In our recent reader survey, languishing far behind the other outlets through which we nakedly grasp for readers, was Twitter. A diminutive 4% of survey takers responded that it is their primary method of learning about new SotW content. So, despite passing a thousand followers this week on the fashionable social service, and even though I’m sure Gallup would conclude that our survey methodology was horrifically flawed, it seems safe to conclude that our best fans follow through the website. Then does it make sense to keep a lot of our film picks off the site?

Wait—there are other films!?!? Haha, well yeah. I run the Twitter account, and as I watch things, shorts I like that maybe aren’t a good fit for the site get tweeted. Plus a lot of content from other sites gets retweeted, as we don’t often repost picks we’ve learned about from outside sources to the site (just our snobbery in effect). Interesting articles or press releases regarding short films, distribution avenues or grants and competitions, those get passed along too. I’ve been using the service since November, and in that time it has become my primary research tool, and it is really easy through Twitter to recommend something that comes along during my daily media gorging. Basically what I tweet is a highlighted stream of my consumption and process in finding content for this site. So that, plus how great a way  it is to interact with filmmakers and other media outlets, means Twitter is something I’ll be keeping up with.

But this polling data is pretty bad. It doesn’t make sense to keep these things from the majority of our fans. Maybe we’ll find a way to integrate Twitter more deeply with the site, or make the site more friendly to “quickies” posts, but that’s a longterm goal, and in the interim I’m inclined to provide this instead, a digest of highlights from our social media platforms for those who primarily consume our recommendations via visiting the site, RSS, or Email subscription. This will become a weekly thing, and I imagine it will have an evolving look and presentation, so your feedback is most welcome.

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6/19 thru 6/25 2011

Oscar-winner: ‘The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation”

Beyond the Box Office: A slideshow on distro & monetization

New Jeff Scher Animation in NyTimes:  “You Might Remember This”

Cartoon Brew kicks off 2nd Student Animation Fest: “Overcast”

Vimeo HD Channel Pick feat. Russell Tovey: “Drop”

Details on 2nd Annual Kickstarter Festival July 9th in Brooklyn

Yahoo Partners with Sundance to present 2012 short films

Women on the Verge: Five Female Filmmakers with the Hottest Shorts of Summer

Another Brilliant RSA Animate Lecture: “The Problem of Choice”