Just because the Chicago Tribune is publicizing its Twitter efforts doesn’t mean you should!

I’ve been impressed with the Chicago Tribune’s use of Twitter since I stumbled upon its newsroom twitter account, @ColonelTribune, in summer 2008. The Colonel is the Trib’s “web ambassador,” serving as the face of the newsroom on the Internet. With more than 7,400 followers, the @ColonelTribune twitter account is an awesome example of how big media should use Twitter. The Colonel does more than provide obligatory news updates. Instead, @ColonelTribune engages “his” audience through thoughtful replies. He also posts breaking news (even if it means linking to competing media outlet like @Suntimes), retweets followers and posts witty observations, all without overly compromising the Tribune’s objectivity.

Last week, the Tribune took another major step forward in the Twitterverse. On Thursday, The Tribune published the Twitter names of its editors in the masthead (the graphic on the editorial page that tells you who all the big wigs at a newspaper are). Change of any sort to a newspaper’s masthead is a big deal — years can go by without a single design change, other than swapping out an editor’s name.  So the fact that the Tribune decided to acknowledge its social media presence in its print edition deserves applause.

But closer inspection of the publisher and five editors whose Twitter names appear in the masthead reveals that they may have rushed to press. As of this writing, five of them have fewer than 100 updates on Twitter, which means their accounts are either spanking new or rarely used. The publisher’s account, @twhunter, features only one update. The editorial page editor’s account, @BruceDold, features the brown avatar, a classic sign of a newbie. The most prolific tweeter listed in the masthead is @Bill80, the paper’s digital editor who has posted 469 updates and was quoted on CNET last week as saying:

“I’ve been on Twitter a couple of years, since it first emerged from South by Southwest, and so I’ve been on it for awhile, as you would hope that the digital editor of the Tribune” would be, said Bill Adee, the paper’s digital editor. “And in the last month or so, we’ve really tried to get our reporters and editors on (Twitter) to show them how it could make them better reporters and editors.”

So if he’s been on Twitter a couple of years (say 365 days x 2) and has only posted 469 tweets, I’ve got to question how actively he engages his audience.

If you’re using Twitter for business, it’s important that you become comfortable using the medium before you publicly advertise that you can be found there. There’s a learning curve to Twitter. Twitter is about much more than answering the question “what are you doing?”. It’s about sharing information, engaging in conversations and displaying your (or your brand’s) personality.

It takes a while to learn how to use Twitter (both for pleasure or for business), and there’s nothing wrong with committing a few faux pas along the way. But it’s best to experiment and get them out of the way before you publicize your company’s emergence in Twitterville.

Once you’re comfortable using Twitter and you’re ready to engage the online community you plan to build through your tweets, then you should take the steps that make sense to let your audience know where they can find you @.