Posts filed under 'FollowFriday'
By Molly Galler
If the Associated Press Stylebook is “the bible of the newspaper industry” (as it declares on the front cover), then Twitter’s @FakeAPStyleBook is the bible of comic relief for writers who count on the reference book for definitive answers on grammar and style questions. It is also RaceTalk’s pick this week for #FollowFriday.
With over 60,000 followers @FakeAPStyleBook tweets multiple times a day with satirical writing tips composed in the same style as the original AP Stylebook. For example:
@FakeAPStylebook: “Xerox” is a trademarked name. Use “butt duplicator.”
@FakeAPStylebook: When referring to someone with a Ph.D. as “doctor” immediately follow it with “but, you know, not a REAL doctor.”
@FakeAPStylebook: Use “grandfather” instead of “granddad” because you know better, son. Really.
@FakeAPStylebook: “Et al” is Latin for “those who know Al.” You can shorten long lists of names by leaving out friends of Al.
@FakeAPStylebook: Stories on the success of new media printed in traditional newspapers are no longer allowed out of respect for the dying.
As noted in a piece by John C. Abell for Wired, @FakeAPStylebook often tweets tips related to current events and trends. Abell writes, “The guide is very current, too. For example, be sure that you “Refer to him as ‘President Obama’ when he first appears in an article, ‘Soul Brother Number 1‘ in subsequent mentions.”
@FakeAPStylebook has found an adoring audience on Twitter and recently, a book deal. Lydia Dishman of Fast Company reported on Monday that agent Kate McKean of the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency, Inc. has approached the Twitter handle creators, Mark Hale and Ken Lowery, about bringing their humor to book shelves.
Who knew a book deal was only 140 characters away?
November 20th, 2009
By Molly Galler
Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, the woman behind the Twitter handle @healthythinker, is a health economist, management consultant, the founder of the Health Populi blog and this week’s #Follow Friday recommendation.
Via Twitter, Jane provides her followers with a steady stream of breaking health news, new health study and clinical trial results, her newest Health Populi blog posts, as well as tweets live from industry conferences, trade shows and events. Jane recently tweeted live from the Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco, CA.
Over the past few months the nation’s health news had been dominated by President Obama’s plans for healthcare reform. Jane tweets relevant healthcare reform news while also delivering stories from more niche health sectors. Jane is social media savvy and makes great use of linking, @replies, and hash tags. Follow @healthythinker and you will soon find her your primary source of health related news.
October 16th, 2009
By racetalk
As the founder of Newswise, a company that provides social media monitoring and reporting services for communications professionals, Roger S. Johnson knows his primary market, and he brings that market expertise to his Twitter handle. Roger provides insight on trends in PR and marketing and often passes along compelling studies on the uptake and importance of social media. His profile page reads like a overview of the past week’s most noteworthy traditional and social media news. For anyone looking for updates on interesting, relevant news from the media and PR realms, Roger (@PRwise) is an excellent follow.
September 25th, 2009
By Ben Haber
This week’s #Follow Friday recommendation is Amalie Benjamin from the Boston Globe. In light of the NFL’s recent crackdown on social media (and the forthcoming policy from the NBA), Amilie (@AmalieBenjamin) sticks out as the perfect sports reporter on Twitter. She provides her followers with the very latest information and insight about the Red Sox, such as in-game updates, player comments, roster moves and other interesting MLB tidbits. If you’re a Red Sox fan, Amilie’s updates are a great source of information during the day, or if you’re out and about during a game. She also truly understands Twitter, taking advantage of hash tags, replying to her followers, and providing great context around the links that she posts.
September 4th, 2009
By Ben Haber
This week’s #FollowFriday recommendations are Fortune’s green reporter, Olivia Zaleski, and ReadWriteWeb’s Fredric Lardinois.
When it comes to following green people on Twitter, Olivia Zaleski should be included on any list. Olivia is the host of Fortune’s “The Business of Green” video series, which looks at sustainability, the environment and how businesses are successful in those areas. While she interviews some of the most well-known and interesting business people, Olivia makes time to get her Twitter pals involved by taking questions that people would like to see answered and working them into her interviews. So if you’re passionate about the environment and looking for a journalist that will engage with their followers – Olivia is a sure follow.
His bio may limit him to Web 2.0 but Frederic Lardinois takes a look at much more than that. From Microsoft and Yahoo to eBay, Frederic weighs in on most major topics on and off the web. But beyond the breadth and quality of his reporting, Frederic actively follows and engages with over 3200 placing him amongst Twitters most active reporters. If you’re not familiar with Frederic, he’s definitely worth a look… and a follow.
Dan Walsh contributed to this post
August 28th, 2009
By Ben Haber
Today is the beginning of a new weekly feature for RaceTalk called RaceTalk’s #FollowFriday. These weekly posts (occurring every Friday) will highlight a couple of reporters and/or bloggers that we recommend following on Twitter. To kick-off our inaugural #FollowFriday post, we are featuring Wade Roush and Peter Kafka.
Wade Roush is the Chief Correspondent for Xconomy, where he covers technology and innovation in Boston and beyond. Wade posts links to all of his articles on Twitter, which are often very useful and contain valuable information, such as great new iPhone apps. He is also very interactive on Twitter and encourages discussion around many different topics. If you’re in the Boston area or are interested in technology, Wade is a great follow.
How could we highlight reporters engaging in new media without mentioning the senior editor for All Things Digital, Peter Kafka? Tasked with covering the evolution of the media industry for ATD’s Media Memo, Peter has quickly become a must-read for those interested in the convergence of media and technology. What’s more, he’s very active on Twitter – posting links to his articles and those he finds interesting around the web. Whether he’s covering the plummeting ad market or reporting on Rupert Murdoch’s efforts to create an online news consortium, Peter is always entertaining and definitely worth a follow.
Dan Walsh contributed to this post
August 21st, 2009
