Use the online tool "If This, Then That" (IFTTT) to automate your digital presence and supplement your reporting.

6. JUST A FEW OF THE CONNECTED CHANNELS:
• Bitly
• Blogger
• Buffer
• Date and Time Trigger
• Digg
• Email
• Email Digest
• Evernote
• Facebook
• Fitbit
• Flickr
• Foursquare
• Genius
• Google Assistant
• Google Contacts
• Google Drive
• Instagram
• LG Washer and Dryer
• LinkedIn
• Location: Android & iOS
• MailChimp
• Nike+
• NPR
• Photos: Android & iOS
• Pinterest
• RSS Feed
• Slack
• SMS
• Space
• Spotify
• Square
• Time
• Twitter
• Weather
• Wikipedia
• WordPress
• YouTube

7. COMMON RECIPES

8. ADD TWEETS WITH A SPECIFIC HASHTAG TO A
GOOGLE DOCS SPREADSHEET
! If you're monitoring a hashtag around a breaking news story or event, or even a
specific topic such as #journalism, it might be useful to collect all the tweets
featuring this hashtag in a spreadsheet to make sure you don't miss anything.
! If you've created a hashtag for a particular campaign or project you're working on,
such as the GEN's #HackEbola, this is also a good method for tracking mentions
and feedback.

9. GET A DAILY EMAIL SHOWING TWEETS POSTED
AROUND A PARTICULAR LOCATION
! Receiving a list of tweets by email might not offer real-time results in the way a
location search column on Tweetdeck does. However, when used in conjunction
with Tweetdeck, having a list of potentially relevant tweets to skim through when
you have a couple of minutes free is useful to make sure you haven’t missed
anything.
! This Recipe would be particularly useful for regional or hyperlocal reporters
monitoring a specific ‘patch’, or for any journalist monitoring information around a
large, localized event.

10. RECEIVE AN ALERT ON YOUR IOS DEVICE WHEN
A CERTAIN @USER TWEETS
! Get a notification on your mobile device (or email) whenever a particular user
tweets. Again, this would be particularly useful for journalists working remotely from
the office, when they may not have laptop with them, but still want to keep track of,
say, any tweets from key people or organizations connected to the story.

11. DUMP YOUR IDEAS (BY TEXT)
! Sometimes you get your best story ideas when you're rushing to be somewhere, or
having dinner with friends, or typically any time when it isn't convenient to stop and
write them down. Scraps of paper easily get misplaced, and the 'notes' function of
your smartphone can run wild if left unattended to.
! Text your brilliant idea to the specified number and it will be added to a spreadsheet
in your Google Drive.

12. GET AN EMAIL EVERY TIME THE PRESIDENT
SIGNS A NEW LAW
“Ignorance of the law is no excuse.”
! Email me promptly upon the president’s signature

13. GET TEXTS FOR SPECIFIC TRIGGERS
! The IFTTT SMS service can come in handy when you don’t have constant internet
access or if you don’t have a smartphone. Waiting for a really important email from
your boss? Your phone can tell you when it’s time to start searching for an internet
cafe. Simply set up a recipe: “If mail from bigboss@mycompany.com, then send me
an SMS”.
! Or you might have set up Google Alerts to send you an email when there are reports
of violence during elections you’re covering, but you don’t always have internet
access. You can set up the recipe: “If mail from Google Alerts, then send me an
SMS”.

14. LOG HOW MUCH TIME YOU SPEND AT HOME/
WORK/ETC.
! Every time you arrive/depart a specifically designated location (assuming you’re
carrying your location-enabled smartphone), a new row to a spreadsheet in Google
Drive is automatically created. Users can set the areas you want to log [home,
office, gym, etc.] — thus taking a big step toward the battle of proper time
management.

15. PERSONAL
• Receive a text message when the weather changes. While the default is set to
notify you of rain, you can change the trigger to use rain, snow, cloudy or clear. –
https://ifttt.com/recipes/48
• When you are tagged in a photo on Facebook, the image is sent to your
Dropbox. https://ifttt.com/recipes/1760
• Receive a text message from the NOAA Severe Weather service when there is bad
weather near you. – https://ifttt.com/recipes/23025
• Want an easy way to find your phone? Send an email to IFTTT and IFTTT will call
your phone to help you find it. –https://ifttt.com/recipes/68196

17. “DO” NOTES
• Quickly create events in Google Calendar
• Enter a description like "Meeting with Jonathan at 3:30 on June 10th" and the event
will be created on your calendar with the correct date and time. The more specific
your description is the better!
“DO” CAMERA
• Upload an image to Google Drive
• Save photos to a specific folder in Google Drive.