Maureen Alley's Blog

Source: scriptingnews

Like most people last week, I was glued to the TV and my Twitter feed. I was heartbroken by what happened at the Boston Marathon — seeing so many people lose limbs and three people lose their lives. I taped “For Boston” to the back of my running jacket on Tuesday, and ran on Wednesday in support of the national “Run for Boston” campaign.

The last time I was that glued to the news was on Sept. 11, 2001. I was a college junior in Stevens Point, Wis., and had yet to realize journalism was my passion. Today, I have my masters in journalism, teach journalism and am passionate about the craft. I get excited when I see good journalists doing awesome work, and I get frustrated when I see others screwing it up. Last week’s events proved to be another lesson on how to report breaking news in the world where Twitter is everyone’s news feed.

People were tweeting from the scanner leaving the Boston Police to ask numerous times for people to stop. Trained journalists know this – though some were still doing it. Matthew Keys who was social media reporter for Reuters, (also lost his job this week), wrote about his use of Twitter and using the scanner for reporting.

Social media is deeply embedded in breaking news. It can’t be ignored which means journalists need to understand the best way to use it. I was impressed with how the Boston Police were using Twitter. They embrace it as a form of communication, and it was cool to see. In an effort to teach my students the way to use social media in breaking news, I’ve aggregated a few articles about what happened last week in regards to journalism.

Here’s my list.

• Poynter: 4 takeaways from journalists’ coverage of the Boston explosions
• Daily Mail: Reddit apologizes to the family of the missing Brown University student they wrongly accused of being the Boston bombing suspect
• Washington Post: What the Boston bombings taught me about journalism
• Columbia Journalism Review: Boston cops: Don’t reveal our tactics, please
• Nieman Journalim Lab: Social media and the Boston bombings: When citizens and journalists cover the same story

Have you read a good article that touches on this topic? Share it!

I had the opportunity to present to the University of Wisconsin chapter of Public Relations Student Society of America’s annual conference. Former student of mine, Garth Beyer, who is now a student at UW and involved in this group, asked me to present about social media. I gave the presentation “Advanced Social Media.” The goal of this presentation was to teach aspiring PR professionals the best practices for managing brand social media and online reputations.

I arrived to Grainger Hall in time to hear Theo Keith speak. – reporter for WISC-TV, Madison, Wis. I have raved about WISC-TV and its reporters’ use of social media in the past. Needless to say, I was ecstatic that this group of students asked someone from that news channel to speak about ethics and social media. If anyone in the local market can give an insightful and informative talk, it’s WISC-TV reporters.

Theo gave a lot of first-hand examples of reporters sitting on information, verifying information, and using information on social media. He kicked off the presentation in a great direction.

Next, I was up to speak. And I started with why we need to use social media – not like this group really needed reminding. Then I covered the tools to use, why and how to use them. And of course, I had to cover the brand nightmares … ahem Kenneth Cole and KitchenAid.

Like Theo, I encouraged the students to live tweet the presentation. When I had the opportunity to check the tweets after the presentations, I was impressed. A lot of my tips were tweeted by a handful of the students. And I received a lot of great feedback from them.

I had a blast, and I’m hopeful the PRSSA students enjoyed it as well. It seemed like it from the tweets; check out #uwconf.

Thanks again to UW PRSSA and Garth for allowing me to be a part of this conference.

Photo: Christy Harper

This is the year of cloud computing according to a Forrester Forrsights Hardware Survey from the third quarter of 2012. More businesses are adding a line for cloud computing in their budgets, with 46 percent of those surveyed said they plan to invest in it in 2013.

Two of the biggest concerns that come with the cloud are security and cost. It was often assumed that to get a highly secure infrastructure, the more money it costs a business. If a business didn’t invest in that infrastructure, then it was at a high security risk. However, this is no longer the case.

ReliaCloud is an Infrastructure-as-a-Service cloud offering, provided by TDS Hosted and Managed Services. This company provides security from multiple angles. It has what it calls nine-pillared security measures focusing on physical and digital protection methods. Each customer is given a specific virtual local area network and firewall. In addition to its electronic protection, its data centers have various zones, 24-hour guards and check-in requirements.

ReliaCloud manages various aspects for a business so that they can focus on their core needs. For example, ReliaCloud handles databases, routers and firewalls so their customers don’t have to. In addition, customers experience zero downtime during upgrades, power outages or when other issues arise.

For businesses to understand how much the cloud is going to take up in their 2013 budgets, it’s important for them to understand how they plan to use it and monitor that over time. According to James Staten, Forrester Research in his blog from December, businesses “need to actively model the cost profile of applications, monitor their resource use and adjust accordingly.”

The only successful way for a business to use the cloud is to understand how they are using it in the first place. ReliaCloud understands the importance of this information and provides its customers with audits. “We recognize that customers need visibility into our control practices and to be allowed to audit our practices themselves,” according to ReliaCloud’s website. ReliaCloud offers three options: public, private and hybrid cloud computing.

How do you use cloud computing? Do you plan to invest in the cloud in 2013?

This week Newsweek announced that it was moving to a digital-only format. With the news came tons of freakout within the media and journalism industries that “PRINT IS DYING.” And my response, “So what?” [Disclosure: This post is in response to the freakout, not the back story behind why Newsweek is moving to digital-only.]

Publishers have been freaking out and yelling this saying for years. But again, the media industry just doesn’t get it. Why is moving away from print a bad thing? Why does it mean consumers will stop demanding good journalism? This comes from the same people who don’t get social media, digital practices, and the benefits of the Web in general.

I own a smartphone, iPad, nook and laptop. I consume all my information on these products. I still want articles that include good reporting and research. I still have outrage when an article is badly reported and/or written. The way I’m consuming content has changed, not the type of content I want. And that’s where the industry misses the point. People want to consume information in different ways.  You have to deliver content where people consume it, which is ever changing.

Consuming content in education

I’m taking a continuing education course at Madison College to maintain my teaching certification. In this course, the discussion about using social media in class has become a hot topic among many of the teachers. The discussion recently turned to how do you get social media assignments/discussions to be successful with students. The same concept I mention above applies here too.

In my experience, not many of my students are on Twitter, however I’ve seen this number increase over the past two years. The ones who are on the site, prefer to interact with me there vs. email.

In my approach, I use Twitter as another way to provide information to my students. While there’s a lot of talk about younger generations using social media, it’s still mostly used by people in their late 20s – 40s. You have to provide information in many different areas so your students can consume it how they prefer to consume it.

Move beyond the outrage that PRINT IS DYING, and focus on providing your content where you users are and where they want to receive your content. It’s actually exciting when you get rid of the outdated outrage. Embrace it!

I’ve been in my new routine for two months now, and I’m loving it. I spend most of my days as Content Manager for WoodIQ.com, CountertopIQ.com and FinishingIQ.com, but I also do other consulting/freelance as well as teaching this fall. I have to say, I love that most of my time is managing web editorial instead of being tied to print. There is so much more freedom with the web. Even though I’ve been a web/content geek for a while, I’m really seeing this more as I am much more focused on it in my daily tasks.

When I started with the NueMedia’s brands, I was taking over for a colleague who decided to pursue other business opportunities. It was a huge risk on my part. I was leaving a full-time pay check to jump over to a privately-owned venture that is relatively new (been around for two years).  This was going to be a big change. All I could think about was the risk involved.

I have an eight month old who I still send to daycare a few hours every day because I believe it’s important for him to socialize and learn in that setting. But that also means, I have the expense of an eight month old, plus daycare expense. Which if you saw the news this morning, daycare costs more than the average rent expense. It’s not cheap that’s for sure.

But with this risk, came the possibility of something very exciting. And I kept thinking about that too. I would be able to work part-time, allowing me to spend more time with my son. Instead of seeing him three hours a day because I was working full-time, I could now spend my afternoons with him. I could actually get the house clean, keep food stocked in the house, and do laundry. Who knew that was possible?!

In addition to the perks, I was excited to be part of something that was new, growing and positive. After speaking with the president and CEO a few times, I quickly realized we see the world and media the same way. This is the future. We were no longer tied down by print pages. We could adjust content based on what our readers are ACTUALLY reading because we can see the clicks. We can provide concrete, accurate information on what our advertisers are generating by our visitors. It’s just smart business. And to top it off, this industry is very technical with very smart people writing for the properties. I love B2B because it’s all about business, learning, growing and succeeding. I could learn so much by jumping to this property.

But then again, it was a huge risk. Huge. I’ve had a few bad experiences in the past where I accepted positions that I thought were going to be exciting, and allow me to grow. And then it ended up being a train wreck. The bosses were horrible, the atmosphere was extremely constricting, the management sucked, and I quickly regretted my decision.

I could not have this happen again. For one, I didn’t want to go through that experience again. I had been there twice in my career and it sucks. And two, I had my son and my family to think about. I wanted to move somewhere I would be for a while, that I could grow, learn and succeed.

So for me, I had to seriously consider the risks, the opportunities, and the possible rewards. Two months in and I’m glad I took a risk.

I had a blast on Friday at the SPJ’s Social Media Training for Journalists. I wasn’t sure what to expect because most times the conversation turns sour and the atmosphere gets tense when journalists talk about digital and social media strategies. But this was not the case at all on Friday. Attendees in the room were honestly interested in these tools and how to use them correctly for their reporting. The room was filled with excitement. It was exhilarating.

I attribute part of this to the first speaker: Katy Calver, a journalism professor at UW-Madison. She started the session off on an exciting and passionate tone. My favorite comment from Katy: Same skills, new tools. I’ve been saying this for years. Your basic journalism skills – researching, vetting, investigating, etc. – are still important and will always be important. These social media tools are just new ways of doing those things. It was awesome to hear a journalism professor echo that – and to tell a room full of journalists that.

David Douglas, reporter with WISC-TV and Nick Heynen, social media director with Capital Newspapers, talked about the Facebook Timeline. They gave a how-to instruction for those unfamiliar with how to use it. But the best part was when David gave tips on how to use Facebook for reporting. It was awesome to see how excited he was about all the information you can get out of Facebook. He even “rocked my world” – as he said – by talking about openstatussearch.com. I had no idea this existed. Yes, David, you did rock my world by introducing that site to me. Other key points shared by David and Nick: Best times to post updates are 8 a.m., 11 a.m., and 3 p.m. These are local times since both David and Nick work with local markets – not national markets.

After the Facebook session, I jumped up front to talk about Twitter with Jason Joyce from the Isthmus and David Douglas. It was fun to bounce tips back and forth about how we each use it. I represented a different niche – Twitter use to market your brand. David and Jason talked more about using Twitter for reporting. It was great to hear the questions and interest from the other journalists in the room. Mark Pitsch, SPJ Madison president asked a great question, and one probably many other people in the room were thinking: What advice do you have for old timer journalists who have a hard time opening ourselves up on Twitter. My answer: Start using it and with time, you will become more comfortable with it. Also, your mindset will change. I’m now always thinking about Twitter and tweets. That’s because Twitter is now just part of me – not something I have to set aside time to do.

As I talked with a colleague sitting next to me, I mentioned numerous times that a lot of this is a change of mindset and how we work. I truly believe that’s been one of the biggest challenges for journalists to embrace these tools. You have to work differently than you’re used to – faster, more efficiently, smarter and multitask. But there are so many benefits to using them in your reporting, and we spent a whole day discussing them.

The Society of Professional Journalists should be proud of this seminar. It was great to see such a positive, informative discussion on social media. Not only did the presenters talk about embracing them but they also showed concrete examples of how they can help you do your job better in 2012. And I am honored I was part of it.

There was a time when there was a small group of early adopters when it came to web tools. Wow has that changed. Now everyone is desperate to be an early adopter. Although maybe it’s not a change – maybe I’m just now really seeing it. Whether it’s a new trend or not, I find it extremely annoying.

When I worked at Website Magazine, it quickly became apparent to me that new tools, startups were announced every day. The web has turned into the goldmine for entrepreneurs. It’s relatively cheap to start a web company – compared to a traditional brick-and-mortar company. In addition, investors want to spend their money with the next Google, Facebook and Twitter. They don’t want to miss out on investing in the next big thing – and entrepreneurs want to be that next big thing.

At Website Magazine, I interviewed many of these web entrepreneurs and the one common theme was the goal to create something innovative and then sell it for a lot of money. One entrepreneur once told me: “Why create these web startups unless your goal is to sell them?” It definitely a different business than our country might be used to – but it’s the animal we are dealing with now.

In the last few months, the interwebs have been abuzz with new tools like Quora and recently Google Plus. While I will not deny joining these sites, I will tell you my goal was to join them and see what they were all about. It’s almost instantaneously that a new tool is announced that you read and hear about it everywhere – including the local news. People react instantly: This is next big thing! Well, maybe not. Just because it’s new and shiny, doesn’t mean it’s going to provide value to your daily life.

When I report on technology for the building industry, one thing I always keep in mind is that brand new products might not be ready for use and implementation right away. Second, third and fourth generation products are usually better than first generation products. This is something we need to keep in mind when it comes to the daily announcement of web tools. Just because it’s new and shiny doesn’t mean it’s going to work properly.

Though I love to see the innovation that comes from web entrepreneurs, I think we’ve quickly turned into a society that is easily distracted by “new and shiny.” We need to put the skepticism back into our evaluations of new tools in order to really understand if tools are worthy.

I write about Twitter a lot on this blog. Probably too much. But then again, I do keep telling you I’m a Twitter addict. While I do believe in the importance of the tool, it’s easy to forget other tools exist. I’m speaking specifically in terms of journalism. I often see journalists reach out to their Twitter networks for sources.  Twitter is a great place to find sources quickly but  journalists need to remember only 13 percent of Americans use Twitter – and we don’t even know how active that 13 percent is. That’s a small portion of the country that you are constantly reaching out to if Twitter is your only-go-to-place for sources.

A good journalist knows the importance of good sources – and multiple sources. Social media has made it possible for journalists to find sources much faster helping those journalists accomplish stories faster. But if you’re only reaching out to the same group of people all the time, what kind of perspective are you giving your stories – and your audience?

I see it often in my Twitter network. Madison, Wis. has a huge Twitter community and we are all connected to each other. The reporters in my area are great when it comes to Twitter. They know how to listen, interact and reach out to their Twitter networks. But I also see them walking the line of always using the same resources for stories – because it’s quick and fast. Deadlines are tough and knowing your Twitter community is there for you makes it easy to rely on it. However, I challenge you to remember old-school journalism tactics for stories. Continue to find sources via your Twitter network, but don’t rely on it all the time. Your journalism will suffer for it, and your audience will see right through it. The non-tweeters might be better sources for your story. You never know unless you reach out and do your journalism heavy-work.

Last week, John Bethune, publisher of B2B Memes reached out to me regarding my use of social media – Twitter specifically. He was preparing for an ASBPE webinar on social media ethics. He sent over a handful of questions about my use of Twitter, social media, and ethics regarding it all. I loved answering the questions. And I was flattered that John asked for my input. Check out John’s interview regarding my social media ethics.

A lot of people have been asking me lately how to use Twitter. I admit that I’m probably addicted to Twitter, and need to learn how to let go of my phone. While I may be over the top about it, there is definitely value to the site. I’ve written about it before. And I’ve talked about it to my classes. But when people ask you how to use it, sometimes it’s hard to remember all the parts that go along with using Twitter. So, I created a best practice tip sheet for myself and thought it didn’t hurt to pass on to you. This post is a little long – longer than my usual posts – but I tried to cover everything. If you have anything to add to this list, please do so in the comments.

Name
Your Twitter name will also take up characters in your tweets so short names are better. However, your name is also your brand so you want to make sure it represents you. For example, Maura Wall Hernandez, digital editor at the Chicago Tribune has her full name as her Twitter profile because that is her brand. In addition, you want it to be easily remembered – avoid underscores and numbers. Marivic Valencia, owner of Valencia PR owns TechPR twitter name – direct, concise and short.

Bio
People will look at your bio when deciding if they should follow you or even allow you to follow them. There is a lot of spam on Twitter so making your bio personalized helps other people to see that you are not spam. Make your bio interesting by adding personal tidbits. For example, I have coffee addict and Lucy the dog’s mom in my bio. It allows people to connect with me on a personal level. Add your website URL in your bio so people can move to another place to learn more about you.

Avatar
Your avatar is your photo. Make sure it’s a photo of your face – people want to see and connect with a person.

Tweeting
Tweet about information – provide value to your followers. They follow you because they find you interesting and you provide them with value. But don’t just tweet information, also tweet about you. Show them there is a person behind the tweets. People want personality and connection. For example, I tweeted about ice cream:

Ice cream fixes everything. Or I should say Culvers custard does.

Your tweets should be a good mix of information and personality. Give them both. Information without personality is boring, and personality without information is not valuable. Also don’t just sell yourself all the time. Listen (read tweets) and comment. Create and participate in conversation.

Finding people to follow
For starters, follow friends. Then look at who follows them and who they follow. If you have similar interests, then follow them. You can also search www.wefollow.com for people. This site allows you to search by location or category. Make sure you have posted a handful of tweets before finding followers. This gives those people something to look at when deciding if they should follow you back. And it shows that you are not a spammer.

Mentions
When people use your name in a tweet, that tweet will show up in your mention folder on Twitter. Check this often. And comment back to people who are talking to you. Also check the Retweets folder on your Twitter to see if anyone retweets your tweets. Then thank them for doing so.

URLs
You only get 140 characters to work with so it’s important you make the most of your space. There are many URL shorteners available that will take your link and shorten it down to fewer characters. These URL shorteners also provide analytics. I prefer bit.ly the best but there is also ow.ly, goo.gl and a few others. Create a profile on one of these sites so you can have all the analytics for all links posted to Twitter in one place.

You can also customize shortened links so they are easily remembered. For example, I have my website posted in my bio but I’ve used bit.ly so I can track how many people click on the link. And I customized it so people have an idea of where they are going by clicking on the link. So, if you click on http://bit.ly/MaureenAlley you will be directed to my website.

Analytics
Pay attention to these numbers. Bit.ly shows you tweets, how many clicks, share, comments, likes, referrers. It can also show you what works and doesn’t work. For example, posts to RD+B’s account about tradeshows have done very well – many clicks and tweets. But posts about housing numbers don’t tend to get many clicks – if any. It shows you what your audience likes.

Retweets
If you like something someone tweeted or think it would be helpful to your followers, you can retweet that tweet. There are two ways to do this. You can click the retweet button under the tweet or you can type “RT @” and the person’s Twitter name, and then their tweet. For example, I recently retweeted something Madison College tweeted:

RT @Madison_College Average Madison College student age: 29.

If I want to add commentary to the retweet, I do it before the “RT.” For example, I recently retweeted something Ryan Olson tweeted:

Ditto RT @redeyery It’s Monday – I’m not gonna lie – I hate you.

If you are going to automatically hit the retweet button, keep in mind that you don’t show up as the person who tweeted it – meaning the person with the original tweet will show up in your followers feed. It’s a brand issue. You want yourself to be in front of your followers so limit the amount of auto retweets and use the manual RT more often. You can also choose the auto tweet when you are limited with character space. So if there is a tweet that you want to retweet but won’t have enough space because you’d have to add RT and the person’s name to the beginning of the tweet, then hit the auto retweet button.

Replys
If you want to comment or reply to one of your followers, you type the @ symbol and then their Twitter name – then your message. Keep in mind that the only people who will see this tweet are the person you are replying to and common followers. By common followers, I mean people who follow both of you. In order for other people to see the tweet, add a character before the @ symbol like a period or quotation mark. For example, if I wanted everyone to see my response to Ryan’s tweet about Monday’s, I could type the following:

. @redeyery I hate Mondays too.

Hashtags
Hashtags were originally created as a search tool. You add the pound sign in front of a word and it becomes a searchable link. For example, #Madison. If I click on that in Twitter, it will populate every tweet with that term in it. Use the hahstag for anything that you think people will search for – cities, fields (journalism). But don’t use more than two or three in a tweet because it looks spammer-ish.

You can also find people to follow this way, or find what people are talking about regarding that term. Many companies have started doing Twitter chats which you need a hashtag for. By searching the hashtag set up for that chat, you follow the conversation. For example, AIA has a Twitter chat and they use #aiachat.

Hashtags have also morphed into a way to show sarcasm or be funny in your tweet. For example, I recently tweeted about Britney Spears new song and added a sarcastic hashtag to enhance my tweet:

I drop my head in shame but yes, I did just add “Hold it against me” by Britney to my favorites
on Grooveshark. #dontjudgeme

Pictures
There are many photo tools out there that will automatically tweet a photo you upload from your PC or phone. Twitpic, Yfrog, Plixi, Twitgoo and a bunch of others are available. I’ve used Twitpic, Yfrog and Plixi. These also give you analytics for the photo – how many people viewed it, if it was retweeeted, etc.

APIs
There are many Twitter APIs – tools – that allow you to use Twitter instead of the web Twitter. For example there is TweetDeck, Hootsuite, Seesmic, etc. Some of these are operated in a web browser, others are desktop applications. I like Hootsuite better than TweetDeck but they are both good. I’ve never used Seesmic but it’s a popular one. These APIs also allow you to manage more than one acct at a time – plus Facebook – in one place. Hootsuite also has analytics in it so I can track links that way too but I’ve found that bit.ly works better for that. You can also schedule tweets with these APIs.

Lists
Twitter allows you to create lists and add people to these lists. I am on 46 lists which is a lot. Look at the lists you are added to and make sure it represents you. For example, I am on lists about teaching, housing/construction, Madison, and journalism. I also follow lists that I’m interested in which Twitter gives you the functionality of doing.

Linking with other platforms
You can set you other social media sites so your tweets automatically populate on them. These include LinkedIn and Facebook. Do not set up your accounts so every single tweet populates on Facebook or LinkedIn because these sites have a much different atmosphere. Twitter is constantly updated – and you should be updating Twitter at minimum three times a day to stay top-of-mind with people. Facebook and LinkedIn are not that constant. Posts once a day are about average for Facebook and maybe a few times a week for LinkedIn. If you post a lot to these sites you will turn people off and they will unfriend you. However, sometimes you post something on Twitter that will provide value to Facebook and/or LinkedIn. Set up your accounts so you decide when something goes to Facebook and/or LinkedIn. If I put #in in my tweet, then that tweet will automatically post to my LinkedIn profile. And if I use #fb in a tweet, that tweet will show up on my Facebook page.