Agricultural Editor’s Association

Ready, Set, Tweet: The Journalist’s Guide to

Social Media

Indianapolis

July 29, 2014

+ Who Is Using Social Media?

74% of online adults using social networking

+ Who Is Using Social Media?

71% of online adults use Facebook

22% on LinkedIn

21% Pinterest

19% use Twitter

17% Instagram

+ Who Is Using Social Media?

Facebook 128 million visitors to website vs. Google Plus 29 million—Nielsen/Nov. 2014

+ Google Hangout

+ Journalists Using Twitter

n 1/3 of journalists spend 30 to 60 minutes/day on Twitter.

n 40% say social media important to their work.

n 53.8% use Twitter for reporting, news gathering.

n 80.3% believe social media helps promote them and their work.

n  May, 2014/ Indiana University School of Journalism Study

+ Why Should You Be on Board?

n  Follow breaking news, issues

n  Media with strong follower numbers are valuable to companies who are looking to boost their digital presence.

n  Companies pay content/digital experts to manage social media feeds

n  #TrySomethingNew

+ TWITTER BASICS

Feed: your stream of posts or tweets

Post: 140 characters, usually contains a URL to image, website or video—aka “Tweet”

Handle: The @XXXX name of your account.

Avatar: Picture associated with your handle

Bio: Who you are and website link

@WSJ feed pic

+ BETTER BIOS

Continue to edit your bio as you chart your course:

Is the feed tied to a news outlet?

Are you indie?

Retweet does not indicate an endorsement.

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TWITTER BASICS

Follow: People you follow who are included your Timeline.

Followers: People who follow you.

Timeline: Stream of all the posts from the people you chose to follow.

@WSJ feed pic

+ Twitter / Hootsuite—essential apps!

How To: #Hashtags

Hashtags pull together all the conversation about a topic.

#farmbill

#deadzone

#hypoxia

#weedresistance

#AgMedia

#Hypoxia

#LandPrices

#WeedResistance

How do you “engage”?

Favorite

Reply or Retweet

Share original posts

+

Tagging is like an old-fashioned carbon copy.

How do you “engage”? Tagging

+ How Do I Garner Twitter Power, i.e. Followers?

Focus your feed/know your goal

Check in morning/afternoon-or at least 3x/week

Reply

Retweet

Share link with your original comment

+ Craft a Compelling Tweet

n Be specific about what’s in the web URL or photo you have built your tweet/post around.

+ Craft a Compelling Tweet

Write it like a headline.

“Five Reasons #LandPrices May Go Down This Month” vs. “My story on land prices…”

Build mystery: “How much belt-tightening can farmers take? #commodityprices”

+ How Do You Engage: Live Tweeting

+ Who will you follow?

n Other communicators, @stevencolbert

n PR people

n Advocacy groups

n @peytonmanning

n People you find on topical searches

n People your friends follow

+ Who will follow you back?

The key is to offer VALUABLE content back.

n Tweet five or ten things before you start following others to give future followers a taste of the content they can expect from you.

n Follow savvy friends who will follow back first.

n PR People

n Or just listen. That’s okay, too.

+ QUESTIONS

Thanks!

Susan Dosier tweets at @SDosier

DK Communications Group, Charlotte NC

704.993.7871 mob

susan@dkcommunicationsgroup.com

Find the presentation on Facebook: DK Communications Group

Thanks!

Susan Dosier tweets at @SDosier

susan@dkcommunicationsgroup.com

Find the presentation on Facebook: DK Communications Group

http://bit.ly/AAEAsocmed