Tips to use Twitter effectively for journalists and Media Organisations amid crisis

In times of crisis, people look up to media organisations to find the latest and credible information. The COVID-19 pandemic is no different in that respect, with reporters and media leveraging the service for sharing real-time updates on the local, national and global developments, highlighting the impact of the pandemic on different sectors of the economy, generating awareness about the importance of social distancing, and more. 

Journalism and news organisations have always been important to Twitter, as they use the service to ensure access to credible information for the public-at-large. 

Here are some tips and best practices for news organisations using Twitter to effectively  reach out to their readers and share the latest information with them: 

1. Showcase your best stories via Twitter Moments: Use Twitter Moments to curate your team’s best Tweets and narrate the full story. You can also use a Twitter Moment to help audiences break down complicated FAQs so that these can serve as an easy guide to clear their doubts.  

Pro tip! Want a quick reminder on how to make a Moment? Here’s a handy guide on our Twitter Media page, and you can always follow @MomentsIndia for more.

 

2. Use Twitter Lists: You can create a Twitter List consisting of journalists and editors from your newsroom who are covering a big story. This could include all the health editors and reporters covering COVID-19, for example, or you could include a list of trusted health experts that people can follow. Don’t forget to Tweet the list out! Anyone who subscribes to your list will automatically get updates from them. 

 

3. Create Twitter Threads: Let’s accept it, sometimes a Tweet just isn’t enough. There’s so much information you want to pack in. A Twitter Thread is a simple way of doing this: just hit reply to your own Tweet and starting composing. By using Threads you can expand beyond 280 characters and add more context and updates in real-time. Your Twitter Thread can be 3 Tweets or 13, as many as you need to tell the story! For instance, you can showcase tips to optimise productivity while working from home in your Twitter thread. 

 

4. Help people hear information directly from the source: You can host virtual interviews or live chats with experts for people to ask their questions directly and get their queries addressed real-time. Go LIVE on Twitter directly and include your guest.  Alternatively,  you can even host and participate in the old-school yet evergreen Tweet Chats.

Broadcast live with a little help from your friends, no matter where they are.

Now you can send invites to guests before you start your video!
👥 Tap the compose icon, then the camera icon
👥 Select “Live”, tap “Invite guests”, and choose your guests
👥 Hit the "Go LIVE" button pic.twitter.com/4kr2KLUCGq

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) March 17, 2020

 

5. Don’t feel like you have to restrict yourself to sharing one or two stories a day: People want all the information that they can get and this is the time to share as many credible, compelling news updates as you have. You can also share infographics, helpful tips, trivia and updates from across the world.

 

6. Talk to your audience to find out what they need to hear about: Get people to weigh in on certain subjects. You can use Twitter Polls or just simply Tweet to ask people for their comments, quotes and opinions on certain stories such as the situation in their locality, topics they want more information on, etc.

7. Debunk myths: Owing to the uncertainty around the COVID-19 pandemic, there are many myths circulating around. Your audiences look up to you to share the latest and accurate news with them. It is a good practice to Tweet fact-checks or Myth-busters for your readers.

 

8. Make sure to mention other people relevant to your Tweet: Back to basics, don’t forget to include @usernames of those you’re Tweeting about, so they get tagged and are in the know about a news story concerning them. It shows that the story has credible sources and builds engagement.
   
   

9. Use hashtags sparingly to spread awareness: Use hashtags that are relevant to the story you’re sharing. But only one or two, not more. They don’t really add value beyond one, maximum two.

 

10. Pin Tweets: This is your prime digital real estate. It’s how audiences know what you care about. Be sure to pin your most important or relevant stories, or the ones that are live or  in progress on to the top of your timeline, so your followers can easily discover these. You can change your pinned Tweet daily, weekly or monthly, depending on your own news priorities.

Don’t forget, you can follow some of these best practices @TwitterMedia. We will continue to work with our news partners across the board and in multiple languages here in India; we are grateful for their journalistic leadership and commitment. #StaySafeStayHome and #FlattenTheCurve

Read More

Uber will offer free rides to the Delhi Government for non-COVID patients of worth 75 lakhs, part of global committment to offer 10 million free rides

Uber today offered free rides worth INR 75 lakhs to the Delhi Government for emergency services, which will transport frontline healthcare workers, government officials on COVID-19 related duties, and other essential services. 

 

As part of its offer, Uber has partnered with the government to deploy 200 UberMedic cars, free of charge to transport non-COVID patients in coordination with the Centralized Ambulance Trauma Services (CATS) Ambulance Helpline.  

 

Uber’s partnership with the Delhi government is part of its global commitment to provide 10 million rides and food deliveries free of charge, recently announced by CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.

 

Sharing details about the association, Prabhjeet Singh, Director, Operations and Head of Cities, Uber India & South Asia, said, “The Delhi Government has been working tirelessly to contain the spread of COVID-19. We feel privileged to be supporting the Delhi government in these challenging times and stand ready to provide essential services to help move what matters by leveraging our global experience, technology and network of drivers.”

 

All the UberMedic cars being provided to Delhi government are being fitted with a roof-to-floor plastic sheeting enclosing the driver, thereby limiting contact with the rider. Additionally, to maintain safety and hygiene standards, while moving what matters, all drivers are being trained in safety procedures and being provided with personal protective equipment such as masks, gloves, sanitizers and disinfectants to sanitize the cars between rides.

 

Uber’s recently launched UberMedic service is already facilitating the provision of transporting frontline medical workers in 28 hospitals across 14 Indian cities.  

Read More

Apple iOS 13 has sever security flaws including zero click hack in its mail app - Researchers

A new potentially serious software vulnerability has been discovered in iOS 13 that works via the default Mail app on iPhone and iPad. Security researchers say the iPhone has a severe flaw in the native iOS Mail app that makes it vulnerable to hackers.

 

Representation image only

Commenting on this Satnam Narang, Principal Research Engineer at Tenable said, "The recent disclosure that multiple zero-days in the Apple iOS Mail application were exploited in the wild is significant and noteworthy. One of the flaws can be exploited without user interaction (also known as zero click) on iOS 13. The vulnerabilities also affect iOS 12, though interaction is required in most cases.

Exploitation of these flaws would allow an attacker to leak, modify or delete emails within the Mail application. However, the researchers note that combining these flaws with an unpatched kernel vulnerability would provide an attacker with full device access, though that information has not been identified as of yet.

While Apple has issued fixes for these flaws in the beta version of iOS 13.4.5, devices are still vulnerable until the final version of iOS 13.4.5 is readily available to all iOS device owners. In the interim, the only mitigation for these flaws is to disable any email accounts that are connected to the iOS Mail application, and use an alternative application, such as Microsoft Outlook or Google's GMail."

Read More

Ministry of Health & Family Welfare onboards Twitter Seva, users can get answers to queries by tweets

The power of a uniquely open service during a public health emergency is clear. As the nation combats the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (@MoHFW_INDIA), Government of India today onboarded Twitter Seva to help Indians with speedy resolution to their health-related queries. This public service is aimed at enabling transparent e-governance delivery in real-time and will allow the Ministry to communicate effectively and at scale with the public, especially in crisis situations like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, announced the dedicated account @CovidIndiaSeva with a Tweet.

Launched @CovidIndiaSeva to respond to citizens' queries in real time ❗️

Experts will share authoritative public health information reg #COVIDー19 swiftly at scale, helping to build a direct channel for communication with citizens. 

Post your queries!#CovidIndiaSeva @PMOIndia pic.twitter.com/9dPKh9Qklc

— Dr Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) April 21, 2020

Commenting on the announcement, Dr. Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan), Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare, said, “Over time, Twitter has proved to be an essential service for both the government and citizens to interact and exchange information, especially in times of need. As #IndiaFightsCorona with social distancing, we are happy to make a concerted online effort by adopting the Twitter Seva solution. It is powered by a team of experts who are trained and equipped to treat and respond to each query uniquely, and at scale. This will enable us in establishing a direct channel with Indian citizens, connecting with them in real-time to provide the authoritative health and public information.”

 
Twitter Seva is a customised live query redressal service. It works on a dashboard that helps process large volumes of Tweets, converts them into resolvable tickets, and assigns them to the relevant authority for real-time resolution. These conversations are transparent and everyone on the service can benefit from the responses received from the authorities around common queries. It is important to note is only for broader queries and does not require for the public to share personal contact details or health record details.
 
 
The dedicated account will be accessible to people be it local or national in their scope. Whether it is for latest updates on measures taken by the Government, learning about access to healthcare services or seeking guidance for someone who perhaps has symptoms but is unsure about where to turn to for help, the service will empower the public to reach out to the authorities. People in India can get their queries answered by Tweeting to @CovidIndiaSeva.
 
Over the years, as more and more people from India get on Twitter, an increasing amount of content across languages is being created. The service has witnessed a considerable rise in conversations in Indic languages. In fact, after English, Hindi is the second most used language on Twitter in India and non-English Tweets account for 50% of all Tweets on the service here. The service’s compatibility and usage across Indian languages will enable the Ministry in communicating with people from all parts of India.
Twitter has open lines of communication with the relevant authorities in the central and state governments and public health officials, to ensure they can troubleshoot account issues, and seek strategic counsel as they use the power of Twitter to mitigate harm and connect with the public at large.
Sharing her thoughts on this partnership, Mahima Kaul (@misskaul), Director, Public Policy, India and South Asia, Twitter, said, “To navigate this global health crisis, we need a collaborative approach between the government and our industry. Our work has never been more critical and our service has never been in higher demand. People from all parts of the country are taking to Twitter to be equipped with the quality information from authoritative sources. The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has a vital role in ensuring that people have timely access to the latest official information and we’re delighted to play our part to support their critical mission.

Read More

CoFynd, the global aggregator of Coworking spaces flagged off its operations in Delhi, Gurugram and Noida

CoFynd, the emerging aggregation platform for the booking of coworking spaces, have commenced its operations in Delhi, Gurugram and Noida. With the launch of their platform, CoFynd aims to offer event spaces, training rooms, meeting rooms, conference rooms along with the co-working spaces.  They provide these spaces and work environment for start-ups, young/small-medium sized enterprises, and professionals. 

Launching a company all on your own can be thrilling, but also quite tough. One may feel isolated in the home office, but hesitant to look for permanent traditional office space because of the high rates. For those sailing in these uncharted waters, CoFynd, a global aggregator for workspaces, will act as an anchor. Whether you are a solopreneur, freelancer or a young team of enthusiastic entrepreneurs, a CoFynd is a perfect place to start and grow. 

Coworking is a global phenomenon and it has completely changed the way we work forever. Almost, 2 million people are reported to be working out of Co-working spaces in 2019.  This industry has been growing at 23% since 2010 and number of co-working spaces is expected to double till the year 2022.

However, there are still a lot of challenges in this sector. For instance, there is a lack of a user-friendly platform that can provide standardized information on all co-working spaces.

There is still inability to book spaces online with ease and there is an absence of neutral customer mechanism support. Also, there is absolutely no presence of reviews on spaces to aid correct decisions.

CoFynd recognised all those loopholes and has come up to address and solve those challenges. CoFynd created unbiased platform with standardises listings. It provides the facility to book spaces online with super-ease. The user has the complete support and also has the access to the detailed reviews on co-working spaces.

Putting his thoughts on the same, Atul Gupta, Founder & CEO, CoFynd, said, " CoFynd has been launched to give startups and enterprises a platform where they can find the spaces according to their needs. We provide customised solutions as per their needs. Coworking spaces have become the lifeline of millennials and startups today. The growing demand from freelancers, consultants, and corporates has led to a growth in the co-working sector like never before. The workspaces to be future-ready should be networked, flexible, integrated and innovative, and CoFynd helps you to find one.”

Recently, CoFynd has also raised 1.25 crores of seed funding from some reputed corporates. The funds raised round will be invested across territory expansion plans, technology and marketing strategies. 

Speaking about the funding, Atul said, “We are extremely excited to raise the seed funding round. The funds raised by the company will further accelerate the growth of our network and will allow us to broaden our reach and expand our services”.  

The strategically located spaces at CoFynd offer access to nearby business centres, provides competitive corporate culture and opportunities to its members for sustained growth. The space is designed to cater to businesses of any size and form to boast diverse working environments having both private offices, cubicles, spacious cabins, meeting rooms, training rooms, and event spaces enabling the clients to choose as per their needs. 

This unbiased and unified platform of listing coworking spaces strives to offer ease of discovery and bookings to the user along with 100% offline support for visits, negotiations and closure. It endeavours to give access to like-minded, close-knit, and success-focused professionals who are all driving towards the same goal. 

Currently, CoFynd has its presence in Gurugram, Delhi and Noida and are planning to expand in other metro cities like Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune and Mumbai. 

Read More