If anyone is keeping track, this is BY FAR the fastest blog post I have ever put together – so please keep that in mind as you read.

After returning to my desk from a delicious lunch, which included Davanni’s pizza, it was pointed out to me by @ellejam that I was quoted in a tech story on CNN in a tweet that included a link. To be honest, my first thought was spam – but curiosity got the best of me. So I checked and it was true! Sort of…

In case you didn’t see the story, here is a link and a screen capture:

As you can see by my stellar editing, my tweet was used in a CNN story – sans my name.

To provide the proper evidence, I give you – my tweet:

My feeling of complete surprise and excitement from being on CNN.com (I mean, how cool is that?) is slightly diminished with the absence of my name. I know it’s my tweet, my followers know it’s my tweet, so why couldn’t CNN properly quote me?

So my question is this: What are the journalistic standards for attribution when referencing a quote/update/post from a user on social media? I am sure I am not the first social media user to experience this, so what are the expectations? Should journalists be including user names into stories when they quote a source, even if that source was found on Twitter?

Thoughts?