Social Media Strategyfor The Cincinnati Herald

Ginny Walters1 June 2010

Journalism Seminar15 JOUR 626

Social Networking Sites

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

MYSPACE LINKEDIN

What You Need:

• A Facebook page to keep people up to date on your current issue and community events.

• A Twitter account so you can “report” live from events, publicize events or link followers to your site.

• MySpace and LinkedIn pages are also good additions, but they’re not essential. You will get more traffic and publicity from Facebook and Twitter.

Examples

• http://www.facebook.com/cincinnatienquirer• http://twitter.com/CNN• These are both successful uses of social

media. The Enquirer’s FB page publicizes events around the city and also links followers to articles on their site. CNN’s Twitter account links people to CNN.com and provides followers with Breaking News Updates.

Blogging

• Linking blogs to your site is a great way to attract people to your site because when they find a blog they like, they’ll have to go to your site to check it out. Chances are, they’ll get distracted and click on a few of your articles too.

Example

• http://cincinnati.com/blogs/cincychic/• This is a blog that is linked to the Enquirer’s

site. I love this blog and have to go to the Enquirer’s site to read her posts.

• You can also follow her on Twitter (http://twitter.com/cincychic), which is a great example of linking social networking sites together to get even more cyber-traffic.

Comments

• I would recommend NOT allowing people to leave comments on articles.

• People can say some very hurtful things, especially about controversial issues (examine the Enquirer’s site if you would like to see an example).

• NPR just had an article about website editors constantly having to go in and “clean up” the comments. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126782677

• It’s more trouble than it’s worth, in my opinion.

Website Organization / Content

• The website needs to POP! – Flashy colors– Eye-catching graphics

• Example: http://cincinnatimagazine.com/• Archived content is great because people may

want to refer to past issues.

Community Outreach

• Advertise upcoming things in the city. If you help certain organizations advertise, you may be able to sponsor the event, which helps get your name out there even more!

• Put photos up on your website from past events. This makes people check out your website after the event is over.– http://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/

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