Scott Smith of ChicagoMag.com talks about online tools that can help editors in reporting and storytelling as well as time management and organization.

1. Managing Digital Content
Presented by Scott Smith

2. Who Am I?
Director of Digital Strategy for Chicago magazine
- Web, e-mail newsletters, mobile, social media
Formerly Web editor at Playboy.com, Time Out
Chicagoist
Someone who uses almost all of these tools
Lousy at making PowerPoint presentations

3. What I'll cover today
Tools for producing and distributing digital content
What do these tools do?
What problems do they solve?
Why they work

4. What I won't cover today
How you'll use them
Best practices
iPad applications
Facebook

5. What these tools help you do
Report
Publish
Promote
Research

6. Top 5 tools
Evernote
Wordpress
Tweetdeck
Storify
Google Analytics

7. Evernote
What does it do?
Store and collect notes,
links, images, sound
Why does it work?
Collect via multiple
platforms; all content in
one place organized via
tags

8. Tweetdeck
What does it do?
Organizes Twitter friends, followers, mentions,
searches
Why does it work?
Fast access to lots of information from multiple
accounts
Caveats: Lacks internal analytics

9. Storify
What does it do?
Takes several tweets, videos, blog posts, pictures and
organizes them into a conversation
Why does it work?
Allows you to follow back and forth between users;
organize responses; add notes
Caveats: Clunky interface

10. WordPress
What does it do?
Creates an in-house site or CMS without purchasing a
separate product
Why does it work?
Customizable, scalable, flexible
Caveats: You'll need a developer, servers, hosting

11. Google Analytics
What does it do?
Tracks website traffic and usage
Why does it work?
The most robust set of tracking tools available for
free; easy to install
Caveats: Tough to drill down into

12. Other tools for managing
content

13. Tumblr
What does it do?
Creates communities around blog content; allows for
easily republishing
Why does it work?
Makes it easy to quickly publish a variety of content:
video, photo, text, chats, etc.
Caveats: Content is hosted off your site

14. Vimeo
What does it do?
Publish great-looking video and store it online
Why does it work?
Accessible and embeddable anywhere
Caveats: Size limitations without Pro subscription;
noncommercial use
Kaltura Community Edition - Open source solution

15. Ustream
What does it do?
Live-stream events/discussions online to a wide
audience
Why does it work?
Social media integration especially Facebook; runs on
any site and many mobile phones
Caveats: Quality dependent on equipment

16. SoundCloud
What does it do?
Store, send and publish audio online, allow for
downloading or embedding
Why does it work?
Embeddable on a variety of sites; professional-
looking; easy-to-use
Caveats: Free version limited; Google's Flash player if
storage not an issue

17. Flickr
What does it do?
Display and store photos from content creators or
community members
Why does it work?
Easy to upload, tag, create galleries
Caveats: Won't integrate with analytics/ads on your
site

18. Cover It Live
What does it do?
Live chat with readers; incorporates video, social
media, polls
Why does it work?
Promotes your intelligence, instant feedback
Caveats: Need a producer + talent

19. Twitter lists
What does it do?
Keeps track of Twitter users by topic
Why does it work?
Bookmarking; immediate access to sources; can be
used in a widget

20. UberSocial
What does it do?
Access to full Twitter functionality on a mobile phone
without need to access site
Why does it work?
Integrates geolocation into tweets; works well across
various platforms; live-tweet from the field
Caveats: Occasionally slow

21. Twitpic
What does it do?
Hosts photos taken with a mobile phone/posts to
Twitter, Facebook, etc
Why does it work?
Allows for posting of and promotion of content at the
same time
Caveats: Can't auto-tag, organize easily

22. Bit.ly
What does it do?
Shortens links for posting to Twitter and other social
media; displays some analytics
Why does it work?
More room for comments; encourages retweets;
tracks reach
Caveats: Works best on site, not in mobile apps

23. Chartbeat
What does it do?
Real-time tracking of traffic and which pages have the
most readers
Why does it work?
Instant feedback; displays engagement
Caveats: $10/month for only one site, two logins

24. Google Alerts
What does it do?
Tracks mentions of you, your brand or the subjects
you cover
Why does it work?
Infinite possibilities, varied tracking and reporting
ability

25. Google Maps
What does it do?
Organizes location information in a map
Why does it work?
Gives readers context for venue-heavy writeups
Caveats: Tough to include longer blurbs

26. LinkedIn
What does it do?
Allows for publishing a resume or other professional
profile and track contacts
Why does it work?
A way to keep the professional separate from the
personal
Caveats: Most functionality requires pay or revealing
profile

27. Disqus
What does it do?
Organize, moderate, publish and promote comments
on your site
Why does it work?
Works on many sites; most CMSs don't handle
comments well; treats comments like content
Caveats: Content is hosted off of your site

28. Sites for research
Mashable
Romenesko
MediaShift
Expanded list of free/cheap tools:
http://lisa-bu.blogspot.com/p/tools.html

29. Contact Info
Email: ourmaninchicago@gmail.com
Twitter: @ourmaninchicago
Tumblr: ourmaninchicago.tumblr.com
Links from this presentation: On the ASBPE site

30. Q&A
Workflow: Basecamp or Campfire