onacamp: branding & community engagement

Beyond the Buzzwords

Mandy Jenkins@mjenkins, #ONAcamp   

Community Engagement and Self-Branding

What is community engagement?

What is community engagement?

Online and offline efforts to bring readers into the newsgathering process and closer to those reporting the news.

Why do it?

• Build long-lasting relationships with readers and sources

• Branding & loyalty-building

• Create an eager network of reliable tipsters

• Be transparent about how we do our jobs

You may already be doing this....

• Using Twitter and/or Facebook

• “Tell us” in the paper, on TV, etc.

• In-story polls

• Chats

• Comments on on-site stories and blogs (*shudder*)

How's that going?

Don't be one-way

Rules of Engagement

• Answer all questions

• Address criticism (without spats)

• Share good responses

• Publicly correct yourself

• Always acknowledge news tips

Twitter & Facebook

Are you really connecting?

Powered by relationships

You follow

They follow

Twitter: Find the right crowd

Find accounts by their areas of interest: 

twellow.comwefollow.com

Find accounts using Twitter lists:

listorious.comLists of those you follow 

Twitter: Search.twitter.com

• Search by keywords, location, time• Reach out for more info• Follow who you reach out to

Twitter: Don't be a news robot

• Be personable. • Tweet more than your links• Re-tweet, don't re-write• Openly engage strangers

Most importantly: Respond to people

FB account vs Pages

Facebook + Journalism Pages

• Build a custom feed for work-only

• Create a hub around your topic area

• Interact with readers & sources separate from your  personal contacts

Facebook: Find the right crowd

• Search public groups and pages

• Reach out with private messages

• Don't be a creeper

Search Facebook Statuses

• openfacebooksearch.com/• youropenbook.org/

Be Your Own Expert

We journalists think we're so smart, so prove it.

Monitor Your Brand

• Google Alerts

• Tweetbeep

Take conversation to them

• Comment on other blogs/stories in your field

• Talk with those talking about you

Curate your expertise

• Show your research as you go

• Save links to read later

• Share what you're reading

Tools to try

• Diigo• Delicious• Google reader• Furl• Twitter/Facebook

Bonus! Use a bookmarking site to organize & embed your shared link roundups.

Share curation

Tools for Engagement

New ways to do the same old stuff

Storify: Add readers to your story

• Curate tweets, Facebook statuses, Flickr, YouTube

• Add documents, story elements

• Reaction stories, Twitter fights, a dramatic event through others' words

Suggestion box > Polls

All Our Ideas: "Suggestion box for the digital age"

Example

Google Forms > "Tell Us"

• Exists in Google Docs

• Embeds on your site

• Feeds into a spreadsheet

• Can gather info privately or anonymously

Crowdsourced map: Google

Crowdmapping

• Free

• Lives online

• People submit on-site, by Twitter or text

• Quick to set up

Conversation > Comments

Engage with readers, manage the conversation

Clear out the riffraff

Beat blogs and niche networks

Why get your own site?

• Brand yourself as an expert

• Connect with those who care about your area of interest

• Transparency in your story process

NOT to get page views

Beat Blogs

..a regular flow of reporting, resources and commentary in a focused area. 

Can be geographical, topical, activity-based or somewhere in between.

Source: Beatblogging.org

Private networks

• Message boards• File/link sharing• Limited access

Tools

Facebook GroupsGoogle GroupsYahoo GroupsSocialgo.com

Don't freak out

Connect IRL

Seriously!

Remember real life?

• Connect with your readers

• Have sources meet one another & readers

• Get story ideas

• Get feedback on your work

Networking & Meetups

• ONA• Social media organizations• Organizations and events on your beat

* Have relevant info on your business cards 

* Use apps like Bump to connect at events

Hosting Meetups

• Meetup.com

• Eventbrite.com

• Facebook

• Twitvite.com

* More: Google Monica Guzman for info on her meetups

"Office Hours"

• Unplanned meetups outside the office

• Announce it on Twitter, Facebook or in a story

• Have it somewhere public

• Make yourself available

Experiments in RL Engagement

Newsroom Cafe (Register Citizen)

Newsroom, cafe, citizen journalism classes, computer lab, library

How will you engage?

You're done!

Mandy Jenkins@mjenkins

zombiejournalism.comslideshare.net/mandyjenkins/