Social Media and Journalists: Part 2

SOCIALMEDIAA GUIDE FOR JOURNALISTSPART 2 OF 4

TODAY’S* TOP SM TOOLS  Twitter  Instagram  Tumblr  YouTube  Pinterest  WordPress  Storify  Facebook * This list will change

TWITTER Identity of the Twitter account:  Does it represent you, alone, as a reporter?  Is it for a regularly scheduled news program?  Is it for the entire news organization? Choose one identity, not more. Be consistent with this identity.

Left: Anderson Cooper 360° (CNN news program)Right: Anderson Cooper (personal tweets by the journalist)

MASTERING TWITTER  Communicate within the 140-character limit  Search and find Twitter feeds by name, topic, or hashtag (#)  Choose Twitter feeds to follow (curation)  Create Twitter lists (also curation)  Learn the art of the retweet (RT)  Learn the difference between replies and DMs (direct messages)

HASHTAGSAny Twitter user can make a hashtagAdd # before a word (no spaces and nopunctuation)Create an impromptu grouping or collectionExamples:#opennews (The Guardian)#asknyt (The New York Times)

TWITTER FOR JOURNALISTS Uses of the Twitter account:  Ask for comments and feedback from audience  Follow fellow journalists  Follow sources (monitor what they‟re discussing; discover trends)  Share links to news content  Tweet breaking news updates Which of these are consistent with the account‟s identity?

TUMBLRMany of thebest Tumblrblogsemphasizephotographyand keep thetext brief.

Example post: SI Photo Blog on Tumblr (siphotos.tumblr.com)

Example post: NPR on Tumblr (npr.tumblr.com)

Tumblr on the iPhone: A stream of interesting thingsThe Tumblr app has been downloaded more than 1 milliontimes on Android (iPhone numbers not available).

Example: The Economist on Tumblr (theeconomist.tumblr.com)

Source: Mashable.com (November 2011)

TUMBLR IN A NUTSHELL Tumblr users are rebloggers: They will spread your content (and your links). Tags are very important: Many Tumblr users subscribe to tags. It‟s not a full-scale blogging platform like WordPress.

BEST USES FOR JOURNALISTS  (re)Broadcast your own content  News organization  Program  Topic (e.g. Singapore)  Subscribe and follow Tumblr blogs to get ideas, see what‟s being reblogged  Use Tumblr as a clip file for ideas  Create your own tags to improve usefulness

“Tumblr is “Tumblr is the 25th most popular site in Singapore based on a combination of average daily visitors and pageviews.” —Alexa Traffic Rank, March 9, 2012

SOME GREAT TUMBLR BLOGSsoupsoup.tumblr.com (Reuters)life.tumblr.com (photography)shortformblog.com (news)links.laughingsquid.com (weird & fun)theeconomist.tumblr.com (news)fotojournalismus.tumblr.com (photo)

PINTERESTStill in the “inviteonly” phase,Pinterest beatGoogle+, LinkedInand YouTubecombined fortraffic referrals inFebruary 2012.It also beat Twitter.Findings based on aggregated data from more than 200,000 publishers thatreach more than 270 million unique monthly visitors each month.

Pinterest is perfect for eye-catching visuals

Similar to Tumblr: “Repin” on Pinterest

All your Pinterest “boards” are listed when you start to repin

Repinned content cites the original source (top)

The link from the original “pin” is preserved

WHY CARE ABOUT PINTEREST?  Female: 68.2% of Pinterest users are women  Well off: 28% of users have annual household income of US$100k+  Young: 27.4% are ages 25 to 34 Average Time Spent on Site Pinterest 15.8 minutes YouTube 16.4 minutes Facebook 12.1 minutes Twitter 3.3 minutes Source: mashable.com

PINTEREST PROS AND CONS Pros Addictive: Users like to spend a lot of time on the site Lots of repinning: Users can spread your content far and wide Huge increase in referrals from Pinterest prove that people do go to the original (your content, your site)

PINTEREST PROS AND CONS Cons It‟s the hot new thing; it may fizzle out The visual bias is even more dominant than on Tumblr It may be better suited to product advertising: popular categories include home decor, DIY and gifts

PINTEREST TIPS  Don‟t fight the visual bias. Choose a really good visual (make sure it‟s on the content page).  Write a short, interesting caption. Make people want to know more (so they will click).  Play like everyone else: Repin!

WHO’S PINNING YOUR STUFF?You can check and see:http://pinterest.com/source/nytimes.com/

COPYRIGHT AND PINTERESTEven though imageslink back to the original site,this kind of re-usedoes appear toviolate copyright laws.

COPYRIGHT AND PINTERESTEven though images link back to theoriginal site, this kind of re-use does violatecopyright laws. Pinterest has an online form for reporting any copyright violation.

COPYRIGHT AND PINTERESTEven though images link back to theoriginal site, this kind of re-use does violatecopyright laws.Pinterest has a form for reporting anycopyright violation.For news organizations, any desire toprosecute copyright violations should beweighed against the value of referral traffic.

“I would say Pinterest is more of an„evergreen‟ social network than someof the others. Once you pinsomething, it‟s there for a long time. Ifind that, as a journalist, I pin thingsthere that will still be interestingdays or weeks later. This isn‟tnecessarily true of Twitter orFacebook, that are more in themoment.” —Rubina Madan Fillion, graphics editor, The Wall Street Journal

PINTEREST TIP  People can follow you (your profile)  Or they can choose to follow only one of your “pinboards” …  Or just the specific pinboards they like (instead of users + all of their pinboards) (You can do the same)

USA Today (daily newspaper) has 15 pinboards.

WARNING: Pinterest can be very addictive.

SOCIALMEDIAPresentation by Mindy McAdamsUniversity of Florida, USAmmcadams@jou.ufl.edu

Keep up on the latest news and tipsabout social media and journalists:http://www.scoop.it/t/social-media-and-journalistsFollow these sources on Twitter for updateson the social media universe:@NiemanLab@mashable

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Social Media and Journalists: Part 2

by Mindy McAdams

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