social media 202
DESCRIPTION
Robin J. Phillips presents "Social Media 202," a business journalism Webinar hosted by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism. For more information, please visit businessjournalism.org.TRANSCRIPT
Social media 202
Reynolds Center for Business Journalism
Twitter:@BizJournalism
Facebook:facebook.com/BizJournalism
Robin J. Phillips @RobinJP
Social Media as a journalistic tool
Know what this is? You’re in the right place.
What you will learn
No turning back.
Doing nothing is not an option.
Why other business journalists like using social media.
You have more control than you think.
What social media can do for you – personally, professionally.
Ways to dig into the data and use social media tools as research tools.
Twitter July 2006 190 million
Facebook February 2004 500+ million
LinkedIn December 2002
80 million
Three main social media networks for journalists
If Facebook was a country….
Each has its own strength
Twitter People you don’t know but who have common interests.
Real-time search engine; platform for listening, promoting work; crowdsourcing.
Facebook People you know or who know someone you know.
Excellent source for finding sources; listening, sharing work; crowdsourcing.
LinkedIn Colleagues, former colleagues, professionals.
Online Rolodex you don’t have to update; good database of employees; good for crowdsourcing.
SM tool Community Journalistic advantage
Why Social Media matters …
1. It’s where things happen first
2. Linking to articles, distributing content
1. As a search engine, it rivals Google
2. Self-promotion, contacts that move with you
3. Building traffic for new blog, new beat
4. Cultivating sources
5. Real-time news .. right here, right now …
Twitter … and Facebook…
and LinkedIn…
and Flickr…. and Tumblr…
and Blogger…
and YouTube…
and WordPress…
and Foursquare…
and Google Reader…
8. Creating community .. power in the network9. Diversity .. opens up your source base
Tool for reporters
Where things happen first
Linking to articles,
distributing content
“Twitter and LinkedIn are terrific for crowdsourcing. …
after the tax bill passed, I sent out a tweet asking for
tax experts to comment. Thanks to the viral nature of
Twitter along with LinkedIn groups, I had a bunch of
sources in no time.”
Linking, sharing, being a resource
… including your work, your sources’ info, competitors’ stories.
Google searches social tools
Facebook search is not easy
But try it.. You may be lucky
Economy: Class of ’82 vs. class of ‘09
Reporter searched Facebook
Subjects for story
Twitter advanced search
Twitter advanced search
LinkedIn: Today’s Rolodex
Search: Semiconductors, Intel
Self-promotion, branding YOU
Self-promotion, taking it with you
“Used in the best way, reporters are liberated from the ivory tower of newsroom judgments and can directly interact with readers… the reporter becomes a recognizable contact point for his stories and his beat.”
Customer service
Cultivating sources
Cultivating sources … scoop
Community… power of the network
Mix personal / professional and speak directly to your followers
Direct plea to Facebook friends
Issues to keep in mind
• Ethics
• To quote or not to quote
• When to take conversation off line
• Need for speed
• Deceptive intimacy
• Mingling with non-professionals
Rules change
Just because we can…
Tweet that went very wrong
Original Tweet
.. and just last week
The future .. aggregation, telling stories together
Telling stories by aggregating
social media
Where to go from here
Be an early tester but a late adopter. Find out what works for you and ignore the rest.
Understand the landscape. Learn the pros and cons of the biggest social media sites so you can use them better.
Stay informed. Twitter feed. Google reader.
Create lists. Both Twitter and Facebook make this easy.
Don’t flood the zone. Use a tool like HootSuite that lets you save drafts and schedule updates on multiple networks and from multiple profiles, all at once.
Lose the guilt. There’s no reason whatsoever to worry about what you miss on Twitter or Facebook.