That’s right, more UK media people share their Twitter tips. This time: Lee Hall, digital editor of the Sunderland Echo.

Do you recall your first tweet?
I don’t. As with most first time encounters I messed it up a bit, wasn’t too sure whether I was any good at it and came back to it when my confidence returned. Seriously, though – initially I found there was too much dead air as take up was low. I’m guessing it was my trademark social media bow – something like. “Erm, I’m trying this out because I heard it was quite good…”

How has your use of Twitter changed?
Significantly. I began under an @SunderlandEcho account, tweeting breaking news for the newspaper I work for. But as take up grew, more and more friends came online and I found myself catching up with old mates. As a result I quickly split my personality into professional Lee at my original address, and personal Lee @LeeHallTweets. It’s a balance I’ve broadly stuck to, and one which reflects my split professional personality between my day job at a local newspaper and my freelance work.

What do you want from Twitter?
To stay in touch with friends and colleagues without having to ignore 467 invitations to play Mafia Wars on Facebook. And to stay connected with sources of news and info, plus trending topics in the real world outside my office. RT back links to sunderlandecho.com help too!

Have you attended a tweetup?
Nope. It would bring back too many bad memories of school discos. I’d be left standing in the corner looking miserable with bad hair. Much better to hide behind the internet and pretend I have a personality, rather than disappointing people in real life.

Have you evangelised Twitter?
Yes. I’m always shouting at people about personal brand – trying to encourage reporters to build a following that they can take with them wherever they go. Some of them listen. Some of them just go for lunch and pretend they can’t hear me.

Do you have any self-imposed policies regarding your use of Twitter?
I have a horrible habit of tweeting when I’m bored – especially when I’m on a train journey. I try to limit myself to one tweet per hour on a train, but that’s tricky.

How do you see your use of Twitter developing this year?
I must harness it’s power as a crowd-sourcing tool. A colleague has several thousand followers and he is never short of material for his column in-paper!

[+] Lee Hall can be found on Twitter at @LeeHallTweets

More Twitter tips from UK media people, this time from Sarah Booker, digital and social media editor for the Worthing Herald series and Chichester Observer series.

Do you recall your first tweet?
Not off the top of my head, but looking back I discovered I wrote “working” – my traditional status in the real world. How did you use Twitter to begin with? For a long time I read before tweeting. I signed up in 2006 after seeing Twitter on DJ and musician Iain Baker’s blog.

After struggling to find my way, I eventually discovered a variety of interesting people and organisations on Twitter. It’s such a great source of information. I really got into it in early 2008.

When I started the Worthing Herald’s Twitter account, I posted selected stories from the web and searched for people in the area, reading what they had to say. I started the paper’s Twitterfeed just before I went on a fortnight’s holiday, because I could not find anyone in the office willing to take on what they thought was a “weird web” folly.

When I’m in the office I’ll make a few live comments to show there is life at the end of the feed.

How has your use of Twitter changed?
These days I’m running multiple accounts, personal, personal but professional, and four newspapers. When I started out with my first account three years ago, using my long-standing internet username, I had no idea what I was doing. Now I find myself responding to people directly as part of a conversation, as well as retweeting and reading so much more.

Having two personal accounts was an important move. Sarah_Booker is my working journalist self and the tweets reflect that. I leave my hobbies and other interests to my non-professional account.

I used to be skeptical about using third-party tools, but now I’m a Twitterfall convert, trying out Seesmic Desktop and a Twitterfox, Twhirl and Tweetdeck user. I’m also more willing to ask questions and get advice. It’s quite comforting to find people you respect also don’t have a magic way of doing something.

What do you want from Twitter?
Personally, I want inspiration and communication. For the newspapers I want interaction and shared information about what’s going on in the area.

Have you attended a tweetup?
I’ve been to a Worthing tweetup, and spent one evening at the Butlins Bognor tweetup weekend. I’ve also been to a Brighton Tuttle and Hove Tuttle. Apparently there’s two Brighton Tuttles so I’ll have to find the other one.

Have you evangelised Twitter?
If so, any success? My enthusiasm for Twitter knows no bounds and I’ve had success with colleagues in other centres in the division. However, the initial response from reporters was extremely negative. They couldn’t see the point of posting news information to a site they knew nothing about. This might change now I’ve picked up stories from it, we’re getting website referrals and stories have developed through reading the followed and followers. A couple of reporters are beginning to see the point; one took on the Littlehampton Gazette account. Getting them to set up their own Twitter accounts might prove difficult.

Do you have any self-imposed policies regarding your use of Twitter?
Always look carefully at someone’s profile and tweets before deciding whether to follow them back. Be helpful and friendly.

How do you see your use of Twitter developing this year?
It’s changing all the time. I’m sure I’ll use it at work much more than I am at the moment.

[+] Sarah Booker can be found on Twitter at @sarah_booker and @nimmykins, at the Worthing Herald’s Twitter feed @Worthing_Herald, the Shoreham Herald’s Twitter feed @Shoreham_Herald and the Chichester Observer Twitter feed @ChiObserver

More Twitter tips from media people, this time from Ben LaMothe, ePublishing posgraduate student at London’s City University, Web/social media consultant with United Business Media in London and part of an upcoming  project at the ‘watch-this-space’ stage.

Do you recall your first tweet?
I’ve tried to look this up to no avail. I started using Twitter using a different user name. I changed it to my name a while back. I suspect when I changed it, I lost the data from the previous user name. The earliest I can go is February. Apparently I joined Twitter on March 3 2008. I can only go back as far as Feb. 2008.

How did you use Twitter to begin with?
When I first began using Twitter, I had the same approach as many do when they first joined. I Tweeted about what I was doing that day, who I had talked to, the films I was seeing, etc. Nothing of any real value to anyone outside my most immediate circle of friends. I did Tweet a little about the journalism industry, but at the start my Tweets were about 30% industry and 70% here’s-what-I-ate-today.

How has your use of Twitter changed?
My Twitter usage has changed drastically. I decided one day last year to change from 30-70 to 70-30. Instead of talking about the banality of day-to-day life, I started posting links to interesting commentary on the state of the journalism industry. I also provided some of my own commentary. As a result my Twitter following has grown exponentially and I’ve been introduced to a lot of very smart people in the industry. People seem to see me as a source of information about the latest industry happenings, which is quite cool.

What do you want from Twitter?
Twitter is a fantastic source of information. It connects people in a way that no other service has. What I want from Twitter is the ability to meet more interesting people, to have my horizons continually broadened and to learn more about how the industry works. It’s allowed me to meet some great people, so I’d like for that to continue.

Have you attended a tweetup?
Yep – with @GeorgeHopkin and @JohnWelsh. I’ve had quasi-Tweet ups too. Meetings that weren’t facilitated by Twitter directly, but involved people whom I follow on Twitter.

Have you evangelised Twitter? If so, any success?
I have. I try to explain to people the benefits of it. Many approach it the same way as they do with Facebook. They assume people will find you and it will just take off. It doesn’t work that way. You’re responsible for building your own circle of influence and to surround yourself with people you think you’ll learn from. I’ve had some success, but as Twitter grows I suspect more will jump in. A lot will quickly jump out, but a few will get it.

Do you have any self-imposed policies regarding your use of Twitter?
Think before I Tweet. It’s very easy to get on Twitter and just talk rubbish. You don’t have an immediate sense that anyone is listening. But I’ve been burned by doing that. I also think to myself “OK, do I really need to Tweet this?” Over the last year I’ve picked up some fairly influential followers within the industry. I need to keep them in mind when I’m Tweeting. Will they care? Is this really important?

How do you see your use of Twitter developing this year?
I’m not sure. Twitter has opened a lot of doors for me that previously were closed. I suspect in the coming months I’ll likely be balancing more than one Twitter account, one personal, and one work-related. Twitter is an ever-changing thing. It’s becoming its own culture. The users made the rules. So I expect the rules will continue to change as will Twitter’s applications and uses in the real world. I’m going to try to keep up with that. My Twitter usage will evolve as the service evolves.

[+] Ben LaMothe can be found on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/BenLaMothe and at his blog, http://benlamothe.wordpress.com