By Cassy van Eeden

The platform gives journalists the opportunity to live tweet as news breaks, giving their followers immediate access to the latest events.

Steve Buttry, former editor of Digital First Media and scholar at the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University, says there is no way any journalist can deny the value of having a Twitter account. "Mastering Twitter will help you grow as a journalist, and growth makes your job and your career more fulfilling."

Finding sources

Buttry explains that perhaps one of the biggest challenges reporters face is finding sources who have witnessed or were affected by an event. "When public news breaks in your community, whether that news is a plane crash, terrorist attack, earthquake, flood, mass murder or snowstorm, people who have seen and experienced the news event tweet about it," says Buttry. "By using Twitter's advanced search feature, you can quickly find and connect with these people for interviews and or for quoting or embedding their tweets in your stories."

Communications manager at The Whip, Liam Corcoran, says Twitter's search function is the most valuable aspect of the platform for journalists. "Search by questions, positive or negative tweets, location, hashtag, language and more. More personable than Google, and often faster than the wires, Twitter quickly indicates whether breaking news rumours have any substance," he says.

Never miss the news

Public figures and major organisations are making statements, announcements and respond to the community on Twitter now more than ever. Buttry says not following these important accounts is detrimental. "If you don't follow the people and organisations on your beat, you are going to miss news as sure as if you ignore their news releases, press conferences and misstatements they make in their public speeches," he says.

Generating story ideas

Desperate for a story idea? "A single tweet might present a good story idea. Or multiple tweets on the same topic might give you a heads-up that something is becoming a hot topic you should cover," Buttry says.

Get traffic

Buttry says sharing a link to your story or blog post on Twitter will immediately bump up your site visits.

But there is an art to it.

Managing editor of the Poynter Institute, Mallary Jean Tenore, says attracting more readers to your story is not as simple as tweeting headlines. "Followers want to know that there's a person behind a Twitter account, and they want to hear that person's voice. Instead of always tweeting headlines, try starting a conversation about your stories."

Starting a conversation

Ann Friedman, writer for NYMag, CRJ.org, LA mag and ELLE, says Twitter allows journalists to engage more actively with their audience. "There is additional accountability in making yourself available to receive more readers' thoughts on a platform like Twitter," she says. "It allows for a public back-and-forth conversation, and if you’re a journalist who both cares about getting the details right and is interested in hearing ideas for follow-up stories, Twitter is a great place to hang out."

What are your thoughts? Are there other ways that you use Twitter to write and investigate stories? Let us know in the comments below.