Live tweeting tips & tricks

✤ Pick the right event

✤ Tweet the right amount (I’ll explain)

✤ Be interactive/responsive

✤ Use hashtags (correctly)

✤ Focus on analysis, rich content over play-by-play

Your live-tweeting assignment

✤ You pick the event. Must be a live event (though it can be off of a broadcast). Doesn’t have to be related to your blog

✤ Each original tweet about your event = 10 percentage points

✤ It is OK to do more than 10 original tweets, but you won’t get graded for more.

✤ Must use a hashtag relevant to your event, plus #j334

✤ We will critique in class

✤ Email the text of your tweets to j334UT@gmail.com

Addie Broyles on ThursdayEveryone: Submit at least one question on the J334 Tumblr comments for Addie

‘Personal’ accounts

✤ There is no such thing as a truly personal account for a journalist

✤ If you plan to (or are asked to) use it for work, mix of personal and professional is OK, even desirable.

✤ Be helpful, informative ... basically, a journalist

✤ ... but also be a real person

The tools

✤ More broadcast than engaging: Twitter

✤ More engaging than broadcast: Facebook

✤ A mix of the two: Google Plus

✤ Other, less obvious social media (YouTube, story/blog comments/reviews

✤ Link sharing (Fark, StumbleUpon, Digg, etc)

✤ Location-based services (Foursquare, Gowalla, Twitter & FB)

Twitter

✤ News-oriented medium (people expect informative content)

✤ Very mobile, open platform (many third-party apps)

✤ Very searchable - Twitter.com is a content gold mine for searching - find users, text, photos and video

✤ Half as many users as Facebook (at least), but most don’t lock down their content (default is to be open)

✤ Thought-leaders/celebrities are sort of accessible

✤ International events gain traction here

What to do in the Twitterverse

✤ Install Tweetdeck on your computer, Twitter app on your phone

✤ Set up lists of media/people on your beat

✤ Explore the search function on Twitter.com and within Tweetdeck

✤ Join conversations - think of it as a cocktail party - LISTEN, then join in with added information/useful content

✤ Follow people back - and follow people who are in your beat. @ reply them, retweet them, thank them for retweets (privately and publicly).

✤ Not every update has to include a link. Share a little about you

Facebook

✤ More personable, personal medium

✤ Less open than Twitter, but check out http://openstatussearch.com/

✤ 750 million users. Yes, gaining on 1 billion. Holy crap

✤ About half of those users access it on a mobile, through text messaging or Facebook’s official mobile app

✤ Brands generally buy their fans through FB’s massive ad network

✤ Drives a lot of traffic, but mostly organically (like buttons)

What to do on the Facebook

✤ Beat Facebook’s “top stories” algorithm by pushing for interaction

✤ If you have the money, FB ads are effective

✤ Be sure you content is really easy to share on FB

✤ Ask questions, use the poll tool

✤ Create a fan page for yourself (I have)

✤ Join or create social media/journalism groups on FB

Sept. 13, 2011

Ethics in the New WorldMultimedia Journalism 334 - University of Texas - Robert Quigley

Discussion for class

✤ What are some ethical considerations when using social media?

✤ Should journalists be able to have private accounts?

✤ Should journalists voice their opinions about their beat?

✤ What about stuff outside of their beat?

✤ Is mentioning that you love Torchy’s Tacos seen as a free ad?

✤ Should journalists friend partisans? How about join Facebook groups?