These are slides for the Santa Cruz engagement workshop for Digital First Media.

1. Better Journalism
Through Engagement
Northern California Newsrooms
December 2013
#DFMengage

2. Read more about it
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stevebuttry.wordpress.com
slideshare.net/stevebuttry
@stevebuttry
sbuttry@digitalfirstmedia.com

3. Introductions
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Name
Newsroom
What you do
Recent engagement success/challenge
What would make today a success for
you?

4. Throughout the day
• Choose 1 or 2 things to try next week
• Choose 1 or 2 things to dig in deeper
with us
• Write down follow-up questions
• Slides and links on my blog

5. What is engagement?

6. You’re a journo, not a carrier

7. Social media toolbox
1. Livetweet events &
breaking news
2. Search
3. Crowdsource
4. Monitor community
conversation
5. Curate
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Hashtags
Lists
Photos & videos
Embed content in
stories
10.Verification

8. Ways of engaging
• Community blogs
• Seek community content (words, photos,
videos)
• Curation, aggregation
• Contests
• Don’t forget the newspaper!
• Face to face

9. Time management
• Liveblogging uses your time covering
events more productively
• Crowdsourcing saves time
• Tweets are short, quick to read & post
• Integrate engagement chores into daily
work of editing, reporting, photos, videos

10. Engaging community
voices
Martin Reynolds

11. The Social Media
Conversation

12. engagement

14. Why converse w/ no link?
• Question invites conversation
• Engagement w/ question boosts
views/engagement on subsequent links
• Builds brand, gain followers
• Do you enjoy conversation w/ people
always calling attention to themselves?

15. Engagement tips:
• Engage with comments
• Post and/or share from personal pages
(selectively; don’t be a spammer)
• Crowdsource on community pages (not
just yours)
• No AP photos

16. CT Twitter study:
• Newsroom accounts mostly heads & links
• @5thDistrictCT conversational (links to
competition, RTs, replies, great info)
• @5thDistrictCT = 2x to 10x more referrals
per Twitter follower

17. Tips for being conversational:
• Monitor @ mentions & reply (answer
questions, thank for links, address critics)
• Make link posts conversational
• RT competition, community bloggers
• Ask questions

18. Monitor community conversation:
• Save searches for key names, hashtags
• Save location searches for breaking-news
terms (fire, emergency, siren)
• Make lists (HootSuite, TweetDeck
columns) of key community users
• Reply & RT

19. Encourage staff to be conversational:
• Be personable (can do that w/o stating
opinions)
• More than just links
• Listen to community; reply & RT
• Livetweeting events

20. Crowdsourcing tips
• Say what you know, what you need to
know
• Don’t ask for help; invite people to tell
their stories, share their photos
• Reach broader audience (hashtags, ask on
FB pages of groups w/ interests)

23. Liveblogging

24. Why to liveblog
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Immediacy
News value
Storytelling
Traffic, revenue, sponsorships
Community engagement, loyalty
Interactivity
Saving time

25. Gettysburg engagement
• More than 1,000 uniques daily, peak of
6,462
• 5 days > 2K page views, peak of 7,728
• 5 days > 35K engagement minutes, peak
of 96K+

26. Liveblogging situations
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Breaking story
Meeting
Event (festival, march, concert, trial)
Daylong (Election Day, weather)
Sporting event (can use fans, bloggers,
HS journos)
• Live chat

27. Liveblogging prep
• Get names (confirm spelling), titles in
advance (ask, get program, etc.)
• Set scene, saying what you’re covering &
that you’re live-tweeting
• Describe your circumstances, vantage
point: at event, watching on TV, curating
tweets (Andy Carvin)

28. Tips, techniques
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Short, frequent takes
Space isn’t an issue; engagement is
Liveblog becomes notebook for story
Consider links, polls, photos, audio, video
Tweet & Tout, feeding hashtag
Promote live & replays
OK to step away for question, video, etc.

29. Liveblogging issues
• Accuracy (stress verification, ask
questions, seek links & documentation,
correct quickly and candidly)
• Rough copy
• Sports credentials, court access
• Multi-tasking
• Learning curve

30. Live-tweeting tips
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Don’t transcribe; observe & report
In sports, mix play-by-play & commentary
Use hashtag (& check & engage)
OK to pause for checking facts, names
Note significant pause (halftime, lunch)
Fun interludes, exchanges, anecdotes
Check facts before you hit “tweet”

31. DFM ScribbleLive Accounts
• “White label” accounts distributed by
cluster & Thunderdome
• Embeddable chats for every site within
the cluster

32. Live Event Options
• Auto-curated or staffed – or both
• Allow readers to ask questions or
comment
• Participants contribute on site, mobile
app or via Twitter
• Add in photos, videos, links, polls, etc.
• Pair with a livestream or Google Hangout

33. More ScribbleLive Training
http://bit.ly/scribblecourses
• How-tos
• Specialized topic sessions for sports,
politics, court reporting & more
• Get ideas for monetization

34. ScribbleLive Support
scribbleadmins@digitalfirstmedia.com
Live Channel Manger for DFM
Chris March -- @marchmcfly
cmarch@digitalfirstmedia.com

35. Video engagement
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Surveillance video
Seek submissions from community
Vine, Tout
Google Voice + still photos
Search YouTube, Vimeo
Hangout (live on YouTube)

36. Video engagement
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POV camera
Live webcam
Post raw video
Live coverage
Video from source, agency