Provident Partners news

On Black Friday, KTLK-FM, a news talk station in the Twin Cities, had Albert Maruggi and others in the studio to discuss Twitter and its impact on communication, politics, marketing and more.

The full discussion, with some news segments thrown in here and there, runs about 45 minutes. Unfortunately, there’s no particular Web page or post to point you to, but there is a podcast you can listen to — grab this .mp3 file.

The conversation covers an introduction to Twitter, some examples of how it’s used in real life, and some of the more dramatic examples of Twittering during a crisis. Albert even squeezed in a mention of Julio Ojeda-Zapata’s new book, “Twitter Means Business.”

“Twitter Means Business,” a new book written by Julio Ojeda-Zapata, technology columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, is now shipping — just in time for the holidays!

The Pioneer Press ran a preview of the new book over this past weekend. From that article:

“Twitter might seem like the last place on the Internet any self-respecting company would want to do business,” the author writes. “It can be a trivial and childish realm, filled with blather about bodily functions, pet excrement and what users had for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

“Yet…the companies come. The reason: Twitter is on fire. Its users are a remarkably vocal, energetic crowd. More and more businesses want this energy to rub off on them, and seek to generate some fireworks of their own as they discover their inner tweeters.”

We at Provident Partners have been eagerly awaiting this new book, as we were lucky enough to play a part in its creation. Albert Maruggi and Mike Keliher both appear in the book, as does one of our Twittering clients, Mark Palony of SoftBrands. Albert also wrote the book’s afterword, in which he explains how Twitter “taps human needs — the desire we have as part of a humanity to connect, to be curious, to seek recognition, to be part of something, and to share.”

For a deeper look (listen, actually) into the book, check out this podcast interview Albert did with Julio a few weeks ago. And of course, buy the book!

With a simple Twitter message during the Republican National Convention, Provident Partners’ Albert Maruggi caught the eye of some media-business news writers.

First, writing for MinnPost.com, David Brauer explains how Twitter is “the place to be” for folks trying to follow stories about protesters and police raids. In the article, Brauer quotes Maruggi’s Twitter message when he says that Twitter is like “the police scanner of the 21st Century newsroom.” Brauer’s piece received national attention from the popular journalism news machine Romenesko, from the Poynter Institute.

A few days later, another Poynter outlet, the E-Media Tidibts blog, carried a piece titled “Twitter: Surprise Star of RNC Coverage.” In that piece, writer Maryn McKenna quotes a bit more of the same message from Maruggi. She writes:

But Twitter was the secret weapon. Tweets (Twitter posts) by a huge array of users — 17,855 posts from 1389 accounts over the convention’s four days, according to a C-SPAN page tracking the Twitter hashtag #RNC08 — wove a multi-stranded conversation about where protests were coalescing, how police were responding, and where the story was moving next. Twitter user, social media expert, and former journalist Albert Maruggi observed: “[Twitter is] the police scanner of 21st century newsroom. This from a guy that used to rewrite AP copy for 11pm newscast.”

For more great ideas from Albert Maruggi, follow him on Twitter or send him an e-mail. He has an iPhone, so he’ll see it right away.