Streamlining Python Development: A Guide to a Modern Project Setup
Beginning social media
1. Beginning social media
Basic Twitter lingo to tools that will increase
your efficiency, learn how to build a Twitter
community that helps you do your job
better. Plus, tips for interaction and
developing your voice online
2. Why should I care about this?
• Engagement is a two-way street.
• People are publishing their own stories. It’s a
virtual town square.
• Because news is not an island of the same
sources.
• Broadcasting vs. harnessing the power of the
crowd to find the real stories.
• Joplin tornado disaster. Nashville flooding.
3. Tweet speak.
• RT: retweet
• MT: Modified tweet
• Reply: If start tweet with @twittername, only
visible to people who follow you and person
you’re replying to.
• Mention: Use someone’s Twitter handle as
their name. Add period or text if mentioning
to make visible to all your followers.
5. Reporting from the field
• Live tweeting (live note-taking)
• Anecdotes (even if it doesn’t make actual
story)
• Photos
• Fast-breaking information
• Start finding sources by putting out call
6. Good journo tweeter
@BrianStelter Why he’s good:
• Clear bio and contact info
• Retweets: some giving
insight, others with good
information
• Responds to questions
• Asks readers questions
• He follows around 2,000,
but approx. 85,000 follow
7. Good local tweeter
@ norahcarroll Why she’s good
• Clear bio that shows
personality beyond job.
• Focus on what she usually
tweets about (tech, Des
Moines, running)
• Responds, makes effort to
connect IRL
• Links out, gives narration of
links rather than just
headlines
8. Facebook.
• Facebook.com/search
shows public posts.
• Subscribe: People can
subscribe to your
public updates.
• To allow, click
subscription link under
your profile photo.
Click to allow **To post to subscribers, posts
subscriptions. must be public.
9. Why engage?
• Build a community of tipsters/sources
• Find the BEST sources
• Listen in on what people are talking about
• Build loyalty
• Transparency.
10. Best practices: engage
• Respond to questions.
• Don’t fight over Twitter or
Facebook: contact directly
if escalates. (don’t feed
trolls.)
• Boost engagement by
asking a question or for
feedback.
• Acknowledge tips
publicly, thank those who
help
11. Best practices for hearing/being heard
• Follow people on your beat and in the area.
• Organize by using public or private lists.
• Listorious.com
• When you respond and engage, your
followers and community of sources will be
likely to respond and engage: the ‘golden rule’
of Twitter.
• Retweet.
12. Social media tips from Facebook
• Include a question or ask for feedback: 64
percent increase in engagement.
• 5 line text with post gets 60 % more
engagement, 4 line text gets 30 percent more
engagement.
• Spike times: 7 & 8 am, 10 am, 4 & 5 pm, 12 &
2 am.
13. How to not be a robot
•Don’t just publish links with
headlines
•Be personable
•Engage strangers
•Interact with people who reach
out to you
•Do what your mom says: Just be
yourself
14. How to develop your voice
• Decide what you’ll tweet about
• Be multidimensional, but have a focus
• Clearly state your focus in your profile
• Attach a face to that handle
• Be consistent with tone and topic
• Retweet those like you (even if they’re linking
to something that’s not our content).
15. Social media ethics
• Hold tweets to same standard as
blogging for accuracy and ethics
• Don’t RT unvalidated rumors
• Keep your B.S. detector on
• Correct mistakes in tweets, contact
those who have retweeted with
correct information.
• Same journalism, different medium.
16. How to make social media work for
you:
• Build a habit of checking in and
tweeting in outlook
• Organize by scanning lists.
• Hootsuite shortens, gives
insights and schedules posts
• Ask your follower community
for help and input with stories.
• Set up text alerts from key
sources.
