Using social media to build relationships with

reporters California 4-H - April 7, 2016

Pam Kan-Rice Assistant Director of News and Information Outreach

@ucanr |@ucanrpam pam.kanrice@ucanr.edu

ucanr.edu

Today’s agenda

• Building relationships with reporters

• Twitter

• Facebook

• Instagram

Connecting with journalists

Cision 2015 Global Social Journalism Study

• 94% of U.S. journalists use social media

• 51% say “I wouldn’t be able to work without social media.”

• Mediabistro reports that 55% of journalists use social sites like Twitter and Facebook to find stories from known sources (2012)

Building relationships with reporters

• Look for the reporter’s Twitter handle next to byline or end of the article

• Follow the reporter on Twitter

• See what topics they tweet

• Note the hashtags they use

• Retweet, like and comment

Retweet leads to NPR news story

Introduce yourself • Check local newspaper or TV news to see

who writes about children and community issues

• Introduce yourself on Twitter

• State your area of expertise

• Offer to be a source

• Invite them to an event

Direct message (DM)

• If you and reporter are both following each other, you can DM.

• DM is private message with unlimited characters.

• Don’t confuse with direct tweets, which are public.

Tweet their stories

• Tag the reporter with link to story

• If you start a tweet with @reporter, put a period in front of the handle. Otherwise the tweet won’t show in your tweet stream.

• “.@reporter joined ...

Show what 4-H does

• Use quality photos

• Describe what’s happening

• Use hashtags (e.g. #CA4H)

• Tag @4H, @ucanr, @California4H

Provide more info

• Add links to websites

• Fact sheets

• Press releases

• News articles

• Articles you’ve written on the subject

We’re kicking off @4H's nationwide #TrueLeaders campaign with @ImperialCo_4H #4hgrowshere #ca4h

#TrueLeaders take part in cultural arts #4HGrowsHere @California4H @ucanr #ca4h

#Hashtags • Hashtags help

people find your tweet

• No more than 3 in tweets (hard to read)

• The more the merrier in Instagram

Tagging

• Facebook: You can tag institutions but not individuals

Tagging photos

Social media resources

• Tyler Ash at tyash@ucanr.edu

• Twitter 101

Strategic Communications

• Mike Janes, Director, (530) 750-1204, mejanes@ucanr.edu

• Jeannette Warnert, (559) 646-6074, jewarnert@ucanr.edu

• Myriam Grajales-Hall, (951) 781-2151, myriam.grajales@ucr.edu

• Pam Kan-Rice, (530) 750-1221, pam.kanrice@ucanr.edu

THANK YOU

Pam Kan-Rice Assistant Director of News and Information Outreach

(510) 206-3476 or (530) 750-1221 @ucanr |@ucanrpam

pam.kanrice@ucanr.edu