The document discusses spreadable media and how content is shared online through social networks and platforms like Twitter and Facebook. It provides tips on using hashtags, geotagging, shortlinks and widgets to help disseminate content. Key advice includes listening first before sharing valuable content to build connections and engage audiences.

1. Module 2: Spreadable Media

2. What is spreadable media? Henry Jenkins* coins the phrase spreadable media – to challenge the metaphor of viral media. Viral = connotation is an infection or contagion you involuntarily give to others Spreadable = media you find compelling and consciously make a choice to pass on to others via links, posts, social networks, microblogging, sharing widgets. Motivated circulation from the grassroots level. * Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts, USC Annenberg School for Communication

3. Spreadable media Power of word-of-mouse: Aggregators, curators, filters, communicators, evangelizers, influencers, messaging mavens, content spreaders, gossip-mongers, antagonizers, community organizers. “ Earned media” - Content is shared voluntarily through email, chat, linking, blogs, forums and social networks (as opposed to paid media eg print ads, billboards, TVCs) Pass-along value – News deemed of value to tell a friend, a relative, a follower, a fan. It has some contextual meaning – funny, political, geographical, historical, societal. “Do your best, link to the rest.”

4. 2.Connect 1.Listen 3.Add Value 4.Measure

5. Spreadable media: Connect + value

6. What’s next… 10 tips on Google Alerts RSS Short Links Twitter Tagging, hashtags Geotagging Social bookmarking Sharing widgets 8 tips on Facebook

7. Google

8. 10 Google Tips Capitalization and quotation marks: Google searches are NOT case sensitive. Searches for najib razak, Najib Razak , and nAjiB rAzaK will all return the same results. Use “quotes” or + or - sign to include/exclude words. Eg: “rotary ampang”, rotary +ampang, rotary -ampang 2. Limit to .my sites Example 1: “church arson” site:my Example 2: “najib razak” site: gov.my Either OR. If you want to include either this or that in result list, use the OR operator ( must be upper-case ): Example: rosmah OR najib site:my (Leave out the OR, Google returns pages that include both terms)

9. Try searching News, Images, Blogs Finding specific Filetypes Go to Google > Advanced Search. Try finding Acrobat (pdf), Powerpoint (pps), Word (doc) Excel spreadsheet (xls) files. Eg: filetype:xls site:bnm.gov.my Older stuff and newer stuff Old: Try Google Cached, or www.archive.org New: Enter keyword, click Search, More, Updates Find definitions, synonyms eg: define:dodecagon eg: ~ (tilde and keyword) or use synonym.com

10. Tools: Calculator, Dictionary, Metric/Currency Conversion Eg 1: 233 square feet in square meter OR 233 sq ft =? sq m Eg 2: define: dodecagon Eg 3: currency of Brazil in Malaysian money Eg 4: 3.578 USD in MYR Eg 5: 5.6 million British pounds in MYR Eg 6: half a cup in teaspoons Showtimes Eg: movie: inception (Change Location) Phonebook Eg: Brad, Pitt, LA OR rphonebook: Brad Pitt LA Bonus: Check flight status by typing flight code eg: mh 123

11. Google: What’s new at Google Real-Time Search Google Goggles Google Social Search Google “Near me now” Google Trends Google Fast Flip Google Wave Google Buzz Google Voice

12. Monitor keywords using Alerts Monitor specific keyword with Alerts Get an email everytime someone mentions a company, a personality, a subject matter, anything that interests you. Popular alert services: Google Alerts: http://www.google.com/alerts Yahoo Alerts: http://alerts.yahoo.com Twitter alerts: http://www.tweetalarm.com

13. RSS Rich Site Summary/Really Simple Syndication is a method to syndicate your web content out to users. RSS feeds benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from their favourite blogs or websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. Most blog software generates an automatic RSS feed for others to “subscribe” to that blog. Subscribers can use a dedicated software called an RSS reader to scan updates quickly. Popular web-based RSS readers: Google Reader, Bloglines, Netvibes. You can use iGoogle to build your own homepage of RSS feeds.

14. Using RSS 1. Monitor News: http://thestar.com.my/rss/ http://www.cnn.com/services/rss/ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/help/3223484.stm 2. Monitor Press Releases: Intel: http://www.intel.com/intel/rss.htm IBM: http://www-1.ibm.com/services/us/igs/rss/rss.html Dell: http://www.dell.com/RSS/ 3. Monitor Blogs: http://www.tonyfernandesblog.com/main.php?tempskin=_rss2 http://rockybru.blogspot.com/atom.xml http://www.kennysia.com/atom.xml

15. EXERCISE: RSS Aggregator Go to www.google.com/ig (If no Google account, sign up) Go to www.thestar.com.my/rss in another tab and copy RSS link of your choice by right clicking > Copy Link Location. Go back to igoogle.com, and click on Add gadgets (top right) Click “Add feed or gadget” (bottom left), paste RSS link (without http://) and click Add

17. Twitter in Plain English http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o Copyright: Lee and Sachi LeFever, Commoncraft

18. Twitter in action: Plane crash! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imDFSnklB0k

20. From Twitter to Front page

21. Twitter in action: Mumbai Attacks

22. 960 tweets/min

23. Power of Twitter: Breaking News

24. Would you trust a surgeon who tweeted your operation?

25. Tweeting what you eat

27. “ Water me, please!”

28. “ People relate to people, not companies,” Tony Hsieh, Zappos.com, Zappos.com: Shoevangelism

29. Case study: Zappos.com Free shipping, a 24/7 open call center, and 365-day return policy. Turned an e-commerce shoe site into a US$1B business in 10 years . Sold to Amazon.com Obsession with customer service, little advertising, organic word-of-mouth recommendations. Five weeks of employee training on culture, core values, customer service. Uses Twitter as communications channel.

34. How are journalists using Twitter Posting breaking news Monitoring newsmakers, early warning system Promoting stories Providing insider views in parliament, court, disasters, major events Doing interviews Researching trends Finding leads, tips, sources, angles, photos Posting on-site photos Community building, networking, tweetups Posting updates to drive traffic to primary website or blogs Connecting with editorial team Coordinating, updating decentralized teams Mentoring Work-related problem-solving Event planning Showing human side Purely social

35. Twitter: Basics Upload pic in Settings >Profile Set time and location in Settings > Account Set email notifications when someone follows you Post a tweet + shortlink using Bit.ly + hashtag Follow others Direct Message someone following you Re-Tweet (RT) a tweet Suggest people to follow (FF) Create a List (with description) Upload Pic and Tweet it using Twitpic. Upload a video using TwitVid or YFrog Link Tweets to Facebook status updates using Selective Tweets + #fb Search topics and Save the search Block spammers

36. Useful Twitter apps Twitter clients: Tweetdeck, Twitterfeed, Twitterrific, Twhirl, Seesmic, Ubertwitter, Hootsuite TweetAlarm: Put in a keyword and get emails when others tweet it. Twellow, Tweepsearch: Search for tweeple Twitpic, Tweetphoto: Post photos, captions Yfrog, Twitvid: Post videos Twapperkeeper: Archives tweets Tweetstats : Graphs your stats Spy: http://spy.appspot.com/

37. Twitter 101 A tweet is 140 characters long RT : re-tweet other tweets you think are worth repeating @username : used to reply to someone or engage in a conversation or as a hat tip. This a public tweet everyone can see. dm or d followed by space, then name of person: a direct (private) message with someone who follows you. #subject : hashtag used to refer to subject or topic of discussion.

38. Celebs on Twitter http://twitter.com/Jamie_Oliver http://twitter.com/ThatKevinSmith http://twitter.com/aplusk http://twitter.com/RyanSeacrest http://twitter.com/keshasuxx http://twitter.com/oprah http://twitter.com/QueenRania http://twitter.com/ladygaga http://twitter.com/JimCarrey http://twitter.com/BillGates http://.../andersoncooper http://.../kingsthings List: celebritytweet.com

39. Media on Twitter Media on Twitter: http://www.mediaontwitter.com/ Newspapers that Twitter: http://tinyurl.com/newstwits http://www.socialbrandindex.com/twitter/media Journalists on Twitter: http://muckrack.com/ LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/about/twitter/ List of Malaysian journalists: http://twitter.com/trinetizen/malaysian-journalists List of Malaysian media http://twitter.com/trinetizen/malaysian-media List of Malaysian politicians http://twitter.com/trinetizen/malaysian-politicians

40. Star branded Twitter followers Sample Audit: As of June 20, 2011 3,929 @dailychilli 5,518 @thestarmetro 10,701 @parenthots 9,825 @ecentralmy 14,965 @mystartwo 17,066 @starbizmy 217 (not updating) @otakuzone 1,531 @allmalaysia 244 (not updating) @thestarcontests 14,847 @thestar_rage 10 ((protected) @thestaronlinetv 1,238 @starproperty 1,811 @starintech 3,829 @galaxiemag 9,338 @mstaronline 74,764 @staronline

41. Star staff Twitter followers leaderboard Sample Audit: As of June 2011 191 @thoxinyi 176 @limweywen 192 @setokityan 859 @shahanaazhabib 11,950 @chunwai09 229 @ronaldbyrne 603 @boo_licious 319 @ianyee 125 @tankithoong 185 @kellygoh 394 @davinarul 266 @gyap 175 @klangred 534 @nasamaria 2,935 @saiwanstar 7,659 @nikicheong

42. #hashtags The Hash Tag aka Pound Symbol [#] is used to categorize tweets into topics, events, trends Hashtags are the Twitter equivalent of keywords. Search at http://search.twitter.com and you will find all the tagged tweets with matching words. For eg: #followfriday or #ff is used by a majority to spotlight individuals they consider worth following. Eg2: #haiti #haitiquake used during the Haiti quake, #ash used during Iceland volcano eruption Eg 3 #neda, #iranelection was used during last Iran elections

43. Iran: Neda

44. Warning: Explicit video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbdEf0QRsLM

45. Neda: Symbol of injustice in Iran

49. Neda’s impact Obama: “heartbreaking” Viral video: 4.6m views Trending topic hashtag: #neda Protesters: Young, urban, self-motivated and angry But armed with mobilephones and the power of social media

50. Twitter tips Listen: Follow popular tweeters first Lists: Set up your own lists Share: Find great stuff to share – use shortened links: tinyurl.com, bit.ly Be active! No one is interested if your last tweet was from several months ago Don’t hard sell: If you are plugging your own story, event, product, contest or service, say so

51. Watch out for spammers, scammers, porn pushers, virus attackers

52. Twictionary tweet: Posting on Twitter twitterer/tweeter: One who tweets re-tweet: Repeating someone else’s tweet eg: RT @trinetizen twitterati: Twitter + literati twitterverse: Twitter + universe twitterholic: One addicted to Twitter. twitterrhea: Posting inane stuff too often. twittermentia: Unable to remember last tweet tweetheart: One you may have a crush on

53. Exercise: Twitter Go to Twitter (set up account, if you don’t already have one) Create 140-character blurb with a short link of the most emailed story in The Star Online Find people or a list to follow Create a list Re-tweet another person’s tweet

54. Short links Helps reduce character space. Became popular with rise of Twitter Popular services: tinyurl.com, bit.ly Others: is.gd, snipurl.com, tr.im When posting a link, use Topsy.com to find out how popular/timely the link already is and whether your friends have already tweeted/posted it. 1. 2.

55. Exercise 2: Twitter Find a story in The Star, create a short link using http://bit.ly , tweet it in these voices: Professional Casual Commentary Quotable Inside story Funny

57. Tagging and tag clouds Tags help describe a piece of information and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching Exercise: Go to Wordle.net, create your own tag cloud using a story or a speech.Tip: Use tilde sign (~) for phrases Exercise: Go to Flickr and search photos via tags

58. Geotagging Adds geographical identification metadata to various media such as photographs, video, websites. Eg: Helps readers follow an event in real-time, locate restaurant reviewed, etc. Examples: http://emersoninbeijing.com/ http://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/map Nike Human Race

59. Bookmarking and sharing widgets Help your users share content everywhere. Generates traffic back. Increases site's ranking. Popular: StumbleUpon.com Digg.com Delicious.com ShareThis.com, AddThis.com Tweetmeme.com, Tweet This Facebook Like Button http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like

61. Set up Facebook account (if you haven’t already)

62. Journalism and Facebook Find leads : conversations and topics that intrigue you that you can turn into stories. Follow friends , companies, events, groups, fan pages. Solicit for ideas, sources, interview subjects, questions for upcoming interview subjects. Reach out to friends of friends - you never know when someone can connect you to what you are looking for.

63. Facebook: Basics Status Update Send a Message Post on Your Wall Like, Comment or Share Upload photo as a profile pic Create a photo album Upload a video Post a Note Tag a photo, video or Note Chat Create an Event Page Create a Fan Page Create a Group Privacy Settings

64. Searching Facebook in real-time Other methods: Bing.com/Social OneRiot.com (searchword site:facebook.com) FacePinch.com Youropenbook.org

65. Tips on Facebook Share: Be useful , offer tips, guides, timely information. Link to interesting stories. Be generous. Answer questions of those in need, don’t just take. Do promote your own stories, but provide some other value-add , this is not just a broadcast medium. Avoid shameless plugs on how wonderful you are. Be human : Show you care, be witty, disclose your personal interests, it helps to get to know you better.

66. Don’t overdo the silly things or clog up your wall with YouTube videos Start a page : Keep it public, you have option to kick out members Have two or three admins as backups for events/fan pages. Use apps to automate stuff, but don’t overdo it: Blogposts, Twitter updates (http://apps.facebook.com/selectivetwitter/) Tips on Facebook

67. A word of caution… Don’t sign up for every game/quiz and poke people constantly. Don’t post updates in anger and in spite. Nothing is private on Facebook. Your personal views are your own, preface that if you think it may offend your management. Do not disclose confidential information obtained through work that may bring the company into disrepute. Don’t undermine your effectiveness at work. “ Friending” should not be taken literally – but others may misconstrue this as being partisan or biased. Avoid racial, religious slurs and personal attacks. You are still a reporter 24/7: Verify facts, identify sources before passing along news. Make it clear if you are skeptical of veracity of information, if you are.

68. Exercise: Facebook Add a Note to your Profile Add photos, videos to your Wall Set up an Events page on Facebook Add photos, videos to an Event Tip: Pages vs Groups: Pages are better for a long-term relationships with your fans, readers or customers; Groups are better for hosting an active discussion and attracting quick attention. Community pages are for generic causes or topics. http://bit.ly/pagesvsgroups