Building Your Personal Brand on Social Media

Building Your Personal Brand on Social Media

Mandy Jenkins, @mjenkinsNew Jersey NewsTrain

Why brand yourself?

...or make one.

Find your niche...

Where Do You Show Up?

More Than Just Bylines

Building a social presence online

The Basics

• Use your real name and photo on social profiles

• Do not expect to live anonymously

• Decide how much of you will be out there

• These are not one-way channels, so pace yourself

8 Simple Rules of Social Journalists

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




3. Ask for help when you need it

4. Be thankful


5. Make corrections quickly and publicly



6. Address criticism without spats




7. Be consistent




7. Be consistent

8. Don't just push your content out

Twitter for Journalists

Not just what you had for breakfast...

• Drive traffic to your content• Monitor the people you cover • Crowdsource stories by asking for info • Quickly find witnesses, info• Live report from the scene of a news event• Share what you're reading

Being good on Twitter is easy

• Be useful

• Be informative

• Be engaging

Powered by followers

You follow

They follow

Who you should follow

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

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

Basic etiquette

• ALWAYS shorten long links

• Say what the link is

• Re-tweet, don’t re-write

• Don’t tweet like a robot

Got Tweeter's Block?

• Ask for info/feedback from followers

• Re-tweet tweets you like

• Tweet what you’re reading

• Jump in on other conversations

Facebook

Beyond 'Just Friends'

Profiles vs Pages

One account for everything

Targeting updates to friend lists

Subscriber-only option for non-friends

No analytics

Totally separate accounts

Excellent analytics

No ability to send Messages

Might feel weird

Following Without Friending

• Debuted mid-September

• Share with people who aren't friends

• Follow updates of those you aren't connected to

Optimizing your profile/page

• Publicly identify yourself, where you work and what you do

• Be easy to find, set up a vanity url at facebook.com/username

• Tweak all privacy settings to your liking

Target updates

Public Updates

• Crowdsource your stories

• Share behind the scenes photos and insights with readers

• Ask questions/solicit feedback

• Post your stories and those you're reading to generate discussion

Be yourself!

So many profiles, so little time

Other options to consider (but you don't have to do them all)

Google Profiles

If you have a Gmail account, you have a profile. Make it sparkle.

Google+

Much of the functionality of Facebook profiles

Hangouts: Live video chats with groups, can be public or private

LinkedIn

Only professional contacts

Stand-in for a resume online

About.Me

Social Bookmarking

Share your research, what you're reading

Save links to read later

Tools to try:

• Diigo• Delicious• Google reader• Furl• Twitter/Facebook/G+

Quora: Q&A for Experts

More!

• Start your own website or blog

• Participate in forums and email groups on your subject of interest

• Interact in the comments on your site - and those of others discussing your work.

• Attend or hold meetups and events

Promote Your Profiles

Google Alerts

Know what's out there - and respond

Set up your alerts

google.com/alerts

Eliminate results from your company site:

"first last" -yoursiteurl.com

Questions?

Mandy Jenkins

Twitter: @mjenkinsZombieJournalism.com

Find these slides at:slideshare.net/mandyjenkins

Building Your Personal Brand on Social Media

Self Improvement

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