1. How to Identify and
Track Your Social
Community
February 2013

2.  Submit questions on the right

 Tweet with #NPRKnight
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3. Previously, on #NPRKnight
 The importance of headlines
 Web writing
 Your daily workflow
 Visual storytelling
 Using aggregation as a reporting tool
 Making the most of Facebook
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4. 4

5. 5

6. 6

7. Welcome to week 2 of social media training
 Distribution: Sharing your stories as a
station or an individual
 Reporting: Finding story ideas from your
social media community
 Creation: Create stories that people want
to share
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8. Welcome to week 2 of social media training
 Distribution: Sharing your stories as a
station or an individual
 Reporting: Finding story ideas from your
social media community
 Creation: Create stories that people want
to share
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9. Social media is great
for spreading your
content and fostering
conversations.
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10. It can also be a
valuable tool for
staying on top of your
local communities.
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11. What can you find? Story
ideas, sources, news tips,
photos, videos, firsthand
breaking news accounts
and local voices below the
“mainstream” radar
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12. Here are some tools you
can use to identify and
track your social
communities…
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13. Twitter Search
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14. Twitter Search
• Twitter is a powerful search tool that
can be used to find out what people
are saying about pretty much anything.
• Use twitter.com/search just like you
would Google.com.
• Perfect for live and breaking news
situations.
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15. Live Demo
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16. Twitter Lists
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17. Twitter Lists
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18. Twitter Lists
• Lists are a way to organize people on
Twitter by topics and categories.
• For example, if you covered
commuting in Boston you could create
a list of city officials, journalists and
newsmakers tied to commuting.
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19. Demo
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20. Reddit
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21. What is Reddit?
• It’s a huge online community made up
of many smaller communities.
• People can ask questions, post
images and post links.
• It’s a good way of getting the pulse of
the Internet at any given moment.
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22. What is Reddit?
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23. What is Reddit?
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24. What is Reddit?
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25. What is Reddit?
www.reddit.com/r/austin
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26. What is Reddit?
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27. What is Reddit?
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28. What is Reddit?
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29. What is Reddit?
• There is a lot of everything on Reddit and most of
what you see will likely not be of journalistic value to
you. But there are gems that can lead to story ideas
and news tips.
• By monitoring and searching specific Reddit
communities, you can get in front of news and find out
what’s buzzing.
• You don’t need to check Reddit constantly, but looking
around specific communities once or twice throughout
the day (or when breaking news is happening) is
worthwhile.
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30. What You Might Find
www.reddit.com/r/oklahoma
www.reddit.com/r/adriondacks
www.reddit.com/r/chapelhill
www.reddit.com/r/jacksonville
www.reddit.com/r/colorado
www.reddit.com/r/montana
www.reddit.com/r/wichita
www.reddit.com/r/philadelphia
www.reddit.com/r/missouri
www.reddit.com/r/baltimore
Search here: http://www.reddit.com/reddits/search
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31. What You Might Find
• A lot of everything.
• Photos and videos.
• First-person accounts of news.
• Stories that haven’t been told by media.
• Reaction to local news.
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32. Demo
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33. LinkedIn
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34. What is LinkedIn?
• An “online rolodex”/more professional
social network
• But you can find sources, story ideas
and resources for your work there, too
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35. What You Might Find
• Company updates
linkedin.com/companies
• Sources, guests, experts
• Local groups: linkedin.com/search-
fe/group_search
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36. Live Demo
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37. (Old) Facebook Search
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38. (New) Facebook Search
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39. Reminder: YouTube Search
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40. Assignment
• Find one story idea by searching social
media.
• Search around on Twitter, Facebook,
LinkedIn, Reddit and YouTube.
• E-mail your story idea and how and where
you found it to dseditorial@npr.org by end of
day Thursday.
• Go here: http://bit.ly/social-assignment
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41. Questions
?
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42. Reminder: Twitter Contest
• Use your individual account.
• Don’t just re-tweet others.
• Tweet about your job, have conversations,
tell people about news or topics you’re
covering.
• Try live-tweeting.
• Contest runs for next two weeks.
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43. 43

44. Twitter Contest Highlights:
Week 1
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45. 45

46. 46

47. Assignment
• Find one story idea by searching social
media.
• Search around on Twitter, Facebook,
LinkedIn, Reddit and YouTube.
• E-mail your story idea and how and where
you found it to dseditorial@npr.org by end of
day Thursday.
• Go here: http://bit.ly/social-assignment
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48. Next Week
What Types of Local Content do People Share?
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