Social media and

journalism
Aka Facebook is more than Farmville and stalking
Who is using what?
 Facebook
 200 million users; 100 million logging in daily
 54% of users are women
 46% are ages 18-34; 20% are 13-17
 39% make less than $60,000 annually
 Easy to share multimedia content without a
“mask”
 Integrates with other social media
Who is using what?
 MySpace.com
 Around 58 million users
 57% of users are women
 46% are ages 18-34; 26% are 13-17
 49% make less than $60,000 annually
 Retains people on site longer than other social
media
 Is especially popular for music
Who is using what?
 Twitter
 Around 30 million users
 54% of users are women
 43% are ages 18-34; 29% are 13-17
 49% make less than $60,000 annually
 Works well with mobile services (smart phone,
SMS)
 4.6 billion tweets and counting
Why should journalists
care about social networks?

 Social networking is niche marketing

 Surfers (i.e. readers, news consumers, etc.) trust
their friends’ recommendations.
 Mobility makes it a great medium for breaking
news.
 Surfers control ability to get the news they want,
not what they don’t want.

 In other words, it’s a medium we can’t

afford to ignore.
 Question: What do
we use social media
for?
Interacting with
readers
Deliver the news
Promote the news
Crowd sourcing
Hmmm … human interest story?
Reporting the news
For the first time, we can really
LISTEN!

 Listen for complaints and to correct wrong info


W h a t is b ra n d in g ?
 A n d h o w it ca n w o rk fo r yo u
Own your online
profile
Don’t let bad decisions

bring you down

#smacktalkfail
#oversharefail
Tips to successful branding
 Be transparent
 Tell people how you reported the story – it’s a
good way to keep yourself honest.
 Engage in conversation; educate the reader;
answer questions
 Don’t run from your biases, but do all you can to
promote fairness
Tips to successful branding
 Be transparent

 Be authentic
 Don’t pretend to be something you’re not online.
You’re a broke college student, not James
Bond.
 Authentic doesn’t mean you want to overshare
 For the love of God,
do not Auto-Tweet.
Tips to successful branding
 Be transparent

 Be authentic

 Be collaborative
 Contribute more to the community than plugs for
your own stuff
 Follow the 80/20 rule
 Answer questions as well as ask them
 Talk back


 E th ics m o m e n t

T h e Je ff C ity h o sta g e
crisis th a t w a sn ’ t
#jcmohostage
 Police swarmed an office building near the Capitol
on Nov. 10 after an employee reported that a
voice from an elevator speaker warned of a
hostage situation on the fifth floor. More than
two dozen unauthorized calls were placed into
the elevators, three of which falsely warned of
a hostage situation.
 Word spread like wildfire on Twitter. Lt. Gov. Peter
Kinder reported seeing a swat team in the area
because of a hostage situation, which helped
cement the false idea.
 Other false rumors soon popped up, including a
false report of shots fired.
#jcmohostage
 Missourian reporters started tweeting from the
scene

 We set up a Cover It Live feed on the home page

that pulled together multiple feeds into one
unique stream. This included tweets later found
to be false

 The Missourian incorrectly reported that the

Jefferson City Police Department confirmed a
hostage. It was immediately corrected (less
than a minute later).