By Ryan G. Murphy, RTDNA Digital Media Editor

In previous “The Buzz” posts I’ve typically tried to steer away from writing about RTDNA-specific events. I realize that self promotion is important but with “The Buzz” column I’ve tried to embody the idea that RTDNA is a resource built to educate and inform journalists. Most of the time, that means directing our audience outward, towards the hot topics in the industry.

I’m going to deviate a bit from the norm this week, but not too much. You’ll still be educated and informed, but it’s going to be RTDNA centric. I hope you don’t mind.

On Wednesday morning we released our Social Media and Blogging guidelines. And with the help of some links and tweets from some heavy hitters in the industry (like Poynter’s Al Tompkins, Columbia’s Sree Sreenivasan, Lost Remote and RTDNA’s Stacey Woelfel), we’ve seen our guidelines become relatively viral among journalists and media-folk on Twitter.

Since Wednesday morning we’ve seen a few hundred Tweets dedicated to our guidelines. A few people simply passed along that we’d released the guidelines. A few Tweeters commented that the guidelines were a good read and a great starting point for establishing a social media policy. In effect, one Tweet said the guidelines were common sense. I encourage you to search RTDNA on Twitter for a look at the tweets we’ve seen. The best part? People are talking.

I can’t speak for all of the RTDNA staff and board members in saying this, but the most rewarding part of my job is seeing a dialogue like this come to be – a healthy, lengthy discourse about a topic that’s going to help influential news people do their jobs better.

I was lucky enough to be among the group of RTDNA and RTDNF people who met a few weeks ago in Washington when we put together the guidelines. One of the key factors in determining what language we used and what topics we covered in the document was that we wanted journalists to use the guidelines as a road map towards creating better social media policies – not as dogmatic rules to follow. It’s something we reminded ourselves of several times during the session and I was proud that we did, because RTDNA is exactly that – a guide.

In my 8 months with RTDNA I’ve had the opportunity to work with a tireless, resourceful staff and a visionary board, both humble enough to realize that we don’t have all the answers yet and that by creating healthy dialogues and providing progressive, educational resources we’re helping news professionals adapt and flourish in this new realm of journalism.

If you haven’t had a chance yet, take a look at the new social media and blogging guidelines RTDNA released on Wednesday and bring them up in your newsroom. It’ll be a great way to start the dialogue on establishing or revising your newsroom’s social media policy.