Archive for the ‘ Social Media ’ Category

0
5
Jul

A small paper’s take on Google+

This is a very raw post on some preliminary thoughts on Google’s new toy. I’ve been playing with Google’s latest venture into the social media realm, Google +, for several days now and I really like it. Then again, I really liked Wave too so bear that in mind. My favourite feature so far is definitely the Hangout area where you can easily connect to several people in a video chat and share in there.Sure there are other video chatting options out there that folks have been using for ages, but Google makes it so simple that even my grandmother could figure it out.

There are some things I’m still trying to figure out, such as how to truncate long comment streams on some of the more popular users (like Scoble) – I’m sure there is a way, I just haven’t figured it out yet. I ended up removing him from my stream altogether even though I like his posts. The Circles feature would let me just view my family’s posts or just my friends’ stuff, but I kind of like having all my circles show up in the stream, so scrolling past hundreds of Scoble’s comments to see what my daughter just shared was getting on my nerves. And some posts DO truncate the comments, but Scoble’s never did and I can’t work out why.

I realize Google’s trying to roll this out slowly, but I really want to be able to add more people to my circles who can also use the service. So hopefully when it’s open for all, I will use it even more. And I’m really looking forward to the iPhone app. Safari mobile interface is ok, but can’t add photos.I haven’t played much with Sparks yet, but as an avid Google Reader user, I’m wondering if I need yet another thing I have to check all the time. I suffer from Notification Syndrome bad enough as it is.

Will I end up using G+ over Facebook in the future, or Twitter for that matter? Personally, I doubt it. Twitter is so integrated into my routines that it would be difficult to break the habit. And I have too many Facebook friends who won’t give two craps about Google+ because they’ll stay with what’s familiar.

Ryan Huff, in a comment on Jeff Jarvis‘ G+ stream said:

“I see G+ as the water cooler. Twitter provides the headlines, G+ provides the discussion. Facebook? They provide the gossip. With that said, what G+ becomes will depend on the tools that emerge. With integration into Seesmic and another established tools, it could morph into something more familiar.”

I completely agree.

Today, I managed to get my newspaper going on Google+, and that’s a whole different ball of wax compared to using it personally. I think it could be very useful if I can stream our headline tweets and Facebook fanpage posts into it. My philosophy for the paper is that we will bring you the news where ever you are. And if G+ is successful, we’ll provide our coverage there for you. But we’ll definitely need some API tools developed to coordinate everything. It took a long time to grow our Twitter followers and Facebook fans. I’m curious as to how quickly we can grow an audience and drive traffic on Plus. I suppose it’s finally time to add the +1 button into our stories :)

I hope it doesn’t fail. Google has a solid effort this time so here’s hoping.

1
15
Dec

Newsroom changes for the good

I’m really pleased right now. I will admit that for a few months, I had begun to despair because my newsroom stopped responding to change. I watched as other news services in the area clutched their smartphones with glee and began to outstrip us when it came to live tweeting news as it happens.

I won’t go into all of the red tape reasons we were dragging our heels because it doesn’t matter anymore. We no longer have a videographer. Now we have a mobile web reporter. Essentially, we turned our videographer into our reporter for the web. Do you have any idea how much I’ve wanted such a person in the newsroom? Not only that, but we worked out a way to get him a Droid X, taught him how to turn it into a wifi hotspot and now he can get out there, shoot photos and video and write a story for the web in his car, pop me a text and I can get it edited, photos/video added and have something online before any other news service around here can say, “I didn’t know about that.”

What this means for The Independent is we’ll have a fresh, regularly updated website all day long.I’m so excited I could spit.

Our new mobile web reporter has some learning to do, mind you. I want him to not rely on his expensive video camera all the time that requires a lot of editing/producing time and just grab some video with the Droid for a story that we can put in as plain old raw video. People click that stuff. They don’t need something slick and produced with transitions and title tags all the time. I want him to open up his UStream app and air it live while I embed that into a story and direct readers to it from Facebook and Twitter.

But he’s still learning how the phone works, and for now he’s doing a good job of getting out to stories we might not always cover because we’re shorthanded (like most newsrooms I know.) He needs to be able to find stories on his own now, but he’ll learn that too.  We’ll get there, and I’m so excited about this.

Not only that, I had a meeting last week regarding our direction with Social Media, which is my forté. I am not going to talk much about it just yet, but I will just say that my publisher is *extremely* taken with what the Journal Register is up to….

5
9
Nov

Newsroom travels back in time

My newsroom feels like it’s gone back in time about two years when I was really struggling to get everyone on board with social media stuff. I can’t remember the last time someone grabbed our spiffy Zi8 to grab some video of a breaking story, or hell, I can’t remember when I last had regular news updates for the web without asking for them or finding them myself.

We had a brief period of excitement when it looked like we might be able to finagle a couple of Droids for newsroom use and I had visions of live tweets from pressers and games and breaking stories. I had fantasies of reporters who finally had that big old light bulb go off when they saw how much their work is enhanced by using a Droid and how effective Twitter is at communication.

Well that got squashed pretty quickly in corporate red tape and well, we have no droids and my newsroom is once again too busy getting their stories in for print (and web, often as an afterthought) to fuss with Twitter. I’m back at square one and it’s killing me pretty good. I just don’t know if I can handle starting at the bottom of the hill again. I’m like the Sisyphus of Social Media. And in the meantime, I see our competitors leaving us in the dust because they’ve embraced it.

Let me just say here that I believe the staff here is phenomenally talented at what they do, and have been doing for years. They’ve got experience, great contacts in the community, they’re creative and they are some of the best. I just wish I could find a way that isn’t patronizing or insulting to reach them and switch on that light bulb so that they see what I’m trying to give them is another way to enhance their work, their careers, and at the same time, make a lot of it easier. I want to help, but instead I feel sometimes that I’m seen as a brick wall they can’t be bothered to climb.

Having said that, we still need a solution to the problem of regularly updated content for the web. We still need to be using Twitter and Facebook and Storify and every tool we can get our hands on to make my newspaper THE place to get your local news.

To that end, we’ve been kicking around the idea of just sending me out with the reporters to do that stuff. It makes sense in a, “Why didn’t we think of that before?” kind of way.  We’re not going to change minds in the newsroom by constantly hammering away at them. Ever been lectured by a parent? Ever tuned them out while they lectured? That’s what happens in a newsroom – well mine at least. So let’s just do it ourselves. I’ve been live-tweeting stuff for years. I can juggle my iPhone, various apps (hello AudioBoo!), cameras and finesse wi-fi in the strangest places. So let’s stop moaning about a newsroom that doesn’t “get it” and just show them. They can still whip out their pencils and digital recorders and write their stories when they get back, and meanwhile, I’ll have continual updates going out instantly, and then Storify them when *I* get back.

I will either piss off my comrades, or they will get to see how this stuff works in action and maybe have a light bulb moment.