Yesterday I was profiled at a website called Tweeple Blog – a blog which runs profiles of Twitter users. From my time working as a journalist, I am more than familiar with writing profiles, much more so than being the one on the other end. Being profiled was certainly a first for me. The profile also came as a shock. Why? There wasn’t an interview.
For most journalists, the idea of writing a profile sans interview means wading through piles of marketing copy hand chosen by the subject or the subject’s handlers . And every scrap of that copy is going to be carefully screened to be on message.
The point of the interview is to get beyond that message, and to the meat of the subject. The interview isn’t a means of trapping a person. There’s no “gotcha” involved. Rather, an interview is a process of distilling empathy into understanding. The profile then conveys that understanding.
It’s a game that’s played. Journalists presented with PR, and asked to find the person.
That being said, Tweeple Blog is pulling from a less-than-traditional PR source – Twitter. Much has been said about the marketing ability of Twitter, and for a large part, it’s a good method to promote a message. However, the speed and ease of Twitter derails all but the most predetermined PR messages as easily as the chaos and unpredictability of the battlefield destroys all plans. On Twitter the message gives way to many messages; at its core, Twitter is a cacophony of conversations.
David, the force behind Tweeple Blog simply takes the message – bio, website, location – and pairs that with the various strands of conversations that the subject is having. If an interview looks towards the trees to find the forest, a Tweeple Blog looks at the forest first.
Whether this works for you, as a journalist or someone who is simply studying others, is left to be said. It is perhaps something that we all do on Twitter, or in any other social medium. The question that is left to be said, is are you on message, or are you on Twitter? Is there a golden ratio?
Bradley Robb likes TV and books, and has an intense dislike for cinnamon. Once, Bradley stopped a Soviet T-60 with his middle finger. Bradley writes speculative fiction and edits Fiction Matters, and never really got the hang of talking about himself in the third person.