social media & thought leadership - icfj
DESCRIPTION
A presentation on self-branding, curation, blogging, crowdsourcing and community engagement for journalists originally given at the International Center for Journalists on March 1, 2012TRANSCRIPT
Social Media and Thought Leadership
What's a Thought Leader?
An individual whose passion, creativity and innovative ideas lends them expertise in a subject area where they can drive conversation and lead by example.
Before Everything: Audience
● Who is my audience?● What do they want?● When is my audience online and how
can I best reach them?
On Being a Social Journalist
8 Simple Rules of Social Interaction
1. Respond to replies, comments and questions (especially questions) everywhere
2. Be transparent in all you do
3. Ask for help when you need it
4. Be thankful
8 Simple Rules of Social Interaction
5. Make corrections quickly and publicly
6. Address criticism without spats
7. Be consistent
8. Don't just push your content out
Twitter for Journalists
Powered by followers
You follow
They follow
Who you should follow
● Your competitors (& other bloggers too)● People in your field of interest/beat● Popular people in your local/topical
Twittersphere● Those who reply to you● Those who re-tweet, share your links
Finding who to follow
● By subject/location: Twellow.com, Wefollow.com
● Muckrack.com (for finding journalists)● Look at others’ follows/followers● Spy on Twitter lists ● Listorious.com
Search for Follows & Content
● Search by keywords, location, time● Reach out for more info● Follow who you reach out to
Acts to Follow
Questions to ask yourself
● When and what do I retweet? What does a retweet mean from me?
● When will I use hashtags?
● How conversational will I be?
Making Time
● Check in, don't stay on all day
● Use live tweets as notes
● Get alerts about your mentions and watched keywords
■ SocialMention.com■ TweetBeep
FacebookBeyond 'Just Friends'
Facebook Subscribe
● Largely made for journalists
● Share with people
who aren't friends
● Follow updates of those you aren't connected to
Optimizing your profile/page
● Publicly identify yourself, where you work and what you do
● Be easy to find, set up a vanity url at facebook.com/username
● Tweak all privacy settings to your liking
Target updates
Public Updates
● Crowdsource your stories
● Share behind the scenes photos and insights with readers
● Ask questions/solicit feedback
● Post your stories and those you're reading to generate discussion
Be yourself!
Wording Matters
● Posed Questions +64%● Call to read or take a closer look +37%● Personal reflections +25%● Clever, catchy tone +18%
% more feedback over averageSource: Facebook
Images Matter
Timing Matters
● Post late in the week and on weekends● Post throughout the day● Test and see what works
Google Profiles
If you have a Gmail account, you have a profile. Make it sparkle.
Build Your Niche
Your Blog is a Showcase
Keys to Good Blogging: Voice
“Blogging is not a graduation speech, it’s a conversation with someone at the grad party.” - Roxanne Hack
Keys to Good Blogging: Frequency
Keep your name out there by blogging often - daily if possible.
Keys to Good Blogging: Media
●Video/Audio●Photos/Slideshows●Graphics●Embedded social elements●Source documents●Maps●Data
Cultivating community
● Engage in your comments
● Pose questions in your posts, maybe end posts with a question
● Crowdsource in your posts - ask for information for future posts from your readers
Growing Your Blog's Readership
● Link to related blogs & comment there
● Use proper SEO
● Promote using social media - multiple times
● Make sure it is shareable
Curate Your Expertise
What to Curate
● What you're reading to inform your work
● Tweets, Facebook posts and other content from other sources and your readers
● Items you may want to blog about
● Stuff to read later
Using Your Social Streams
Crowdsourcing Tools
Google Docs
● Gathering info using Forms
● Get results
● Free word processor/Excel/Powerpoint
Crowdsourced map: Google Maps
All Our Ideas
Feature Example - TBDNews Example - HuffPost
How Do You Measure Success?
Blog: Traffic, link-ins, comments
Twitter: Followers is part of it - Twittercounter.com
Retweets and mentions - Tweetreach.com
Facebook: Shares, comments, subscribers and likes (in that order)
Klout is but one measure
Reputation Management
Find out what people are saying and address it head-on
Set Up Google Alerts
google.com/alerts
Eliminate results from your company site:
"first last" -yoursiteurl.com
More alerts
Video alerts
RSS feed alerts
Social mention reports
Put Yourself Out There
Live Chats
Twitter Chats
● Pick a topic and hashtag
● Advertise in advance
● Join in on and learn from other chats
● I recommend Tweetchat, but you can use your own client too
● Pitch a panel or talk at conferences in your subject area or for journalists
● Talk to local organizations or organizations in your subject area
● Make videos
● Get on TV
Public Speaking
Engage in Real Life
● Go to meetups and conferences in your subject area
● Host your own meetups
● Hold office hours
Mandy Jenkins
Twitter: @mjenkinsZombieJournalism.com
Find these slides at:slideshare.net/mandyjenkins