How to Identify and Track Your Social CommunityNovember 2012

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Welcome to the three-week social media portion of training

• Distribution: Sharing your content and reporting as an individual and as a station.

• Reporting: Using social media to find story ideas and sources.

• Creation: Creating content that people will want to share.

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Welcome to the three-week social media portion of training

Use this

http://bit.ly/npr-social-training

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Welcome to the three-week social media portion of training

Over the next hour or so:

1. Using social media to identify and track your social community.

2. The Week 1 assignment.

3. Directions for the Twitter contest.

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Yes, social media is great for sending out tweets and posting stuff to Facebook

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It can also be a valuable tool for staying on top of

what’s going on in your local area or within

your beat.

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There’s an ocean of story ideas, sources, news tips, photos,

videos, firsthand breaking news accounts and local voices out

there. A lot of it is untapped and below the “mainstream” radar.

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Here are 5 tools you can use to go scoop them up.

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Twitter Search

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Twitter Search

Twitter is a powerful search tool that can be used to find out what people are saying about pretty much anything.

Use search.twitter.com just like you would Google.com.

Perfect for live and breaking news situations.

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Live demo

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Twitter Lists

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Twitter Lists

Lists are a way to organize people on Twitter by topics and categories.

For example, if you covered commuting in Boston you could create a list of city officials, journalists and newsmakers tied to commuting.

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Twitter Lists

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Live demo

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Reddit

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What is Reddit?

It’s a huge online community made up of many smaller communities.

People can ask questions, post images and post links.

It’s a good way of getting the pulse of the Internet at any given moment.

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What is Reddit?

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What is Reddit?

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What is Reddit?

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What is Reddit?

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What is Reddit?

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www.reddit.com/r/austin

What is Reddit?

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www.reddit.com/r/austin

What is Reddit?

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There is a lot of everything on Reddit and most of what you see will likely not be of journalistic value to you. But there are gems that can lead to story ideas and news tips.

By monitoring and searching specific Reddit communities, you can get in front of news and find out what’s buzzing.

You don’t need to check Reddit constantly, but looking around specific communities once or twice throughout the day (or when breaking news is happening) is worthwhile.

How You Can Use Reddit

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What Might You Find on Your Reddit

www.reddit.com/r/alabama www.reddit.com/r/dallas

www.reddit.com/r/austin www.reddit.com/r/vermont

www.reddit.com/r/pittsburgh www.reddit.com/r/michigan

www.reddit.com/r/atlanta www.reddit.com/r/miami

www.reddit.com/r/milwaukee www.reddit.com/r/neworleans

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What Might You Find on Your Reddit

• Photos and videos.

• First-person accounts of news.

• Stories that haven’t been told by media.

• Reaction to local news.

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Live demo

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YouTube Search

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YouTube Search

We all know YouTube as an endless well of funny cat videos, but it can be a terrific resource for local videos.

You don’t always have the time and opportunity to capture video but you can rely on citizens in some cases.

Consider a YouTube search after anything local happens that could have been captured on video by someone.

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YouTube Search

You can filter your searches by Upload Date to find the most recent videos people have uploaded.

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Live demo

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Facebook Search

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Live demo

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Assignment

Create a Twitter list of important people in your local area. This can include city and state officials, journalists, residents, and anyone else on Twitter

who might be able to provide you with useful information about your local area.

E-mail the link to your list to dseditorial@npr.org

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Twitter Contest

Twitter can be a great tool for journalists and we believe it is best learned by doing.

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Twitter Contest

The purpose of this contest is simple -- so you can learn the value and best practices of Twitter by

actively using it.

The contest is a way to make it fun and a just a tad competitive.

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Twitter Contest

• Use your individual account.

• Don’t just re-tweet others.

• Tweet about your job, have conversations, tell people about news or topics you’re covering.

• Contest runs from now until November 30.

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Prizes

• Gold: The individual who tweets the most over the three week period.

• Silver: The individual who tweets the second-most over the three week period.

• Bronze: The individual who tweets the third-most over the three week period.

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Questions?

eathas@npr.org tgorman@npr.org

@ericathas @gteresa