Social Media and Journalists: Part 3

SOCIALMEDIAA GUIDE FOR JOURNALISTSPART 3 OF 4

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

Example: The Washington Post used Storify as part of its coverage of this news event.

Example: All of the quotes and photos came from Twitter.

STORIFY: WHAT IS IT?A tool that makes it easy to create andupdate a string or stack of items fromvarious sourcesItems can come from Twitter, YouTube, etc.Text can be inserted between items to addcontext, to explainA Storify can be embedded in a blog postor Web page on your own site

Sign up for Storify (free) at storify.comand make a “Storify” immediately

The icons atthe top enableyou to quickly find and add items frompopular social media sites.

Example:After selecting YouTube, a search for syria (18 March 2012)

STORIFY: BEST USES  Breaking news  Social movements  Internet humor and memes  Reaction stories  Weather eventsSource: Poynter.org

Weather events provide a good opportunity for using Storify to curate user-generated content.

Image below: From Twitter. At right, note the different kinds of weather stories covered.

By embedding aStorify onyour newsorganization’swebsite, youmaintain yourown brand.Example: The blog ofReuters journalistAnthony De Rosa.http://blogs.reuters.com/anthony-derosa

De Rosa wrote apersonal accountof how hefollowed theLondon riots(August 2011) viasocial media.Example: The blog ofReuters journalistAnthony De Rosa.http://blogs.reuters.com/anthony-derosa

STORIFYMore than any other tool, Storifyexemplifies curation.

STORIFYMore than any other tool, Storifyexemplifies curation.To use Storify well:Don’t just tell a story—enhancepeople’s understanding of a story.

STORIFYMore than any other tool, Storifyexemplifies curation.To use Storify well:Don’t just tell a story; enhancepeople’s understanding of a story.Never succumb to randomcopy/pasting!

INSTAGRAM  27 million registered users  iPhone only: 5-star (highest) rating on iTunes, with 400,000+ reviews  Android version coming soon  An average of 26 new pictures uploaded every second

A TV REPORTER & INSTAGRAM “Today was a perfect example of how I use Instagram in the field. My goal is to spark interest and start discussions well before the story airs. My updates mention my station, and if I know what time the story will air, I’ll mention that as well.” —Lindsey Mastis, WUSA 9 TV (Washington, D.C.) December 2011

Two home garages burned in two separate fires that occurredat almost the same time, and within two blocks of each other.

A TV REPORTER & INSTAGRAM “I snapped a picture with my iPhone camera … Then I added the photo to Instagram and shared it on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and Foursquare.” —Lindsey Mastis, WUSA 9 TV (Washington, D.C.) December 2011

Statigram provides a Web-based profile that displays all your Instagram photos.Elizabeth Holmes (above) is a reporter for The Wall Street Journal.

YOUTUBENBC (the U.S. TV networkwith rights to broadcastthe 2012 Olympics) announcedin March that it willstream its Olympics coveragelive via YouTube.* * But not on YouTube.com

SOCIAL ASPECTS OF YOUTUBE  Search engine  When people hear about a video, they search on YouTube first  Subscription updates  Like and Share  Favorites and Playlists  Comments

Clear brandingLike and Share Number of views Favorites and Playlists

Opt-in e-mail alerts for subscribed channels

(January 2012)YOUTUBE FEATURE UPDATES Browse page: Cleaner design; focus on discovering new channels and videos  Most viewed videos (everyone)  Recommendations: Based on your past viewing habits Video Manager:  Search history (helps you find previously viewed)  Analytics (your viewers)  Sort by “Most Viewed”; see like/dislike stats

YouTube Stats(Video Manager)

Perhaps YouTube’sbiggest benefit to newsorganizations:YouTube videos areso easy to embed (share)

“Posted online onMonday [March5], the video hadbeen viewed morethan 80 milliontimes by Fridayafternoon, according to onlinemeasurement firmVisible MeasuresCorp. …“By Fridayafternoon, Invisible Children hadmore than 380,000Twitter followersand more than 2.5million Facebookfans.” Text: The Wall Street Journal, March 9, 2012

The ability to be sharedextends the reachof your videos.

The ability to be sharedextends the reachof your videos.Searchability andlong-term availabilityincrease the numberof views.

WORDPRESS  A robust blogging platform (and more)  Open source: Lots of functionality; lots of developers  Full-featured comment moderation  Full-featured spam filtering  Multiple WordPress sites can be added to your domain

The New York Times uses WordPress for itsblogs, including the photojournalism blog Lens.

The WordPress “dashboard” makes it easy tomanage comments.

HOW TO USE YOUR BLOG Whichever blogging platform you use, it should be fast and easy to:  Write and upload new posts  Edit or update posts  Moderate comments  Register users  Eliminate spam

BEST PRACTICES & TIPS  A blog post should not be the same as a news article  Comments must be read by the blog’s author  Some (not all) comments deserve a reply  “Broken windows” invite vandalism  Your blog readers are a great resource; don’t waste it

MICRO SITES & WORDPRESSWordPress can also be usedto quickly deploy a “micro site”to aggregate all coverageof a big breaking story ora long-term ongoing issue.(It’s not just for blogs.)

WordPress site about U.S. prisons, produced by graduatestudents in journalism at the University of California, Berkeley.

A story page from the WordPress site “Behind Bars,”demonstrates flexibility in page layouts.

The “Behind Bars” site about U.S. prisons includes a variety ofinteractive features, like this annotated photograph.

OTHER OPTIONSMicro sites are often built with:  Drupal  Joomla  WordPressEach has its own advantages anddisadvantages.

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 3

by Mindy McAdams

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