This document provides an overview and best practices for using various social media platforms for journalism. It discusses Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, and Pinterest. For each platform, it outlines the key features and provides examples of journalists using them effectively. The document also covers general social media best practices like posting daily, using hashtags and tagging people. It lists tools like TweetDeck and HootSuite for managing multiple accounts. Finally, it stresses the importance of personal branding and developing an online professional presence across one's website and social media profiles.

2. HELLO.
I’m @tarakutz
Today we will be discussing:
• Survey Results
• Platforms (overview)
• Best Practices
• Pro Tips (sharing time)
• Resources
• Personal Branding

3. SURVEY RESULTS

4. SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS
Twitter*
Tumblr
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Storify

5. TWITTER
Twitter is a MUST for journalists in 2013.
If you have any questions regarding the validity of this statement, we can
talk later.
“Twitter, when used properly, is like being in a room with
hundreds of the smartest and most influential people you
care to be around, and not only do you get to listen in on all
the clever conversations at once, without small talk, you can
butt in without being considered rude AND THEY MIGHT
ACTUALLY TALK TO YOU!”
- Emily Crockett 2/1/2013

6. TUMBLR
• Personal, behind-the-scenes feel
• Curate your clips (personal branding!)
• Works seamlessly with other platforms
• Follow publications, persons and more
• Multimedia features (GIFs!)
• GOOD EXAMPLES:
• Cord Jefferson
• Campus Progress

7. FACEBOOK
• Promote your content to your personal networks
• Decide what’s right for you
• Consider creating a “Page”
• Facebook + Journalists
• GOOD EXAMPLE:
• Amanda Terkel (journalist)
• Zach Wahls (not a journalist)

8. REDDIT
• “The front page of the Internet”
• Popular content gets voted up, goes viral
From DVWLR:
Why Visit Reddit?
Answer: interaction or entertainment, or both. It‟s like YouTube or Twitter in
that sense: you don‟t have to create content to enjoy the content.
Entertainment: read the stuff other people have created, posted, and voted
on.
Interaction: create content, vote on content, and talk to other people.

9. PINTEREST
• Great for curating and bookmarking visual content
• Infographics, typography, design concepts
• Think personal branding: build boards for the live reporting you do
• Perfect for photojournalists looking to share their work
• Use tags
• Get social: re-pin and like other pins, follow other
photojournalists/publications
• GOOD EXAMPLES:
• Think Progress
• READ: 5 Ways Journalists Can Use Pinterest

10. STORIFY
• Curate social media content to tell a social story
• Pull content from YouTube, Flickr, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter,
and more
• Great for live-coverage of events
• Good tool for engagement because you can notify people whose
content you include in your story
• GOOD EXAMPLES:
• Melissa Adan:Hip-Hop Video Model „Kat Stacks‟ Sheds
Persona, Supports the DREAM Act
• Election News, Millennials Choose– A Web Roundup

11. BEST PRACTICES
• Post content on a daily basis.
• Use link-shortening service like bit.ly
• Create an account for easy tracking and custom URLs
• Include relevant hashtags and target @ people for the majority of what
you post (twitter) and try to tag people or organizations when possible
for Facebook posts
• Don’t post solely content that you create; start engaging with other
journalists by retweeting/reblogging their stories
• Use your voice when appropriate; insert your opinion
• Engage with your sources and subjects
• GOOD EXAMPLE:
• Chris Lewis & @NickKristof
• Marc Peters & everybody

12. BEST PRACTICES (CONTINUED)
• Do your homework. Spend some time researching hashtags relevant to
your work
• USE LISTS!
• Engage influencers and audience using the info you gathered from
doing your homework
• Engage with comments* and conversations on social media and blogs
• *Remember to be respectful and professional in comments and include
links where possible
• Live-tweet issue related events
• Prepare a cheat sheet (aka “tweet sheet”)

13. PRO-TIPS
• Utilize the gchat status
• Be sure to use some sort of punctuation before tagging someone in a
tweet, otherwise only people who follow both of you will see it in their
feed
• Try to leave at least 10 characters at the end of your tweet so people
can retweet you
• It’s totally ok to use the button, but try to use the mention when
space allows
SHARE TIME: What are your pro-tips for social media?
NEXT UP: We’ll cover some other tools & resources

14. TOOLS & RESOURCES
• TweetDeck
• HootSuite
• If This Then That
• TweetReach
• MuckRack
• Facebook+Journalists

15. PERSONAL BRANDING

16. DEVELOPING A PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL
BRAND
• READ: The First Steps to Building Your Personal Brand (Forbes)
• SUBSCRIBE: MarketingProfs, Media Bistro
• Personal website and corresponding social media handles
• About.me
• LinkedIn
• EXAMPLE:
• Ann Friedman

17. THANK YOU!
Questions?