A starter guide to advanced searching with Google, using RSS to monitor, understanding Facebook, and making the most of Twitter as a journalist.

1. Your 'traditional'
social media toolkit
The old school tools in a new media space

2. Google the skill of searching
http://mashable.com/2011/11/24/google-search-infographic/

3. Task 4 Search for your story
Using Google.co.uk, begin searching for
information related to your story idea.

4. Google the skill of searching
Boolean search terms in Google
Phrase search ie. "Big society" Searches for the phrase rather than the two words.
SIngle word search ie. "bicycle" Searches for exact word, excluding synonyms.
Site search ie. site:walesonline.co.uk Searches only within that site.
File type search ie filetype:doc Searches only that type of file, including .xls, .pdf, .csv
AND search ie. welsh AND education Searches all pages with both words
OR search ie. wales OR welsh Searches all pages with either word.
Exclude word(s) search ie. Jazz -Utah -basketball Searches pages for jazz without the
words Utah or basketball.

5. Google Advanced Search
All the same tricks as Boolean, except in a form: Google.co.uk/advanced_search

6. Task 5 'Advance' search for a story
Using Google.co.uk, refine your search.
Either use Boolean search terms in the simple
search, or use Google.co.uk/advanced_search

7. Google Way more than a simple search engine
● Google tools
○ Google Reader your handmade wire service
○ Google Maps create your own maps
○ Google Documents publishable and shareable
documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms
○ Google Calendar online and shareable diary
○ Blogger a blog content management system (CMS)
○ YouTube a video sharing platform

8. What is an RSS feed? really simple syndication
RSS tells subscribers when a
strand of posts updates without you
having to visit the specific website.

9. Google Reader your handmade wire service
Allows you to take RSS feeds from news sites, blogs, web tools, etc. and organise
them into folders by category or community.

10. Where do you find these ?

11. Where do you find these ?

12. Where do you find these ?

13. How do you get them in a reader?
Subscribe
Search for a site or blog by typing in its name, OR
Copy and paste the RSS feed URL (ie. http://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/rss.xml)

14. Facebook The critical mass
Profiles show the personal and private culture
A person who shares
'status updates' and
photos,. They're often
'friends' with people
known to them. They
showcase personal
interests and history.
Everything about the
profile is about the
person, generally in a
personal, not
professional way.
Recent research
shows people spend
21% of their time on
other's profiles.

15. Facebook Let people 'subscribe' instead of 'friend'
The new 'subscribe' function
Subscribe lets the
public follow status
updates that you
designate on your
profile as public.

16. Facebook Spread your knowledge/content
The new 'subscribe' function
For example, NY Times media correspondent Brian Stelter has collected more
than 90,000 subscribers on his Facebook profile -- not page.

17. Facebook The critical mass
Pages show the professional and conversational culture
A page can show an
organisation, group
of people, business
or person, but does
this in a professional,
yet casual and
conversational way.
People with 'profiles'
can 'like' the page.
'Status updates'
appear in those
people's news feeds.

18. Facebook The critical mass
The 'newsfeed' stream of updates from 'friends' and 'likes'
The main feed of 'news',
which is the 'status updates'
of profiles of 'friends' and
pages of 'likes'. This is the
page people land on when
they login to Facebook.
However, recent research
shows people only spend
27% of their time in the
newsfeed.

19. Task 6 Are your communities using
Facebook?
Using the advertising
tool to assess
communities' size
1. Click on 'Adverts' in left
column. Located under Apps.
2. Click on 'Create an advert' in
upper right corner.
3. Scroll down to Step 2
'Targeting'.
4. Try entering different criteria
to narrow down 'Estimated
reach' in the upper right corner.
5. Use 'estimated reach' to
predict whether your community
is using Facebook.

20. Task 7 Search for your story
Using Google Advanced Search to find pages, notes, events, etc.
1. Go to Google.co.uk/advanced_search
2. Scroll down to 'Then narrow your results by...' to the 'site or domain' field
3. Type in 'facebook.com/'. Followed with 'event', 'notes' or 'pages' to narrow.
4. Scroll back up to designate keywords, then search.
Profiles and groups tend to be more difficult to search because of privacy settings.

21. Twitter The hacks, flacks, wackos, politicos + some regular joes...
The most public and immediate
social media space online.

22. Twitter The hacks, flacks, wackos, politicos + some regular joes...
Plus another 140 million
active Twitter users.

23. Twitter How people use it
http://blog.tweetsmarter.com/twitter-stats/who-uses-twitter-and-how%E2%80%942011-stats-infographic/

24. Task 8 Search for your story
Use the 'search' field to enter keywords around your story.

25. Task 8 Keep searching...
Results yield 'People' and 'Tweets'. Always switch to 'All'
from 'Top' tweets, which is the default.

26. Task 8 Switch to advanced search
Click on the cog button next to the search field. Then select
'Advanced Search'.

27. Task 8 Switch to advanced search
Same principles of
Google searching
apply to Twitter.
Use 'Advanced
Search' to hone in
on issues, trends,
and people.
● Intercept @
messages to
other people.
● Search by
radius of cities.

28. Tweets NOT on Twitter Topsy
Twitter's search
will only find
tweets so far
back. To gain a
historical
perspective, use
Topsy.com to
search for older
Tweets.

29. Twitter speak Tweet typology
Statement tweet goes into the
timeline of all your followers.
Reply This tweet would be
flagged up to @pollycurtis, and
only appear in the timeline of all
of @ITVLauraK's followers who
also follow @pollycurtis.
Mention This tweet goes to all my
followers, and will be flagged up to
@davidhiggerson.
Retweet or RT This tweet was
in @fieldproducer's timeline and
he added commentary, then
forwarded it to all his followers.
Direct message or DM This
message is private, visible only
to @chaptertweets.

30. Twitter speak Tweet typology, cont.
Photo tweet Links to image; full Video tweet Links to video; full
photo visible in Twitter.com. video watchable in Twitter.com.

31. What exactly is a hashtag?
A word or phrase without spaces preceded with
the hash symbol.
For example...
#bbcqt
By adding the hash, Twitter links a search to all
tweets using the hashtag.

32. Can I make a hashtag?
Probably not.
● Hashtags are not usernames, like @joniayn.
● We can name ourselves, but not always the
topics, trends and events up for discussion.
But, you can find out if there is a hashtag.

33. Task 9 Does your story have a hashtag?
Using the advanced search tool on Twitter.
com, find out if there are any existing
hashtags related to your story.

34. Why use a hashtag?
● Find relevant people and information.
● Join conversations with people you don't
know who don't follow you.
● Spread your work and reputation to new
people.
● Build your followers and extend the reach of
your content.

35. BUT, hashtags are not for every tweet
● Don't put a hash symbol in front of every
keyword.
● Don't make up a hashtag if...
○ the tweet is a one off on a topic, issue or event
○ you haven't ruled out that a hashtag already exists
○ the topic is unlikely to gain momentum in
conversation and debate

36. Trustworthy tweets
Look closely before believing a tweet.

37. Verifying tweets top tips
1. Check the timestamp Keep scrolling back through
tweets to find out where the original source is from.
2. Contextual tweets Look at the Twitter user's profile
page to see their other tweets.
3. Number of past tweets Be weary if this is the Twitter
users first few tweets.
4. Google them Where else are they on the web? Does
this look like a real person?
5. Check for related tweets Are other Twitter users
saying similar things independent of this user.
6. Ask them what they know Tweet @ the user to
follow up questions.
A journalist's guide to verifying images
http://ijnet.org/stories/journalists-guide-verifying-images

38. Making a list curating a community
Step 1 Go to your lists

39. Making a list curating a community
Step 2 Create a new list

40. Making a list curating a community
Step 3 Name and describe your list.
Make it public or private.

41. Making a list curating a community
Step 4 Find people to add to your list

42. Task 10 Curate a list for your story
Find at least five Twitter users to curate.

43. Twitter clients
A piece of third-party software that allows you to use
your Twitter feed(s) in a more sophisticated way.
Personal favourite: Hootsuite.com
Top 20 Twitter Clients being used in 2012
http://windmillnetworking.com/2012/01/31/top-20-twitter-clients-2012/

44. 1 hour for lunch...
Then a tour of the 'new' tools in the kit +
Reporting with social media