Tue 15th of June, filed under Social Media
MTV looks for Twitter's finest
Music channel MTV has started a grand search for the best tweeter in the Twittersphere to become its first Twitter Jockey.
Those who consider themselves social media aficionados can be put forward for the unusual role. From there, a shortlist of 20 potential TJs will be drawn up – two of whom will be selected by the general public. A live final will then air in August and a winner will be chosen.
The job description might seem a bit odd, but the network's general manager Stephen Friedman has called it "a natural evolution of how we connect with our audience". He said:
"[The winning applicant] will be dynamic, engaging and energised, an enthusiast within the social media world. Somebody who will represent the audience by taking their thoughts and questions and … through an ongoing dialogue with them, be able to bring those questions inside the walls here to the people who make MTV."
Twitter downtime
MTV will be hoping that its Twitter Jockey position is not stunted by any of the technical errors that have haunted Twitter this year. Just last week, a system malfunction resulted in several hours of downtime for the social media site and its third-party applications.
Twitter made a number of announcements over the course of the day claiming that the issue had been resolved, even though users were still refused access to the site. Once it was back up and running, the company's blog blamed "an error with networking equipment" for the problem.
Earlier this year, another flaw was found with the site's system that allowed users to force people to follow them.
Posted by Michael Thornton
