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 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.

A few years ago I started a blog to learn WordPress. I come from the philosophy that if I want to learn something new, I need to use it, play around with it, and then come to the conclusion if it’s appropriate for business and how to use it correctly. This is why I started Twitter, BrazenCareerist, and so on. Basically if there is a new tool out there, I’m going to jump on it and learn how it works. This is the only way you can have an educated judgment on a tool. I’m amazed at how many editors/writers/journalists don’t blog or use Twitter. How can you expect your publication or readers to operate one of these tools if you don’t know how to use it yourself?

Because I’ve used WordPress for years, I know it inside and out. I know about the plugins, templates, community, etc. And also because I’ve used WordPress, I know how to set up analytics and read them. I know how to set up Feedburner and how it’s used. I know how to make my posts viral, and how to track them. This is all because I started a blog.

Now that I’m back at Residential Design & Build, my first objective was to update the blog. It was using the one of the first WordPress versions/templates and looked so outdated. We updated it to look fresh and modern. I added share buttons to make the site viral, and I make sure to tweet out every post. I’ve also asked for analytics on the blog, and I take a close look at that information. I know where my blog readers are coming from, what topics they are reading more than others. All because I operate my own blog.

I think all publishing companies should encourage their writers/editors/journalists to operate a blog. This creates a much more educated group of people using the web tools for publications. If companies expect journalists to move their publications forward, then they need to employ journalists who understand these tools. Old school journalists need to learn them or move aside and let younger journalists take charge.

At the end of 2009, Google announced that it was going to start indexing Twitter as well as adding real-time activity into search results. These two announcements make participation on the real-time Web more important than ever. Why? Because Google is the number-one search engine, with 65.2 percent of all searches in February 2010 alone, according to The Nielsen Co. If you’re not tweeting or using Twitter correctly, then you’re missing out on appearing in this new scope of search results.

Need convincing? The amount of time users spend (5.5 hours) on Facebook and Twitter grew 82 percent from December 2008 to December 2009, according to Nielsen. In addition, Nielsen reports Twitter increased unique visitors by 579 percent, with 18.1 million unique visitors from December 2008 to December 2009. These are massive numbers that you can’t ignore, and numbers that Google is no longer ignoring.

But simply using social networking sites like Twitter isn’t enough — especially if Google is indexing your Twitter profile. Here are a few tips to ensure you’re using the medium correctly and taking full advantage of Google’s index.

1. Tweet info your readers want and need. If you wrote a new article that is timely, tweet it. If there’s breaking news in your industry, tweet it.

2. Use reporting for the links in your tweets. There are many URL shorteners that include analytics and reporting. Take advantage of these free tools to watch what works on Twitter and what doesn’t. Ow.ly, Bit.ly, and Goo.gl (owned by Google) are just three of many on the Web.

3. Add personality. People like to see that a person is behind the tweets. Put your picture as the Twitter avatar. Or if you put the magazine’s logo as the avatar, make sure it’s clear in your tweets that there’s a person behind the information. Add commentary and interest.

4. Be involved. Listen to what others are saying and get involved in the conversation. Think of it as networking at a trade show event and making connections.

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Originally published on ASBPE’s national blog.

During my five years in business-to-business trade, I’ve learned a great deal about niche marketing and writing. I’ve also learned a great deal about magazine production. Additionally, I’ve learned I have a huge passion for these. But one thing that surprised me about this industry is the struggle editors and publishers have with social media and new media in general.

I’ve always been excited about new media. Maybe this comes from my age, or maybe from the fact that I’ve been surrounded by computers my whole life (my dad is a computer guy) — but nevertheless, I have always looked at the computer as advantage, not disadvantage. And this is where I drift from the traditional B2B world. My ideas are different, and those who’ve been in B2B for a while don’t tend to agree with me or see what I see.

There’s no arguing that B2B is struggling to find its footing between loss of ads and growing reliance on the Web for users. I don’t think it’s as difficult as some think. The first step is being open-minded and realizing that past models are outdated. We must change the way we operate to succeed. I truly believe B2B has the most advantage of all media to succeed with the different platforms available. However, to do that, things need to change. Below are a few tips for B2B editors to guarantee you’re getting the most out of social media and online.

• Get on LinkedIn and make sure your profile is up-to-date and active. Only have connections on LinkedIn that you can vouch for — quality vs. quantity.

• Start reading RSS feeds. RSS provides a more efficient way of reading more content faster.
• Get on Twitter and use your name as your handle. Too many editors think you need a personal Twitter as well as a separate professional one. This is a huge mistake. Make yourself a brand — and your brand will enhance your magazine’s brand.
• Create your own website or blog. Again, use your name if possible as your domain name for branding purposes. Then use your website or blog to showcase your knowledge making yourself an expert in whatever you’re an expert in.
• Stay up to date on the latest technology and try it out. Most of them are free, so why not? Example: I just signed up for FriendFeed because it was being talked about so much online and I didn’t know what it was. Surprise — I like it better than Twitter!
• Participate in conversations online. Use Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, LinkedIn — and any other social platform to make connections.
• Don’t limit your connections to those in your industry. Read blogs and tweets from technology insiders so you stay up to date on the newest tools.
• Despite my annoyance that Google has such a large market share (73 percent), it offers good tools. Use them!
  • Google Docs allows multiple people to collaborate, edit, share information on spreadsheets and other documents. This is huge for efficiency and communication.
  • Google Groups allows you to collaborate with others in a forum-like fashion.

Create your Google profile to guarantee your owning your brand. Even if you only set it up with the basic information, you still own it.

• Write blog posts on your magazine’s website at least three times a day.
  • Readers like new content. If you’re constantly putting new information up, they will come back.
  • Search engines like new content, so make sure you give it to them.
  • Market these new posts on all your social platforms such as Twitter.
  • Make sure these posts are of the highest quality (relevant information, written professionally, no spelling or grammatical errors).

These are just a handful of ideas that you should be doing at a minimum. Once you get this far, you’ll have your own ideas on how to keep moving forward. It’s just getting to this point that’s been a struggle for so many. Good luck!