Social Media presentation to ICFJ Georgia journalists

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Sean Mussenden
University of Maryland
Philip Merrill College of Journalism
Social Media
ICFJ

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What I’m Going to Talk About
 2013 Social Media Landscape (Global, U.S., Georgia)
 Facebook Strategy for News Orgs
 Twitter for Reporters
 If time, storytelling with social media

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Why Social Media Matters
 People are lazy and busy.
Increasingly expect news to find
them.
 Network of friends/followers
and “the crowd” increasingly
serve as “editors” that
determine what people see.
 Trust. People more likely to
read something suggested by a
friend than a stranger.
News Consumption
Habits Have Transformed

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Which Social Networks Matter?
Facebook…and everything else.

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Which Social Networks Matter?
In Georgia – It’s even more all about Facebook

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Facebook Penetration in Georgia
 Total Population: 4.5 M
 Pop w/ Internet Access:
Approx. 2 Million (40%)
 Population on Facebook:
Approx. 1 million (50% of
online population)
 Skews younger, urban,
wealthier

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Facebook in Georgia (Pop Pages)

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Facebook in Georgia
(Popular “Media” Pages)

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Facebook Strategy for News Orgs
 Facebook best platform for news organizations.
 Less important that individual journalists have a presence –
unless you’re really famous.
 Two things to consider:
 Facebook.com presence – fan pages, news feed.
 Integration of Facebook on your Web site.

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Facebook Strategy for News Orgs
It All Starts with the Fan Page

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Facebook Strategy for News Orgs
 Segment audience so they get
only what they want
 Spreads responsibility for
Facebook across organization
 Drawback – takes more staff
time
The Importance of
Niche Pages
Niche Page Examples

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Facebook Strategy for News Orgs
The Pages Don’t Matter - Focus on the Feeds

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Facebook Strategy for News Orgs
 Everything from friends and fan
pages*
 User studies: not looked at as
often at Top News.
 Not the default view. Users
have to take action to see it.
 Most valuable real estate on
Facebook – “Boardwalk”
 User studies: most frequently
visited part of Facebook.
 Algorithm – Facebook’s “Secret
Sauce” – determines what
shows up here.
 Your goal: get your content
here.
Most Recent Top Stories

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Facebook Strategy for News Orgs
 Algorithm tries to determine what users care about
 Most important factors:
 User’s previous interaction with that person/org. In this order:
Share, Comment, Like.
 User’s friend network interacting with a given post. In this order:
Share, Comment, Like.
 Secondary factors:
 High level of interaction from outside user’s friend network.
 Inclusion of links, photos and videos.
Inside Facebook’s Secret Sauce

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Facebook Strategy for News Orgs
 If you want people to see your content:
You need to work to build a relationship.
You need to post content that people want
to talk about and that they want to share
with their friends.
You need to post content that includes
pictures/video and links.
Big Takeaway

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Facebook Strategy for News Orgs
 Lighter content tends to work better than “heavier” stuff.
 Don’t dump everything. Select for potential for virality.
 Must be things people would want to talk about. “Hey Mabel”
stories.
 Engage the audience.
 Crowdsource
 Ask questions (NOT: “what do you think?”)
 Quizzes
 Stick to your niche.
What kind of content is best on Facebook?

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Facebook Strategy for News Orgs
 Short, catchy blurbs
 Conversational tone
 Timing matters!
 Eye-catching photos and videos
 Adjust based on metrics
 Links: goal is always to drive people back to your site. Have to
pay the bills.
 Remember: your competition is not just other media orgs, but
pics of users’ grandkids.
Writing Effectively for Facebook

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Facebook Strategy for News Orgs
 Important to give users the FB experience on your site.
 Facebook OpenGraph makes this easy – talk with your
developers.
 Three basic levels – beginner, intermediate and advanced.
Incorporate Facebook on Your Site

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Facebook Strategy for News Orgs
 Allow visitors to like individual pieces of content and share it
with their network. Put in multiple locations.
 Allow visitors to become a fan/follow. Should be prominent on
every page.
Incorporate Facebook on Your Site - Beginners

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Facebook Strategy for News Orgs
 Show visitors what people in their network are
reading/watching on your site.
Incorporate Facebook on Your Site - Intermediate

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Facebook Strategy for News Orgs
 Make recommendations based on Facebook reading habits.
This will creep out some users.
 Integrate comment system.
Incorporate Facebook on Your Site - Advanced

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Twitter for Journalists
 More about relationships built
around shared topical interest
than friendships.
 Importance is growing, but not
near Facebook level.
 Of all social networks, best
sourcing and informational tool.
 Not as important for branding
and distribution, but can drive
traffic.

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Twitter for Individual Journalists
 An amazing knowledge acquisition tool.
 “Mindcasting” - A lot of smart people who know more about the
topics you care about than you, sharing their knowledge for
free.
 “The People Formerly Known as the Audience.” – Jay Rosen
 Don’t be passive. Engage people you follow.
Tap into the Wisdom of the Crowd

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Twitter for Individual Journalists
 Start with a few smart people and mine the list of people they
follow.
 Edit aggressively. Drop people who aren’t useful.
Strategies for Building Your Twitter Network

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Twitter Exercise
Building Up Your Source List and Building a Twitter
List

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Twitter for Individual Journalists
 Carve out a niche and stick to it.
 Write a short, catchy bio and include a picture.
 Insert yourself into discussions. Engage with other users who
share similar interests.
 Court the big influencers in your topic area. A RT from someone
with 100K followers better than someone with 100 followers.
 Tweet regularly. More tweets = more opportunities for new
followers.
Building a Brand on Twitter

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Twitter for Individual Journalists
 Provide useful information. Not what you had for breakfast.
 Don't just shill your work. Link to the work of others.
 Links, links, links. Use a URL shortener (i.e. Bit.ly).
 Use #hashtags. Good way to attract new followers.
 Leave approx. 20 characters out of 140 for RTs.
 Abbreviate, within reason.
 Timing matters!
Writing Effective Tweets

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Twitter Exercise
 Build a Twitter List and follow each other.

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About Sean Mussenden
 On faculty at the University of
Maryland Philip Merrill College of
Journalism
 Focus on intersection of social
media and news and multimedia
news production
 Former newspaper reporter,
multimedia journalist and Web
editor
 Consultant who has helped
several news orgs improve social
media strategy
 Twitter: @smussenden
 Facebook: /sean.mussenden
 smussenden@gmail.com
 smussenden@jmail.umd.edu
 Cell: 202-590-2190
 Slides from this presentation
available
About Sean Contact Info