If I had a dollar for every time an athlete, celebrity, or company did something foolish on Twitter, I’d be a multi-millionaire. For most famous people that get caught tweeting something controversial, the usual course of action is to delete his or her account. Given that a major feature of the microblogging service is direct contact between celebrities and regular folks, if famous people were to leave Twitter in mass it would likely be followed by a large exodus of normal users. An exodus that significant would negatively impact Twitter’s reputation and bottom line. 
To counteract this possibility, as well as provide general guidelines for the use of Twitter in media contexts, Twitter has launched a brand new Media website to help educate people about using the service most effectively. In an official blog post from today, Twitter described the new Media website as a way to highlight “best practices, success stories and more.” The site will complement Twitter’s current information media sources, including their blog, newsletters, and various advice Twitter accounts.
Screen capture of Twitter’s new Media site.
A quick look at the new Media site shows it to be quite comprehensive. Links at the top can direct users to “The Basics” and “Best Practices” pages, each of which has numerous links to tips pages for things like embedding tweets, live tweeting, and more. These tips pages are broken down by industry – General, Television, Government, Sports, News, Music, Nonprofits, and Faith. Also present on the Media website is a link for “Success Stories”, which highlights successful collaborations of Twitter and entertainment events. Some of the highlighted events include live tweeting of shows like “The Voice” and “Scandal” and coverage of breaking news stories.
With its new Media website, Twitter hopes it will empower its plethora of power users – entertainers, government officials, journalists, and more – to use the service more effectively and without controversy.
