Social media basics for journalists
This was a presentation I gave to George Hoff’s multi-platform journalism class at Centennial College. For all of you who are already blogging, tweeting and Facebooking (or Linked-inning) this is old-hat. But for the journalism newbie, students, etc. this might be useful.
Blogs, Facebook, Twitter: Using social media as a journalist
Most journalists should be active in one or more social media tools. Not only because of the benefits but at least to understand how these tools work and how they can be used in journalism.
Personally I use these social media tools to generate story ideas, improve my profile, gain exposure, network and gather news.
1. Blogs
Probably the most time-consuming but the one that has the most potential reward. I’ve listed some great examples of journalists who use blogs to great effect.
Former communities editor Globe & Mail, now at tech blog GigaOm. Mathew was a great advocate for social media/web 2.0 at Globe. He’s now at the frontline of tech reporting with GigaOm.
Canwest Parliamentary correspondent, uses social media to enhance day-to-day work. Note how David has used Twitter, Facebook, etc. on his blog to give you a sense of how active he is on social media.
Corey’s blog is very off-the-cuff but gives his readers great personal insights into his process, outtakes from his column. It shows off his personality, and creates a great relationship with his readers.
What do these blogs all have in common? They extend a personal brand, they give you more insight into the person behind the work, it’s a platform for writing, ideas, stories that might not fit in a traditional media format (newspapers, magazines, wire stories, etc.
Blogs and traditional media
Blogs do things well that traditional media don’t: opinion, curation, aggregation. It’s why we at the Post really like them. We probably run 10+ blogs. Here are a few examples from the Post.
A blog that’s home for our opinions/columnists/editorials. Started because the Post saw a gap in right-wing commentary/blogging in Canada. As a result Full Comment has become very popular among this comunity. The blog gets lots of comments, thousands of page views a day. More importantly, we’ve got tons of buy in from our more senior writers AND younger writers.
Our news blog lets us experiment and do things and chase stories that we wouldn’t traditionally be able to do. Our blog is a lot less rigid than our normal story pages, so we can do things like embed videos and maps, add more links, images, etc. Also, it’s a good repository for off-kilter stories non-traditional news, etc.
Many other outlets do something similar. A few good examples, the NY Times’ City Room blog, NPR’s the Two Way.
2. Facebook
I actually don’t use Facebook too much profesionally. It’s more of a personal tool for me to keep track of my friends, family and colleagues.
But for a publication Facebook can be very powerful and in fact crucial.
A Facebook fan page lets users incorporate the Post into their Facebook experience. People spend a lot of time on Facebook, so it just makes sense that we’re there too.
The ability to share interesting stories is also key. Facebook is one of the top 5 ways of referring links to news sites (e-mail, Google, Twitter are some of the others). When a user shares your story that’s a great thing, it’s extra clicks, it’s exposure, it’s buzz.
Finally, it’s also an easy way to do a little community building and gain more interaction with your users
Some other great examples:
Mashable Look at the number of fans! That’s 100,000+ people who may share, comment and talk about your articles!
the Walrus Magazine Look at how they extend their real-word product into Facebook, changing up their profile image to match their current covers, mentioning real-world events, etc.
3. Twitter
I started using Twitter about two years ago and it’s tough for me to overstate how useful and rewarding it has been. I use Twitter in two very different and complementary ways.
a) Twitter in
I use it as a personalized news wire by subscribing to news sources I like.
Eg. I do a lot of writing and have a personal interest in books… so I follow a lot of publishers, authors, book publications, etc. The Twitter list function makes it a bit more manageable.
I also use it as a way to see what people I like, respect, and have crushes on are thinking about.
Many, many examples:
@susanorlean (an amazing New Yorker writer)
@jeffjarvis (author, J-school teacher at CUNY)
@cshirky (NYU j-school prof, tech advocate)
@walrusmagazine (large mammal, also a great magazine Twitter account)
@ivortossell (tech writer, pal, drinking buddy)
@xoxsnp (Fashion writer, go-getter, up and comer)
b) Twitter out
I use Twitter as a way of communicating and developing a personal profile.
I sync up my blog to Twitter, I also use it to promote things I’m doing, even ideas that I’m thinking about. I think it’s how your professor found me.
@boyreporter is my personal Twitter account. Follow me if you want. I’ll try not to bore you.
How the Post uses Twitter:
No big surprise, but we’re on Twitter and we love it. Here’s a few reasons why.
a) News gathering and dissemination.
Twitter is fast. Blazing fast. In the last few months alone, Twitter has helped us cover stories like the Fort Hood attack and the Haiti earthquake. Twitter gave us almost real-time updates from people on the ground, whether they be local media, eyewitnesses or officials.
@nationalpost our flagship account has about 7,600 followers and we use this as a way to spread our stories, they often get retweeted and spread virally which, of course, means more traffic for us.
@npbooks, which is an account that I help start and run is a niche books/literature account for our books blog. It’s very targeted, has a lot of personality and people love it.
So a few parting notes:
Work social media into your daily routine
Checking Twitter, blogging, Facebooking all takes time and if you’re working, going to school, writing, etc. You might not have time to do all this. Try to work some of these things into your daily routine. Use a program like Hootsuite, which allows you to embargo your tweets, to plan tweets in advance.
Blog in spurts, write two or three posts, and then push them out later in the week. (Hint, hint, the author of this blog might do this once in a while)
Don’t overshare
Not everything needs to be and should be public. Remember, most of the time, you get to decide what goes up online. Writing about that bad break-up on your personal blog might not be a good idea… unless you want a career as a relationship columnist, in which case, it’s probably pretty brilliant.
This stuff won’t replace basic skills
You can be a social media guru, tweet like crazy, blog like an overeager 15-year-old girl and have a thousand Facebook friends, but they don’t replace basic journalism skills like writing, reporting, research and interviewing.
Leave a Reply