ONACamp @ NABJ12

Social Media as a Reporting Tool

Niketa Patel | Social Media Product Manager | CNNMoney | @Niketa

#ONACamp #NABJ12

Social @ CNNMoneyGoals: • Referral Traffic• Engagement• Conversation

Platforms:• Facebook• Twitter• Google+• Linkedin• StumbleUpon• Tumblr • Instagram• Storify• Stocktwits

Social Media Stats• Social media has disrupted media landscape like no other medium.• Facebook now has 900 million users and is a publicly traded

company• Twitter is said to have around 500 million users.• Instagram has over 50 million users and was bought by Facebook

for a billion dollars but then Facebook released it’s own photo sharing app which is an Instagram clone!

• Social Media is also slowly but surely helping to increase referral traffic for some media sites

• One example of this is The Atlantic. They says 40% of their traffic now comes from social media

• On the flip side - Pew Study: Facebook users get 70% of news links from friends and family, not from news organizations - The State of the News Media 2012

.

• Facebook is a huge traffic driver for some sites.• Journalists can post content and ask questions to create a

conversation.• Post a variety of content spread out evenly overtime. Images and

slideshows & video perform very well.• Take advantage of Timeline – brands are highlighting historic news

events. Journalists can showcase stories, projects, etc• Enable Subscribe on your FB page. Subscribe allows you to share

stuff selectively or publicly – For example, Poppy Harlow• Interest Lists – Create lists based on a certain topic or enable other

people to follow like minded people, newsrooms i.e. CNNMoney List• Groups – find groups based on your beat or interests to join

conversations and interact with others. There are a lot of journalism ones also: Social, Mobile Journalism and Social TV.

.• Build a following by posting a variety of content, retweet, reply,

favorite.• Follow fellow journalists, sources, competition (media org. accounts

and journalists with the same beat.)• Stick to 120 characters in tweets instead of 140 characters so

people can easily add a comment and retweet you. • Exercise caution when retweeting – ensure information is accurate.

Verify information first.• Use hashtags to follow events, stories & gain visibility and such as

#Egypt, #Occupy, #Greece• Use Tweetdeck or Hootsuite to manage lists, scheduling, etc• Create Lists: Twitter’s Guide to Lists• Do searches if you want to look up people or topics: (

search.twitter.com)• Topsy: Search for timely and relevant tweets among other things.• Bit.ly: URL shortening service that saves characters in tweets. Add

+ at the end of a bit.ly link to see analytics: cnnmon.ie/KvwaxV+

.• Linkedin is often overlooked but it can be a great source of traffic for

niche sites. • It’s ideal for scouting out potential sources and connecting with them

in a professional manner.• Observe activity on company pages or individual's pages to see

who’s switching jobs or hiring in certain sectors to get story ideas. • Search for people, companies, groups• Answers: Q&A tool where people are likely to be more genuine

since it’s tied to their real identities. • Join the Linkedin for Journalists group for tips and tricks on how to

use it more effectively.• Take one of their webinars and you will be upgraded to an executive

account for a year for free.• Executive level: InMail, better search capabilities, in-depth who’s

viewed your profile & more.

.

• Thriving photo sharing app that lets users apply filters to images• Treasure trove of striking images from users.• It's used both personally and professionally by journalists.• News orgs. using it to crowd source images for breaking news

#joplintornado or for features - NBCNews: #WhyILoveMyDad Father’s Day Tumblr feature.

• Campaign embeds posting images from the campaign trail which adds good behind the scenes/color to election coverage.

• Filters Debate: To use or not to use them with regards to newsy images.

• Tags: Use existing tags or create new ones. #MardiGras • Statigram: Web viewer, reposts, stats and content management. • SearchInstagram.com: Enter a tag and see all the images in a

stream.

• Burgeoning platform that comprises of digital cork boards • Immense visual appeal for food, fashion, travel and lifestyle content

junkies.• Top 10 traffic referrer for some sites• Create boards and ‘pin’ content based on coverage and interests.• Ensure your pins lead back to your site, so that re-pins will also lead

to referral traffic back to your site.• News orgs are joining Pinterest to experiment with ways to capture

new audiences• Showcase historic covers, newsroom staff, profiles, features,

slideshows. (Time, Today Show, NYT)• Public Boards: Some sites are even opening up boards to the public

to submit their own images for features and for contests.

• Social blogging platform• Journalists use Tumblr to

share their stories, projects, etc

• You can follow people who cover the same beat or who have similar interests as you. Reblog them and they might follow you back

• Tag posts to gain visibility on tag pages by editors who curate them. Search for tags at http://www.tumblr.com/explore

• Track feature: This can be found in the side bar and it helps you stay on top of posts in relevant tags.

• Create social stories by curating several types of social media components across platforms to create a narrative.

• Several news organizations have been using it. The Whitehouse and UN are too.

• Weave together compelling timelines for long form or breaking news stories.

• UGC: Showcase user tweets, images, videos etc.

• Great archival tool: Preserve social media elements, conversations, reaction, etc.

Other Emerging PlatformsQuora• Q&A site whereby users can ask a

question or answer one to gain visibility.

• Journalists can become subject matter experts based on their beats or it can be a great resource for information.

Storyful• Social media news agency that

verifies content across social media.

• Storyful.com/pro is a paid service and can be used to help confirm reports and tweets you see on social platforms.

Storination• New top level creation tool that

allows journalists to create a storyboard of a group of Storify stories around a specific topic.

• Create ‘Nations’ of Storify’s.• Beta - Invite only. Sign up at

Storination.com

Rebel Mouse• Social media home page• Plug & play or curate.• Customize your page to look like

your personal website• News orgs slowly dipping their

toes in it• More sources to come.

RebelMouse

Live Chats/Blogging

Chats/Video

• Facebook

• Twitter

• Google+ Hangouts On Air

• UStream

• Airtime

Live Blogging:

• Livefyre

• Scribblelive

• Coveritlive

• Wordpress Plugin

Resources

• Poynter• Nieman Lab• ONA Local – Join or form a group in your area.• Muckrack.com

– Sign up for a free account and you can do searches based on journalists, newsrooms, stories and beats.

– Sign up for their daily digest which highlights popular articles among journalists. It also includes who’s hiring or shifting jobs.

– Local meetups: They are kicking off networking events in select cities so you can offer to help organize one too.

Jobs!• A lot of journalists, editors & recruiters post jobs on Facebook and

Twitter all the time. • What’s more, recruitment divisions for media corporations also have

Twitter accounts too.

Job Listings:• @Tweetmyjobs• @journalismjobs• @mbJobPost – Media Bistro• @mashablejobs• @socialmediajobs

Corporate Accounts: • @TurnerCareers• @NBCUniCareers• @ESPNCareers• @DIMGrecruiting

Final Thoughts…• Be Smart: If you wouldn't write something in a story or say it on air,

then don't tweet it! Follow your company’s social media guidelines.• Credit: Give credit where credit is due! This builds relationships,

trust and linkage.• Link Economy: Share content from other sources too and they

might reshare your content too.• SMO: (Social Media Optimization) Optimize your posts for maximum

benefit since social components are indexed across various platforms.

• Transparency: If you post something that turns out to be false or has a typo in it, then fess up! This helps you maintain credibility.

• Explore: Don’t be afraid to test out new platforms and apps so that you can help to brainstorm ways for your newsroom to leverage them.

• Become an early adopter!

Slides: http://slidesha.re/onacampsocial

Social Media as a Reporting Tool

ONACamp @ NABJ12

Niketa Patel | Social Media Product Manager | CNNMoney | @Niketa

#ONACamp #NABJ12