Social media, branding and metrics tools for journalists. Seminar originally given at Toronto Newstrain, 9/13-14.

1. Journalism, Branding
& Social Media
Mandy Jenkins @mjenkins
Toronto NewsTrain #TORbrands

2. Crafting Your Brand
• Define yourself before others do
• Show off your best work
• Make yourself/your newsroom easy to
contact

3. Don't Be This Guy

4. Define Your Persona

5. 8 Rules of Social Journalism
1. Respond to replies, comments and
questions (especially questions)
everywhere
2. Be transparent in all you do
3. Ask for help when you need it
4. Be thankful

6. 8 Rules of Social Journalism
5. Make corrections quickly and publicly
6. Address criticism without spats
7. Be consistent
8. Don't just push your content out,
share other links too

7. Questions for News Brands
• Who is my audience?
• What do they want?
• When is my audience online?
• What sort of tone is right for my
audience?

8. Who manages social media?
When do we update?

9. Twitter for
Journalists

10. Tips for Reporters
• Post links w/ comment or question, not
headline
• Monitor the people you cover
• Crowdsource stories by asking for info
• Quickly find witnesses, info with search
• Live report from the scene of a news
event
• Show your work

11. RT News & Photos

12. Ask For Tips

13. Target & mention big names

14. Twitter Chats

15. Build Twitter Lists
Make sense of incoming tweets
Lists to build:
• Sources
• Others reporting on your
beat
• Coworkers

16. It's All About Who You Follow

17. Who you should follow
• Your competitors (& bloggers too)
• People in your field of interest/beat
• Popular people in your local/topical
Twittersphere
• Those who reply to you
• Those who re-tweet, share your links

18. Finding who to follow
• By subject/location: Twellow.com,
Wefollow.com
• Muckrack.com (for finding
journalists)
• Look at others’ follows/followers
• Spy on Twitter lists
• Listorious.com

19. Brands Behaving Badly

20. Brands Behaving Badly

21. Journalists on Facebook

22. Profiles Pages
• One place to manage • Completely separate
everything presence from profile
• Control your privacy • Completely public
• Timeline design with • Timeline design with
large image large image
• Could mix personal/ • Detailed analytics to
professional see who visits

23. Going Public On Facebook
• Turn on Subscriptions: Anyone can read
your public posts
• Set up a vanity url at facebook.com/
username
• Add your job history and a snappy bio to
About section (and make it public)

24. Build Friends Lists
facebook.com/bookmarks/lists

25. Build Interests Lists
facebook.com/bookmarks/lists

26. Target updates

27. Custom Privacy Settings

28. Customize Who Sees Photos

29. Everyone Sees It Differently

30. Create An Engaging Presence
Take advantage of timeline with photos,
milestones and videos

31. Whatever You 'Like'
• What would you share on Facebook?
• Ask questions, feature the responses in
stories
• During news, you can't overpost
• Photos and videos work well

32. Tell Your Story Here

33. Tell Your Story Here

34. Wording Matters
• Posed Questions +64%
• Call to read or take a closer look
+37%
• Personal reflections +25%
• Clever, catchy tone +18%
% more feedback over average
Source: Facebook

35. Images Matter

36. Monitoring Success

37. Metrics That Matter
• How many story ideas were inspired by
what you read on social media?
• How many sources did you find on
social media?
• How many times did people share or
retweet your message?
• How many sites/blogs linked to you?

38. Track Your Followers Over Time
Twittercounter.com

39. Track Your Performance
Klout.com

40. Tweet at the Right Time
Crowdbooster.com

41. Bitly: Measure Click-Thrus

42. How are readers finding it?

43. Set up your alerts
google.com/alerts
Eliminate results from your company site:
"first last" -yoursiteurl.com

44. THANKS!
Mandy Jenkins
mjenkins@digitalfirstmedia.com
@mjenkins
Blog: Zombiejournalism.com
These slides & more at
slideshare.net/mandyjenkins

45. Presentation Element Credits
• Deborah Petersen, @deborapertsen
• Kevin Sablan, @ksablan