Independent Writers

Get Social How social media tools can make life better

for editors and writers

For AIW/JHU ConferenceOct 3, 2009

Source: Matt McDonald, BrandFlakesforBreakfast.com

Writers are using Twitter and other social media to:

• Find and cultivate sources.

• Follow news and events in real time.

• Discover story ideas.

• Share scoops and useful information.

• Promote their work.

• AND – connect and interact with readers.

Find and cultivate sources

• Use Facebook and Twitter to find sources, particularly individuals.

• Use their social networks to find others.

• Thank sources publicly, so they’re more willing to feed you good stuff.

Follow and report news

• Use Twitter #hashtags to track specific subjects: #mumbai#geology #cosmology #evolution.

• Use hashtags to cover meetings remotely: #ONA09 is in San Francisco today.

• Use Twitterfall to follow Web traffic. TweetBeep will e-mail you hourly alerts on a topic you are following.

• Report at the scene from your phone or BlackBerry using Twitter apps, audio, and video.

Get story ideas

• Follow people or institutions for story leads.

• Localize it: Twitterlocal.net, NearbyTweets, LocalTweets, Happn.in – a new Twitter app for tracking local conversations.

• Use Twitter and Google trend tools to track what’s hot:

• Tweetstats.com/trends• Twist.flaptor.com• trends.google.com

Promote yourself!

• Let others know what stories you’re working on.

• Publicize new work by linking to it on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and your personal blog.

• Self-publish via Facebook, Twitter, and blogs.

• Give people a sense of who you are as a person with photos and personal news.

Why should writers care?May 2009: Social vs. Search

Facebook drew 82.9 million unique visitors in May, up from 68.5 million in January.

Twitter logged 19.7 million uniques.

Google May uniques: 144.4 million; Yahoo, 135.5 million; MSN, 97.5 million.

source: Compete Web analytics

What’s journalism’s future in social media?

-- “It’s not information overload, it’s filter failure.”

-- Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody

-- “We’re heading into an incredibly messy but also wonderful period of innovation and experimentation that combines technology and people and pushes great and outlandish ideas out into the real world. The result will be a huge number of failures but also a large number of successes. … This is why I’ve grown more and more certain that we will not lack for a supply of quality news and information.”

– Dan Gillmor’s blog, May 2009

Where to find more on using social media

• Websites that follow new media on a practical level:

Mashable.comReadwriteweb.comPaidcontent.orgPoynter.org (e-media tidbits) • People who have useful takes on journalism and new media:

JayRosen: @jayrosen_nyuDanGillmor: @dangillmorClay Shirky: @cshirkyJeff Jarvis: @jeffjarvis

Questions?

Find these slides at:slideshare.com/nancyshute

Find me at:nancy@nancyshute.com

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