This document provides guidance on using social media to identify and track communities for reporting purposes. It discusses using tools like Twitter searches, lists, and Reddit to find story ideas, sources, and track conversations. Specific subreddits for different locations are listed as examples. Attendees are assigned to search social media and email one story idea found to a provided address by the end of the week. The document emphasizes that while most of what is found on Reddit may not be newsworthy, checking community pages can surface gems and get reporters ahead of emerging news.

1. How to Identify and
Track Your Social
Community
July 2013

2. 2
What’s the top news story
happening locally this
week?
Describe in the chat box
While We Wait

3. 3
Previously on #NPRKnight
• Getting to know your audience with analytics
• Headline writing
• Web writing
• Your daily workflow
• Visual storytelling
• Finding images, videos and stories you need
• Making the most of Facebook.

4. 4
Don’t Forget: Twitter Contest
1) Create a public Twitter list. Tweet a link to it to
#NPRKnight.
2) Tweet a photo from in your newsroom or in the
field while reporting to #NPRKnight
3) Tweet the story idea you find for week 2 of the
social media training's assignment to #NPRKnight
4) Tweet a link to a story from another station that is
in the #NPRKnight training that you find interesting.

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Don’t Forget: Twitter Contest

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Social Media: Week 2
http://bit.ly/summer13guide

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Social Media: Week 2
• Distribution: Sharing your stories as a
station or an individual
• Reporting: Finding story ideas and sources
from your social media community
• Creation: Create stories that people want to
share

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Why? It Can Be a Valuable Tool
For…
• Finding sources for your stories.
• Finding story ideas early on.
• Tracking and connecting with your
community.
• Following breaking news.

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Twitter Search

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Twitter Search
• Twitter is a powerful search tool that
can be used to find out what people
are saying about pretty much anything.
• Use twitter.com/search just like you
would Google.com.
• Perfect for live and breaking news
situations.

11. 11
Live Demo

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Twitter Lists

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Twitter Lists
• Lists are a way to organize people on
Twitter by topics and categories.
• For example, if you covered fracking in
Pennsylvania, you could create a list
of officials, journalists and
newsmakers tied to fracking.

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Demo

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Reddit

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What is Reddit?
• It’s a huge online community made up
of many smaller communities.
• People can ask questions, post
images and post links.
• It’s a good way of getting the pulse of
the Internet at any given moment.

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What is Reddit?

18. 18
What is Reddit?

19. 19
What is Reddit?

20. 20
What is Reddit?

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What is Reddit?
www.reddit.com/r/austin

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What is Reddit?

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What is Reddit?

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What is Reddit?
• There is a lot of everything on Reddit and most of
what you see will likely not be of journalistic value to
you. But there are gems that can lead to story ideas
and news tips.
• By monitoring and searching specific Reddit
communities, you can get in front of news and find out
what’s buzzing.
• You don’t need to check Reddit constantly, but looking
around specific communities once or twice throughout
the day (or when breaking news is happening) is
worthwhile.

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What You Might Find
www.reddit.com/r/boise
www.reddit.com/r/albuquerque
www.reddit.com/r/westvirginia
www.reddit.com/r/pacificnorthwest
www.reddit.com/r/kentucky
www.reddit.com/r/northcarolina
www.reddit.com/r/indiana
www.reddit.com/r/indianapolis
www.reddit.com/r/connecticut
www.reddit.com/r/wisconsin
Search here: http://www.reddit.com/reddits/search

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Demo

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Other Search Tools
Facebook Search
LinkedI
n

28. 28
What About Photos and
Videos?
http://bit.ly/search-video-nprknight

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Assignment
• Find one story idea by searching social
media.
• Search around on Twitter, Facebook,
LinkedIn, Reddit and YouTube.
• E-mail your story idea and how and where
you found it to dseditorial@npr.org by end of
day Thursday.
• Go here: http://bit.ly/social-assignment

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Assignment
Briana O’Higgins, KMUWBriana O’Higgins, KMUW

31. 31
Assignment
Briana O’Higgins, KMUW

32. 32
Assignment
Briana O’Higgins, KMUW

33. 33
Don’t Forget: Twitter Contest
1) Create a public Twitter list. Tweet a link to it to
@NPRKnight.
2) Tweet a photo from in your newsroom or in the
field while reporting to #NPRKnight
3) Tweet the story idea you find for week 2 of the
social media training's assignment to
#NPRKnight
4) Tweet a link to a story from another station that is
in the #NPRKnight training that you find interesting.

34. 34
Questions
?