digitalbestpractices
TRANSCRIPT
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:
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
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?
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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
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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.
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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.
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Helpful articles
55 quick SEO tips
5 Tips to Boost Your SEO in a Competitive Online Environment
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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: [email protected]
Phone: 717-771-2052
Buffy Andrews