1
23
Feb

Change. Adapt. Evolve.

Someone asked me what I’d say to newsrooms and editors about how they are run. Ohhh I have some thoughts on that, so I wrote them down and if they don’t think it’s too crappy they might show up in the APME magazine. But since I’m a blogger, I can share here whether they do or not.

I can’t speak for larger papers, or from years of experience in a newsroom. I can only speak as a set of “fresh eyes” on the dynamics of a newsroom in a medium-sized daily. Because I work in the Online Department of my newspaper, I’m going to focus on digital journalism and share some things I’ve learned.

First, don’t be afraid to try new things. Even if the venture fails, there are lessons to be learned. If someone in the newsroom has an idea that seems even halfway plausible, develop and encourage it because it may just be the next popular thing your newspaper will do. The things that catch on with readers can be hit or miss, but it never hurts to try. My paper put out a twice-daily news report complete with an anchor, script and producer for a little over a year. It did not work out, but we have been able to refine the kinds of videos our readers do want to see, and we now have several staff members trained in video editing/producing.

Second, your job will evolve with or without you. It’s up to you to evolve with it or get left behind. This applies to everyone from reporter to editor to manager and beyond. Yes, you may have a shiny journalism degree, but there will always be more to learn – do you know how to pull video off your cell phone and post it on the web? Have you heard of Twitter? Do you understand how Twitter can be used to enhance a reader’s experience? If you answered, “Yes” to any of those questions, great! If not, then you need to get on the ball and evolve. (For a good idea of what journalists should be learning these days, Read Mindy McAdams’ Reporters Guide to Multimedia Proficiency on her blog.)

Third, don’t shy away from interacting with your readers – beyond the letters to the editor. Use your forums if you have them. Read and respond to comments they leave in stories. Get on Twitter and ‘tweet your beat’ by letting your followers see what stories you’re working on for them. Or use a Cover it Live liveblog to cover big, ongoing, or breaking stories, debates, or sporting events. This will give your readers another avenue to your content, drive traffic to your website and could generate revenue by selling sponsorship of the coverage.

At the end of the day, you will be ahead of the game if you can use a variety of tools out there (many of them free) that allow you to engage with your readers. Interaction is a huge key in developing the all-important trust factor that gets them to come to you for news and information and not your competitor.

Useful Links:

Examples:

6
23
Jan

Newspapers on Facebook

For several months now, my newspaper has officially been on Facebook. We have 91 friends, and about 41 of those friends are most likely readers of the paper either in print or online. The rest are either employees here, relatives of employees, or other media folks.

I send the Independent’s Twitter updates to Facebook’s status updates, and any Youtube videos we do also get added automatically. I use the RSS feed to stream in our latest stories as notes. It seems almost the opposite of what is preached regarding Twitter in that it should all be manual and provide interaction. Well I do that as well. I write on friend’s walls, leave comments, respond to comments and all of that good interaction stuff that is so vitally important with social media.

And then someone asked why I didn’t have a fan page for the Independent.

I’ll admit I was stumped for an answer. I have a proper page already set up. I have 91 friends. I interact with people there. Do I really need a fan page as well? Or should I *just* have a fan page? What are the pros and cons for both versions? And what about a group? Should I start a group too? How much do I do without it seeming like overkill?

I turned to my panel of experts on Twitter and posed my question. Here are the excellent responses I received:

ernmander ernmander @stephromanski I would say one or the other.

Patrick Beeson patrickbeeson Icon_lock @stephromanski I would think one page makes sense, right? Though it might depend on your goals for using Facebook.

Justin p00bah Icon_lock @stephromanski I would lean towards the Facebook Fan, you can get insights on who is a fan and be as interactive.

Paul Balcerak paulbalcerak @stephromanski More flexibility design-wise with FB fan page. Let me know how FB works out for you. Still figuring out how to best use it.

Joe Ruiz joeruiz @stephromanski Wish I was able to see benefits of working w/Facebook. Tried it for our site, but can’t figure what works. Thoughts anywhere?

KarmicCycle KarmicCycle @stephromanski fan pages irritate me because they don’t show up on your friends list. Not really even sure where to find them.

Brooks Baynebrooksbayne @stephromanski i would only use one. create a page for “brand or product”.

Justin p00bah Icon_lock @stephromanski Thats why I think the fan page is better bet. Plus IMO it spreads around users a bit with each one saying “became a fan of..”

ernmander ernmander @stephromanski why don’t you create a GII Group page so they can join the group and post on the group page ?

ernmander ernmander @stephromanski Do the lot, Fan page, Group page and profile page sod it hehehe

Paul Balcerak paulbalcerak @stephromanski Seems like your fan page has better Google juice, too: http://tinyurl.com/a2w3w9

After gathering opinions and thinking on it for a couple of days, I decided to go ahead and make a fan page. I will also hang onto the Facebook account I set up for the paper. I figure it can’t hurt us so why not? But personally, I’m leaning towards the fan page being the better option and here’s why:

  • Biggest argument, IMO, for a fan page is that many folks on Facebook might prefer not to have their local paper able to see their personal stuff, which is what happens when you just go with a regular account. But those same people might be more apt to become a fan. You’re still able to connect with your “fans” but they’re still able to hang onto their privacy.
  • A fan page provides more of a sense of community with fans able to post on the wall for all to see, upload fan photos/videos, the discussion board, and receive updates.
  • I set up our fan page just a few hours ago. Already 6 people have become fans because they see “______ became of fan of The Grand Island Independent” in their friend’s news feeds. It gets your name out there better. I was unable to create a “normal” page for the Indy using our business name because of Facebook’s restrictions on user names.

On the other hand, having a regular Facebook account is pretty nice. Since I manage the page myself, I do see the Indy’s friend’s status updates and can comment (if appropriate) on them or photos they post whereas with a fan page I can only comment on what gets posted to the wall there.

I think I will keep running both and watch how they do for the next few weeks and I’ll do a follow-up post about this. I’m not going to try a group as well, mainly because I’m only one person :) but it may be an option to try if you’ve got the time and inclination. Most of the groups I’ve joined on Facebook are mostly silly  – see “I played at Dennis the Menace Park in Monterey, CA… And survived!” for evidence of that – so I’m not sure a group is an option I want to mess with, to be honest.

Do I think having my newspaper on Facebook is beneficial? Absolutely. Facebook seems to have exploded in popularity in recent months. They’re doing really cool things with it, like partnering with CNN on President Obama’s inauguration day. That’s how I watched the Big Day :)

You can automate some of it, but as with Twitter, it really will be better in the long run if you have somebody keeping an eye on it and interacting with your friends and/or fans. Twitter has taught me that our readers prefer a real person on the other end of the screen, not a bot or a feed. If they have a comment or a question, they will more than likely want a response. So I wouldn’t set up a Facebook page, automate it and forget it. That’s just not enough.

Look after it. Grow it. Find the method of using Facebook that works best for your media organization. Keep up-to-date with what new tools and apps are available (advice that applies to Twitter as well) and most of all, interact. It’s fun!

2
15
Jan

The (totally subjective) Do’s and Don’ts for Twitter

It seems like all I do is blog about Twitter around here. Which, I suppose, is only right considering that’s where I spend the vast majority of my time.

I got a couple of new follower notices this morning. When I went to look at their pages to find out more about whether I will follow them back, a couple of them did two things that really sort of bug me. One seemed to do nothing but post inspirational/motivational tweets, and the other’s page was filled with nothing but “Welcome @soandso, @newbie, @scoobydoo, @buffy, @spike” and on and on.

I chose not to follow either one. I do not like motivational quotes much. I find them pretentious and annoying. But that’s just me. There are folks out there who enjoy them and find them helpful or powerful, and that’s cool. That’s also why this list of mine here is completely subjective. It’s based on what *I* like and don’t like when it comes to Twitter, tweeting, following, and unfollowing. What you like, what you can tolerate, and what you dislike about it maybe the exact opposite.

One problem with this particular list is that I have two main twitter accounts. One for my more personal tweets and one for my slightly more professional tweets. Somehow it just ended up that my @stephromanski account list became full of awesome journalists, coworkers, graphic artists and other folks who fill out the industry.

I figure my other account, the personal one would be full of stuff that might annoy the aforementioned professional peeps. I like to use Blip.fm and I mainly talk to my boyfriend on the personal one. Those tweets would probably annoy the hell out of my professional friends.

So this Do/Don’t list is aimed at those using Twitter for professional reasons rather than personal ones. Also, I guess I should say it’s geared towards media folk on Twitter.

Don’t:

  • Don’t post tweets full of new followers names. It’s boring for your current followers to see tons of that in their timeline. Especially if your account is really hopping and you get loads of followers all the time.  It’s not so bad if it’s two or three new followers once in a while you’re saying hi to though. I’m not anti-welcoming for new followers. I think you should acknowledge them somehow. What I prefer is an actual ‘Hello’ and give the new follower a chance to respond. I like more interaction. It’s why I’m on Twitter.
  • Don’t DM a new follower with a link to something you’re promoting. If I followed you, I saw your link I your profile (hopefully you’ve put it there ;) ) and will have checked it out if it interested me. A DM welcome is peachy, but I’d appreciate just a simple ‘Hey there, thanks for the follow!’ if you don’t mind.
  • If you absolutely *must* post motivational tweets, spread them out or something perhaps? (Conversely, I actually don’t mind multiple tweets of quotes from movies, plays, song lyrics or authors. How weird is that?)
  • Don’t overuse Twitterfeed. I think Twitterfeed is all right if it’s spitting out your latest blog post once in a while. I do use still use it – but sparingly, and not for my job. But if you’re a news organization, plenty of Twitter experts keep saying turn off the feed man. Spitting out 5 headlines an hour is spammy and annoying. Turning off the feed for my newspaper was the best thing I could have done.
  • Don’t tweet a whole lot of really personal stuff on your professional account. I mean, some is fine, but there’s a balance. It is nice to get a sense of the whole person, but there may be a limit to how much of your personal life you want your colleagues to know.
  • Don’t be discouraged if you’re new to Twitter and it doesn’t seem as if anyone is responding to you. Just keep tweeting, and following people. You will eventually gain followers and some of them will @reply to you :)

Do:

  • Back to the welcoming thing, I do think it’s okay to just do a general “Hey welcome new followers!” once in a while, but I don’t think it’s all that necessary to name each and every one as they come in.
  • Do interact with your followers. Jump into conversations others are having. On Twitter, it’s actually OK to do that, especially if you’ve got worthwhile advice or feedback on the topic.
  • Be yourself when you tweet. If you’re cheerful, it shows in what you tweet. If you’re grouchy, it shows as well, but no matter your mood, keep tweeting and give your tweets your own personality.
  • Take advantage of some Twitter extras like Twitpic.com – If you snap a cool pic on your phone you can post it to twitter for everyone to see.

This whole post came about from just a couple of things that bugged me this morning when I got a couple new followers. So this list is incomplete because I really do like Twitter, the good and the bad. So what I would love is if anyone reading this left some of their Twitter pet peeves and/or top things they recommend doing on Twitter in the comments. I know not everyone’s going to agree with mine and I’m cool with that :)