The people who started to follow the account after it debuted Friday knew they were signing up for a large volume of hurricane-related tweets, so that helped. Despite that, the Times editors tried to make sure they did not waste anyone’s time. How often will the Times need the all-out coverage of @NYTLive? Definitely not every day or even every week, Heron said. Recent examples that might have been suitable include the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case, Hosni Mubarak’s ouster in Egypt, or the Japanese nuclear disaster, she said.

• The latest reported updates. The Times was able to reach a much deeper level of detail than its main account can. Each home page story gets tweeted by @nytimes. @NYTLive, though, could go deeper, sharing any update for an existing story.
• Curation of other sources. @NYTLive retweeted a lot of information from others, including other Times accounts and independent sources.
• User engagement. @NYTLive called attention to many engagement efforts from @NYTMetro, which deputy metro editor Clifford Levy ran all weekend. Heron said in future uses of @NYTLive she hopes to offer more chances to be involved.