At a little before 2:30 EST, the New York Times surpassed 4 million followers of their Twitter handle, @nytimes. The New York Times is far and away the most followed news publication, and is only beaten by CNN in terms of news outlets. (The paper is trailing Kim Kardashian by around 7 million followers, however.) We here at the Fall 2011 Community Media Innovation Project have spent a lot of time looking into how hyperlocal news sites and watchdogs engage their audiences on various social media platforms. While we don’t expect many hyperlocal sites to be crossing the 4 million line, we do have some tips on how to improve your Twitter follower numbers. 1. Write back! If the best way to get people to read your newspaper is to print their name, … Read entire article »