In the past two weeks, I’ve been involved in interesting discussions on how to use Twitter and other social media. Last Thursday, the conversation took place at the annual Outlook meeting for Destination DC, where I shared a panel on travel-oriented social media with Norie Quintos of National Geographic Traveler and Garriett Graff of the Washingtonian. Then today, USAT Marketing Manager Brian Dresher gathered “super users” from across the paper to talk about their experiences using social media.

My view is this: whatever you may think about Facebook or Twiter, social media is not going away. For better or worse, the veil has been dropped between journalists and readers, and increasingly, people want to know who is giving them their news and how the reporter got it.

With that in mind, here are five reasons why journalists should use social media:

1. Break news.

      We all want to be first, right? Broadcasting in real time gets you out there the quickest – and can help you gather on-the-spot sources. The Travel team used Twitter to immediately broadcast the CDC travel advisory to Mexico during the height of the swine flu coverage – and we later used it to be one of the first when the ban was lifted.

      Twitter can also be the first platform that later drives traffic to your organization’s website. Our hotel blogger Barb De Lollis used Twitter to broadcast updates immediately following the Jakarta bombing – and was also able to announce her exclusive with the head of Marriott security that night.

2. Monitor your beat

      Chances are, there are conversations already going on out there regarding your beat, whether it’s via Twitter, local message boards or some other forum. I’ve found that Twitter is a good way to track what leaders in the field are talking about (along with Google Trends). It’s also a good way to “eavesdrop” on conferences through hashtags. Some of us in Travel tend to keep Tweetdeck running all day in the background, almost like AM radio.

3. Find new audiences and drive traffic to your site.

      Hard to believe for most journalists, but there’s a whole block of people out there who mostly read links that other people send them. That’s why aggregators such as Drudge, Google News and bloggers who practice beat surveillance such as our own Today in the Sky have become so popular. Putting out links from your stories helps drive the conversation – and again, can drive page views to your site (which does mean money for your organization).

4. Generate brand awareness not just for your media outlet – but for yourself

      It’s a scary time for journalists out there, and we all feel expendable these days. So I like to see what big-time journalists – the ones who have the clout and expertise to manage multiple platforms such as the Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz - are doing. Howard is a machine. He writes a print column. He does chats. He’s on TV. He posts different updates to Facebook AND Twitter. I don’t know when he sleeps – but he’s made himself the go-to person when it comes to media analysis on all platforms. And his already sizable fan base just keeps growing. I’m sure he’ll stay employed.

5. Honestly? It can be fun.

      I did my first Tweetup last April, with a Rome blogger popular on Twitter. I hadn’t been Tweeting all that long, so I was a little nervous. She ended up being extremely cool, and showed me an excellent wine bar not far from the Colosseum.

      Since then, I’ve met more “travel tweeps” in person. Some of them work for mainstream outlets, some of them are freelance writers toiling on their own blogs and some of them are even PR people. In any case, they all have something to add to the discussion – and I often get story ideas listening to them.