Social media for journalists

What you need to know about Twitter, Facebook and blogs

to help you build your brand, find stories and sources,

and spread the word.

Future of Freelance | Staci Baird | June 2010

Secret to social media success

Use it!

Talk to other people about how they’re using it

Be yourself

Experiment

Soda - It’s all about branding

So what about your personal brand?

What makes you unique?

Designing your brand

4 components:

1.Target audience (who do you want to reach?)

2.Brand essence (mantra, Disney = Fun Family Entertainment)

3.Brand promise (your unique background, experience, voice)

4.Brand personality (sarcastic, humorous, serious)

Brand Aid | Brad VanAuken | BrandingStrategyInsider.com

4 stages to digital news

Gathering

Producing

Publishing

Promoting

Promotion

Search Engine Optimization - You want people to find your content!

You need links to your content

Stand out above the noise and competition

Social media plays an important role

Twitter - is it for you?• Twitter population

17 million Americans

25% are African American

55% female

45% 18-34

Crowd is slightly more geeky

What is it?

• Micro blogging short, frequent posts

• Sharing links and info

Meeting people with similar interests from all over the world

Promote your content

Twitter Usage In America: 2010 | Edison Research

Twitter cheat sheet

Download handout fromgirljournalist.com/social-media-for-journalists/

Twitter

• Each post can have a max of 140 characters

• Choose your words wisely

• Establish a "voice" that supports your brand

• Username/Bio

• Design - Forget about it

Get started!

• Setup

Username

Bio (160 characters)

• Follow 10 people today, 100 this week

• Spend 2 weeks listening, observing

• Get in the habit of checking it (make it part of your process)

Twitter as a tool for news gathering

• Search.Twitter.com

• Trending topics (hash tags #FFRL)

• Search for people (listen, observe)

• Connect with people who have similar interests

• Find sources (search names, look at their followers, who they’re following)

• Get in contact (@ or DM)

• Find story ideas - citizen journalists, trends/reports, interesting people

Facebook - is it for you?• Facebook population

103 million Americans (400 million users worldwide)

54% female

29% 35-54 (35+ audience is growing)

What is it?

Share photos and video

Join groups

Play social games

• Promote your content

Facebook Demographics and Statistics Report 2010 | iStrategyabs

Personal profile vs personality (brand) page

Personal profiles

Connect with ind. friends

Privacy controls

Personality pages

Connect with fans

Less personal content, still important to have a voice

Interact with fans

Getting the most out of your profile

• Profile info

• The basics: Name, bio

• Privacy settings: Custom controls

• Decide how much you're comfortable sharing

• What actions/content supports your brand image?

• Link to your personality (brand) page

Getting the most out of personality pages

You have to have a profile in order to setup a page

Include a photo, description and additional info (think keywords)

Update often by posting to the wall

Add photos, video if appropriate

• Use the Notes like a blog

• Link to revenant content (doesn’t have to be just your content)

Send an invite to all your friends to “Like” your page

Interact with fans - if they comment, write back

Managing and monitoring Facebook

Getting tagged

Setup alerts so you know when you’ve been tagged and you can remove if necessary

Friend requests

Create groups for managing permissions

Spam (set ground rules for your page’s wall)

The Facebook news feed

• Facebook News Feed Optimization (NFO)

Interaction is key

Write for the “Like”

Ask questions to encourage comments

Post frequent updates

Manage your own feed

Top News vs Most Recent

Hide (best feature ever!)Deconstructing Facebook’s EdgeRank | Chris

Sietsema

Facebook as a tool for gathering

• Facebook search tips

Basic search

Filter your search

• Check friends for contacts

• Don’t forget to search groups/pages

• Search Facebook via Google (sometimes more successful)

Linkedin, social media for grown-ups

• LinkedIn population

32 million Americans (66 million members worldwide)

37% 35-49, 31% 50+

51% male

50% are decision makers in their companies

What is it?

Resume/portfolio

Professional networking

• References and recommendations

Advertising for you and your workEverything you wanted to know about LinkedIn - statistics and trends 2010 | Global Recruiting Roundtable

Linking LINKEDIN

• Add your blog RSS feed

• Add your Twitter feed

• Embed slideshows using Slideshare

Linkedin groups

• Search for a pub you'd like to work for. Do you have any connections?

• Join a group

Post relevant links

Become an expert on a topic

Manage your social media profiles

and still have a life? Yes you can!

• You don't necessarily have to do it all

• What makes sense for your brand?

• Where is your audience?

• What's your goal?

• Make social media work for you!

• Cross-post content “automagially”

• Setup email alerts (for the most important updates)

• Develop a routine

• Spend 10-15 minutes reading

• Spend 10-15 minutes posting