digitalbestpractices

BEST PRACTICES: DIGITAL STRATEGIES

@buffyandrews

Social media is about engagement

It’s not a one-way conversation (That’s called broadcasting.)

Divide your time on social media in thirds.

1/3 engaging (retweets, replies, responding)

1/3 promoting (sharing story links, videos, etc.)

1/3 being yourself (have voice/show personality)

Keep in mind

Tweets Headlines Captions Blurbs Blog posts Text messages Facebook posts Lists Fortune cookie fortunes Sonnets

Writing short

Focus. Zero in. What’s the most important piece of information to share?

Ask yourself, what information can I leave out?

Tighten. Eliminate needless words

Cut weaker elements: adverbs, passive constructions, prepositional phrases, etc.

The shorter the sentence the greater the value of each word

More powerful the message, the shorter the sentence (I do.)

Writing short

Employ SEO best practices

Put most important word at the end of the sentence ie. In Macbeth, the messenger says: “The queen, my lord, is dead.”

Revise, polish proofread

Good reporting critical for short writing success

It takes more time not less to write something good and short

Donald Murray: Brevity comes from selection and not compression

Writing short

Links

Images

Quotes

Retweets

Questions or comments of your own

Types of tweets

Tweet every day. You have to be consistent

Join the conversation. Engage

Tweets not all about you

Have something interesting to say. Add value

Find and follow people who share your interest

Retweet, reply and promote others

Live tweet events and breaking news

Twitter tips

Don’t tweet headlines. Use regular language and distill the story for the readers. Talk to the reader. Tweet an interesting fact or tidbit or quote.

Tweet more handwritten tweets instead of retweets. “Normal” tweets get more engagement.

ie. “Reporter @buffyandrews is covering the Wolf

rally right now”

Twitter tips

Use @mention in tweets helps people notice you

When you include someone’s handle, they’ll see it in their “mentions” feed

If you’re lucky, they’ll follow you back

Twitter is all about connecting.

Don’t miss this opportunity to connect

Twitter tips

@ accounts

@accounts

Quickest way to find someone Twitter handle is to use Google

Its search function is better than Twitter’s.

Just google “person’s name” and “Twitter” and you should find what you’re looking for.

Twitter tips

Difference between at @reply and @mention

@Buffyandrews, only people who will see this tweet is the sender, me and our mutual followers

To have this tweet seen by everyone, add “.” before name. ie. .@buffyandrews

Twitter tips

Add relevant hashtags. Check to see if hashtag you’re considering is one that’s used (use Twitter search function or tool such as Hashtracking)

Ie. Check #childabuse and you might

find #domesticviolence

#negligence #abuse

Twitter tips

#hashtags

#hashtags

Include photo in tweet for better engagement

Twitter tips

‘Steal’ followers from other accounts

Use hashtags to find people with shared interests

Don’t use all 140 characters. Leave room for others to retweet. About 24 extra characters is sufficient.

Pay attention to tone. Talk to the readers, use verbs that tell them to look, watch, see what so-and-so did. Think of wording such as: Here’s why, this is why, what would, etc.

Twitter tips

Share good stories multiple times a day, and again on another day. If a tweet works well one time, try it again at a different time. A tweet could be sent out three different times and hit a different audience each time.

Use Twitter Advance Search to find people in your community.

Use www.justunfollow.com for routine maintenance of account.

Twitter tips

Schedule posts using Tweetdeck or Hootsuite

Include photo in tweet for better engagement

Twitter tips

Use the right search terms to find the right sources

People relating personal experience use “me” and “my”

“on” is another good term

Example: Trying to find sources for a train crash.

My uncle was on that train.

So in this case using the search terms my, on and train would have brought up this tweet.

Twitter search

Think about what you’d tweet if you were in that situation and search for the words that would probably be in it.

Better searching+better sourcing=better stories

Twitter search

How many people use Facebook: 1.393 billion monthly active users

Total number of Facebook daily active users: 890 million

Average number of Facebook friends for U.S. females: 250

Time spent on Facebook per user per day: 21 minutes

Percentage of teens that are friends with their parents on Facebook: 70 percent

Percentage of all U.S. senior citizens that use Facebook: 31 percent

Facebook facts

OWN Breaking News. Own the local breaking news on Facebook. Post an update before there’s even something on the website. Come back with new posts for updates and to share the links, and also add the link in comments in the past post. Identify breaking news as “Breaking” or “Breaking news” and consider using #Breaking.

Facebook best practices

Breaking news

Breaking news

Upload videos directly. Add a link to the story in the status part.

Facebook best practices

Videos

USE Photos. Be visual. There’s power in strong images. Those that evoke an emotion and immediately attract the viewer’s gaze work the best, be they funny, unusual, etc.

Facebook best practices

Photos

Could have used weather map here

People share maps, especially severe weather

Photos

Photos

Tags. Consider using hashtags and tagging, when appropriate, in posts.

Facebook best practices

Tags

Tags

Responsiveness: Responding to messages, wall posts and readers asking questions.

Sharing. Consider sharing a status from a police department, local organization, community group, etc. that might be of interest to your readers.

Facebook best practices

Sharing

Encourage action. For example, in some cases, like when you’re posting a photo of a wanted person, start the post with SHARE on the first line and then type your text etc. That call to action can do well when appropriate.

Facebook best practices

Be a human. Be conversational. Avoid sounding like a headline or feed. The link preview does that work. Use the post text to share a quote that pops, or interesting fact or tidbit, or some chatter that speaks directly to readers.

Facebook best practices

Share quote from story

Be conversational

Be conversational

Be conversational

Be conversational

Be conversational

Don’t repeat in post the headline url brings in

Facebook best practices

Drive people to website

Facebook best practices

Facebook best practices

Don’t post entire article online. Drive people to website.

Only ask a question if you would: Actually ask it to a friend (on Facebook or real life)

Be likely to answer a similar question if you saw it on Facebook

Don't use a throw-away question that does not meet the above criteria: engaging snippets or facts from the post are more effective.

Facebook best practices

Questions

Questions

Guerrilla marketing. Share your content via conversational status posts on appropriate Facebook pages, Facebook group, Google+ communities, etc. It’s best to share as a comment in a thread.

Facebook best practices

Marketing your content Find the right audience for your work

Perhaps the most important tool in your marketing toolbox

It’s the new word-of-mouth advertising (Facebook, Twitter, Digg, review sites, etc.)

Efficient, allows you to connect with people interested in your work

Helps you engage with your audience

Marketing your content

Who should promote

Every journalist should promote his/her work using a variety of social media channels.

The responsibility for promotion begins with you. Not your editor or anyone else.

No one cares about your work more than you. Own it.

Why promote

Bring content to the attention of those most likely to be interested.

By building audience, we build more opportunities to stack digital dimes.

How to promote

Share links in a conversational way in places where the links would be relevant, welcome content. These include:

Facebook

Twitter

Google+

Websites

Google+

Blogs

Identify audience

Identify the audience for your content (blog post, story, video, slideshow, etc.)

If you want to hook fish, you have to cast your line where they swim.

Use tools like Topsy to find potential targets

Match audience with content

Read Across America Day

Seuss FB page

Kids Craft Corner FB page

PetSmart

Petco

Elementary teachers

Elementary schools

Children’s book publishers

Etc.

Match audience with content

Medical marijuana

Epilepsy FB pages

Epilepsy Google groups

Epilepsy Twitter accounts

Etc.

Look at metrics

Measure value of your hard work; adjust if necessary

Watch what gets the most traffic, most links, most social shares, most comments

Social media audience will help spread your content if they find it worthwhile

Content that attracts most attention tends to be well-defined and focused

Buffy Andrews

Find relevant Facebook pages

Be conversational; don’t want to come across as a spammer

Comment within thread that makes sense

Tag people in comment when appropriate

Include links, keywords, hashtags in post

Higher engagement on weekends

Facebook promo tips

Facebook promo tips

Found Whitney Museum's Facebook page

Saw post about Jeff Koons’ retrospective

Embedded link to our coverage within comment thread to post

Facebook promo tips

When you post within comment thread on Facebook, check to see who shared the post. Those who shared post are potential targets.

Twitter promo tips

Research and find relevant Twitter handles to include in tweet

Twitter promo tips

Research and find relevant hashtags to include in tweet.

Handwritten posts better than automatic posts.

Google+ promo tips

Research and find relevant Google+ accounts to tag

Type “@NAME” to locate accounts

Google+ promo tips

Research and find relevant Google+ accounts to tag

Type “@NAME” to locate accounts

Google+ promo tips

Research and find relevant hashtags to include

Type “#SUBJECT”

Google+

Find relevant Google groups to join and share content

Google+ promo tips

Medical marijuana story

Helps child with seizures

Promo via national websites

Buffy Andrews

Pinterest

Blogs

Newsletters

Etc.

Other places

SEO Tips Increase your traffic through best practices

Why it matters?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) helps drive traffic to your website

When people are searching for something (service, product, article, etc.) they use most relevant keywords

By making your site more SEO friendly, more people will find it. The more people who find it, the better

Buffy Andrews

Web headlines can stand alone

Do you immediately know from the headline what the article is about?

Buffy Andrews

Use keywords

Think about how you would search for something.

Put keywords at or near the beginning of the headline. Word order matters.

Buffy Andrews

Don’t abbreviate

Always use full names for:

Famous people

Organizations

Places

Teams

Businesses

etc.

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Use city/region names

Be specific with geographic names

Buffy Andrews

Don’t use puns, cute headlines

They’re great for print, horrible for website

Print: Too much Heat

Web: Detroit Pistons lose to Miami Heat 101-98

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Not too long or too short

Aim for about 8 words or 65 characters

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Use full company names, etc.

Put the names of companies, organizations, etc. in headline

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Descriptions/keywords

If the person’s name is not familiar to your audience, use a likely search phrase.

Buffy Andrews

Use descriptive first words

Start columns with the columnist’s name and opinions with the word OPINION. Likewise, use PHOTO or VIDEO to denote multimedia.

Buffy Andrews

Helpful articles

55 quick SEO tips

5 Tips to Boost Your SEO in a Competitive Online Environment

Buffy Andrews

Parting words

Content finds readers; they often don’t look for it

Best content provides value to reader

Use SEO best practices

Don’t be afraid to try new things and fail

Be a visionary

Buffy Andrews

Follow me

Buffy Andrews

• Buffy’s World: http://www.yorkblog.com/buffy/

• Buffy’s Write Zone:http://buffyswritezone.blogspot.com/

• Author website: www.authorbuffyandrews.com

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Buffyandrews

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Buffy Andrews

Contact

Buffy Andrews

Assistant Managing Editor

Social media/Engagement

York Daily Record/Sunday News

Email: Buffy@ydr.com

Phone: 717-771-2052

Buffy Andrews