Photo engagement in journalism

Photo engagement

Ivan LajaraMarch 26, 2013

Why use photos on social media?

• Photos create more engagement and the more engaged your community is the more they’ll interact with you and see your posts

• To increase visibility• For crowdsourcing and curation of events

What photos should I share?

• Good ones, obviously, but mostly photos that evoke an emotion or response.

• News photos of fires, missing persons, weather

• Lifestyle and whimsical photos

Emo llama is not happy about being

included in this slide

What networks should I focus on?

According to a recent Pew study:

As of December 2012:15% of online adults say they use Pinterest 13% of online adults say they use Instagram 6% of online adults say they use Tumblr 67% of online adults say they use Facebook 16% of online adults say they use Twitter

Engage differently on different networks

On Facebook, images that cause a response (a share or like) should be prioritized.

Experiment with text inside images.People like to share good news. People also like

to share bad news (did you go ‘OMG?’ Then, share it!)

Engage differently on different networks

Engage differently on different networks

On Twitter, add an image with some linksWatermark your images or make them small if

you are concerned about people taking them (but know that once it’s out, it’s out)

Live tweet images of events and feed them to a live coverage widget in your site, like ScribbleLive or Rebelmouse

Engage differently on different networks

Engage differently on different networks

On Pinterest, remember that the site favors vertical layouts.

Add descriptions and links indicating there’s more where image came from.

Remember that you can embed your images to your site.

Engage differently on different networks

Engage differently on different networks

On Instagram, add links to cutlines and push them on other social media, like Twitter or Tumblr (or feed a hashtag to a Rebelmouse embed on your site).

Engage differently on different networks

On Tumblr or Google +, embrace the power of the gif

Example:

Crowdsourcing and curation

• Use Olapic*, Geofeedia*, Storify or Rebelmouse to crowdsource and curate user-generated content.

• Push hard: Add widgets and promotion on your site, social media and print. People won’t just send you a photo because you sent a tweet.

* These are paid services. Evaluate your needs considering using them.

Crowdsourcing and curation

Crowdsourcing and curation

Crowdsourcing and curation

TIPS

• Before posting, ask yourself, ‘would I share this if it wasn’t for work?’

• Feed your website with your social media posts. Just because you are posting on social media doesn’t mean you can’t populate your site with your content.

• Prioritize social media networks that create more engagement. So, yeah, Facebook.

• Crowdsourcing won’t work if people feel like you are not doing your job. Add a bunch of your own and invite people to contribute more.

Concerns

• Verification of crowdsourced images. Fakes.

• Copyright

FURTHER READING:

• How to make a slideshow with Pinterest and Instagram images with Storify in under 2 minutes

http://storify.com/ivanlajara/how-to-make-a-slideshow-with-pinterest-or-instagra

Pew Internet: Social Networking (full detail) http://

pewinternet.org/Commentary/2012/March/Pew-Internet-Social-Networking-full-detail.aspx

Contact me

• http://twitter.com/ivanlajara• http://on.fb.me/ivanlajara• http://about.me/ivanlajara• ilajara@journalregister.com