The halls were alive with tweets at CMD recently as the agency’s PR group hosted a Twitter 101 session for members of the local media. We welcomed users new and seasoned alike in an effort to help Portland-area journalists build a strong Twitter presence for their work and personal use.

Our attendees hailed from newspaper, magazine, radio and TV outlets. Despite diverse reporting methods, everyone in attendance agreed that they were curious about how Twitter could bring attention to their work. Some attendees were toe dippers—they had set up accounts, tweeted a few times, then lost interest and left their Twitter pages as virtual ghost towns; some were semi-enthusiasts—participating frequently in two-way communication on Twitter; some were holdouts—skeptical about how useful Twitter really can be: who cares “what you’re doing”; but the majority of the group were spectators, aka consumers —using Twitter as a stream of news.

Our audience was well aware that Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that now boasts over 21 million users, and that staying relevant means knowing something about it. At the same time, most of them didn’t know the intricacies of being a successful member of the Twitter community. I overheard one frustrated user say, “I’m tweeting out into space, but I don’t know who’s seeing my tweets. I would like to figure out who to follow and how to get followers.” At that point, we introduced tools that could help this editor track URL clicks and measure the value of his tweets for his audience.

The PR team also educated the group on everything from creating a strong profile to the ins and outs of gaining influential followers. Every pen in the room was active as we gave overviews of the Twitter tools that we find most valuable. In the end, we hoped to instill that openness is the key to being a respected member of the Twitter community. As one of our attendees expressed, “Twitter gives viewers a chance to get to know journalists on a more personal level, and that will lead to exclusive content from loyal followers.”

Here are some other tips we shared during the seminar:

1. Secure your username now. Protect it like you would a domain name.

2. Make your profile count. Add a picture, bio and relevant links. Have a personality.

3. If multiple users are tweeting on behalf of your company or publication, set up a sidebar with bios for each contributor.

4. Be selective about who you follow. Choose only those who provide value to you.

Overall, it was a great event and we were thrilled at the turnout from our journalist audience and hope to do more of these special sessions in the future.