Social Networks & Journalism: Beyond Facebook and Twitter

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BEYOND FACEBOOK AND TWITTER I. Which social networks should I be using & why? o Facebook  Getting started (http://www.facebook.com/journalist) • Pimp your page • Content is king • Consider publishing to Facebook as equally important as publishing to your website • Grow fans through contests  Use Facebook to crowdsource • Get “on the ground” info o Use Facebook “questions” or “polls”  Newsfeed becomes the Newsfeed • By commenting, tagging and frequent posting you become part of your fans newsfeed • “Mentioning” fans and organizations • Create events • Notes vs. wall posts  News orgs using Facebook • Patch.com • Minnesota Public Radio o Twitter  Twitter for Newsrooms (http://media.twitter.com/newsrooms/) • Trending hashtags for your area • Search.twitter.com o Search for keywords associated with your community, an event, news or your organization • Follow prolific Twitter users in your area • Create/use lists in your community • Networking • Conversations • Professional development by following those who share relevant links & information • Follow other news outlets, politicians, celebrities and local businesses/nonprofits/religious institutions/etc. o LinkedIn  Learning on LinkedIn (LinkedIn for Journalists) (http://learn.linkedin.com/journalists/)  Company searches


Learn vital statistics about companies, including employees who may be in or close to your network  Expertise searches • Look for authoritative individuals as knowledgeable sources for your story • Research your subjects before going to interview them  Employee searches • Find current and former employees. One way to get around the PR bureaucracy. YouTube  Reporters Center: a great source for professional development (http://www.youtube.com/user/reporterscenter)  Posting videos of your community • Headline writing is key • Use playlists for regular video features • Use tags • Use location • Consider uploading closed captioning for the hearing impaired Google+  Waiting to be seen, but with more than 20 million users it’s bound to be a great source for sharing and delivering news and information. • Circles  segregate posts and updates for their niche audiences? • Huddles  staff meetings? • Spark  saved searches by interest area, could be a key area to tap into? Flickr  Understanding permissions/attribution (http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/)  Flickr groups  Using Flickr as a source of photos • Find photos when news breaks • Finding photos from your community o Tap the power of social by promoting local photographers  Sharing your organization’s photos/promoting the sale of photos Del.ico.us  Social bookmarking allows you to share with others and search others’ bookmarks  Research tool • Save and tag virtually anything on the Internet •

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