brainstorming story ideas. In this case, I needed to seek out a little-known charity or organization to feature.
Instead of sitting around and hoping a good idea popped into my head, or maybe e-mailing a source or two and crossing my fingers, I put my question out there on Twitter and Facebook.
I simply wrote: “Looking for a charity or organization in the HBG area that doesn’t often get press but could use some. Any ideas?”
The response was pretty incredible.
On Twitter, I got 13 recommendations from 12 different people.
On Facebook, I found eight more from seven people, plus a link to a directory that I didn’t know existed.
So lest you think all this Twitter nonsense is a waste of time if you’re a reporter, I just got 21 recommendations out of 19 people, most of them coming in less than an hour.
Any reporter, no matter how many times you’ve uttered the phrase “I just don’t get that stuff,” would have to love those numbers.
All it took was me typing two sentences, and the networked community took over. The implications of that for all forms of reporting are wildly exciting.