Guests from NPR and New Hampshire Public Radio share their tactics and tips for live blogging, live chatting and live tweeting.

1. How to Live-Blog
(Chat, Tweet…) the
Election
October 11, 2012

2. Guests:
Erica Ryan
Digital Editor, Elections Unit
NPR
@EricaLRyan
Brady Carlson
Host, ATC, Social Media
New Hampshire Public Radio
@BradyCarlson
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3. Submit questions and share
live blog/chat/social media
examples on the right 
Or email: tgorman@npr.org

4. Erica Ryan NPR
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5. Erica Ryan NPR
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6. Three kinds of live blogs
1. Live Chat
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7. Three kinds of live blogs
1. Live Chat
2. River of News Live Blog
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8. Three kinds of live blogs
1. Live Chat
2. River of News Live Blog
3. “Lazy River” of News Live Blog
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9. What do I need to run a live blog?
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10. What do I need to run a live blog?
1. A host or lead blogger
2. Guests (if doing a live chat)
3. Backup!
4. An audience
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11. What can be prepared ahead of time?
Photo via CC, Roger H. Goun
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12. What can be prepared ahead of time?
Advance notice:
1. Solicit questions from audience
2. Prepare basic background information
3. Gather source links together
4. Set up social media and news feeds you’ll follow
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13. What can be prepared ahead of time?
Breaking news:
 Make sure you know how to use your tools
 Go for it
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14. Live
Our goal:
Share what we learn,
as we learn it
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15. NHPR Live Events: What do we do?
 Bring our audiences into the center of the news
 Represent the broader social media conversation
 Promote information sharing and discussion
 Helps us work toward our mission:
“to create a more informed public”
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16. How do you prepare for live online coverage?
 Ongoing preproduction meetings, to coordinate on-
air, online and technical teams
 Give your online coverage a focus
• Website: live results, blog posts from the field
• Social media: aggregating real time coverage and conversation
 Define digital roles
• Social media host
• Web manager
• Photo editor
• Blog editor
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17. How do you prepare for live online coverage?
 Engage audiences BEFORE election night starts
• Promote on air and online
• Voter experiences
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18. How do you prepare for live online coverage?
 Coordinate on-air and online
• Internal chat between hosts, reporters, producers, digital staff
• Work out language about hashtags and platforms
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19. During the live event: best practices
 Be the host of your social media channel
• Share what we know as it comes in, from the basics…
• …to news from the field
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20. During the live event: best practices
 Inform…
 But also engage:
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21. During the live event: best practices
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22. During the live event: best practices
 As you wrap up, offer space for audience to keep talking:
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23. Measurement and feedback
 Still learning what to measure:
• Pageviews?
• Live stream connections?
• New followers?
• New posts?
• Retweets?
• Emails or comments from listeners?
• Intangibles?
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24. Is it worth it? Totally.
1. We can be where people are and serve them.
2. We can collaborate with listeners/followers and help
each other become better informed.
3. It’s a lot of fun.*
*almost always
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25. Live
Questions?
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