SOCIAL MEDIAA GUIDE FOR JOURNALISTSPART 2 OF 4

TODAY’S* TOP SM TOOLSTwitterTumblrPinterestStorify

InstagramYouTubeWordPressFacebook

* This list will change

TWITTERIdentity of the Twitter account: Does it represent you, alone, as a reporter? Is it for a regularly scheduled news program? Is it for the entire news organization?

Choose one identity, not more.Be consistent with this identity.

Left: Anderson Cooper 360° (CNN news program) Right: Anderson Cooper (personal tweets by the journalist)

MASTERING TWITTER Communicate within the 140-character

limit Search and find Twitter feeds by name,

topic, or hashtag (#) Choose Twitter feeds to follow (curation) Create Twitter lists (also curation) Learn the art of the retweet (RT) Learn the difference between replies and

DMs (direct messages)

HASHTAGSAny Twitter user can make a hashtagAdd # before a word (no spaces and no punctuation)Create an impromptu grouping or collectionExamples:#opennews (The Guardian)#asknyt (The New York Times)

TWITTER FOR JOURNALISTSUses of the Twitter account: Ask for comments and feedback from audience Follow fellow journalists Follow sources (monitor what they’re

discussing; discover trends) Share links to news content Tweet breaking news updates

Which of these are consistent with the account’s identity?

TUMBLRMany of the best Tumblr blogs emphasize photography and keep the text brief.

Example post: SI Photo Blog on Tumblr (siphotos.tumblr.com)

Example post: NPR on Tumblr (npr.tumblr.com)

Tumblr on the iPhone: A stream of interesting things

The Tumblr app has been downloaded more than 1 million times on Android (iPhone numbers not available).

Example: The Economist on Tumblr (theeconomist.tumblr.com)

Source: Mashable.com (November 2011)

TUMBLR IN A NUTSHELLTumblr users are rebloggers: They will spread your content (and your links). Tags are very important: Many Tumblr users subscribe to tags. It’s not a full-scale blogging platform like WordPress.

BEST USES FOR JOURNALISTS (re)Broadcast your own content

News organization Program Topic (e.g. Singapore)

Subscribe and follow Tumblr blogs to get ideas, see what’s being reblogged

Use Tumblr as a clip file for ideas Create your own tags to improve

usefulness

“Tumblr is the 25th most popular site in Singapore based on a combination of average daily visitors and pageviews.”

“Tumblr is

—Alexa Traffic Rank, March 9, 2012

SOME GREAT TUMBLR BLOGSsoupsoup.tumblr.com (Reuters)life.tumblr.com (photography)shortformblog.com (news)links.laughingsquid.com (weird & fun)theeconomist.tumblr.com (news)fotojournalismus.tumblr.com (photo)

Still in the “invite only” phase, Pinterest beat Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube combined for traffic referrals in February 2012.It also beat Twitter.

PINTEREST

Findings based on aggregated data from more than 200,000 publishers that reach more than 270 million unique monthly visitors each month.

Pinterest is perfect for eye-catching visuals

Similar to Tumblr: “Repin” on Pinterest

All your Pinterest “boards” are listed when you start to repin

Repinned content cites the original source (top)

The link from the original “pin” is preserved

WHY CARE ABOUT PINTEREST? Female: 68.2% of Pinterest users are

women Well off: 28% of users have annual

household income of US$100k+ Young: 27.4% are ages 25 to 34

Pinterest 15.8 minutesYouTube 16.4 minutesFacebook 12.1 minutesTwitter 3.3 minutes

Average Time Spent on Site

Source: mashable.com

PINTEREST PROS AND CONS

ProsAddictive: Users like to spend a lot of

time on the siteLots of repinning: Users can spread your

content far and wideHuge increase in referrals from Pinterest

prove that people do go to the original (your content, your site)

PINTEREST PROS AND CONS

ConsIt’s the hot new thing; it may fizzle outThe visual bias is even more dominant

than on TumblrIt may be better suited to product

advertising: popular categories include home decor, DIY and gifts

PINTEREST TIPS Don’t fight the visual bias. Choose a

really good visual (make sure it’s on the content page).

Write a short, interesting caption. Make people want to know more (so they will click).

Play like everyone else: Repin!

WHO’S PINNING YOUR STUFF?You can check and see:http://pinterest.com/source/nytimes.com/

COPYRIGHT AND PINTERESTEven though images link back to the original site, this kind of re-use does appear to violate copyright laws.

COPYRIGHT AND PINTERESTEven though images link back to the original site, this kind of re-use does violate copyright laws.

Pinterest has an online form for reporting any copyright violation.

COPYRIGHT AND PINTERESTEven though images link back to the original site, this kind of re-use does violate copyright laws.Pinterest has a form for reporting any copyright violation.For news organizations, any desire to prosecute copyright violations should be weighed against the value of referral traffic.

“I would say Pinterest is more of an ‘evergreen’ social network than some of the others. Once you pin something, it’s there for a long time. I find that, as a journalist, I pin things there that will still be interesting days or weeks later. This isn’t necessarily true of Twitter or Facebook, that are more in the moment.”

—Rubina Madan Fillion,graphics editor, The Wall Street Journal

PINTEREST TIP People can follow you (your profile) Or they can choose to follow only

one of your “pinboards” … Or just the specific pinboards they

like (instead of users + all of their pinboards)

(You can do the same)

USA Today (daily newspaper) has 15 pinboards.

WARNING: Pinterest can be very addictive.

SOCIAL MEDIAPresentation by Mindy McAdamsUniversity of Florida, USAmmcadams@jou.ufl.edu

Keep up on the latest news and tips about social media and journalists:http://www.scoop.it/t/social-media-and-journalists

Follow these sources on Twitter for updates on the social media universe:@NiemanLab

@mashable