Beyond the Buzzwords

Mandy Jenkins@mjenkins, #kipcamp   

Community Engagement and How it Works

What is community engagement?

What is community engagement?

Online and offline efforts to bring readers into the newsgathering process and closer to those reporting the news.

Why do it?

• Build long-lasting relationships with readers and sources

• Brand loyalty

• Create an eager network of reliable tipsters

• Be transparent about how we do our jobs

You may already be doing this....

• Twitter and/or Facebook updates

• “Tell us” in the paper, on TV, etc.

• In-story polls

• Chats

• Comments on on-site stories and blogs (*shudder*)

How's that going?

Don't be one-way

Rules of Engagement

• Answer all questions

• Address criticism (without spats)

• Publicly or privately respond

• Share good responses

• Publicly correct yourself

• Always acknowledge news tips

Agenda, of sorts

• Get more use out of Twitter and Facebook

• Better on-site engagement

• Establishing your own place

• Real Life Engagement

Twitter & Facebook

Are you really connecting?

Powered by relationships

You follow

They follow

Twitter: Find the right crowd

Find accounts by their areas of interest: 

twellow.comwefollow.com

Find accounts using Twitter lists:

listorious.comLists of those you follow 

Twitter: Search.twitter.com

• Search by keywords, location, time• Reach out for more info• Follow who you reach out to

Twitter: Don't be a news robot

• Be personable. • Tweet more than your links• Re-tweet, don't re-write• Openly engage strangers

Most importantly: Respond to people

One account vs Fan pages

Facebook: Find the right crowd

• Search public groups and pages

• Reach out with private messages

• Don't be a creeper

Search Facebook

• openfacebooksearch.com/• youropenbook.org/

Take conversation to them

• Comment on other blogs/stories in your field

• Talk with those talking about you

Everyday stuff

Curate your expertise

• Show your research as you go

• Save links to read later

• Share what you're reading

Tools to try

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

Bonus! Use a bookmarking site to organize & embed your shared link roundups.

Share curation

Tools for Engagement

New ways to do the same old stuff

Storify: Add readers to your story

• Curate tweets, Facebook statuses, Flickr, YouTube

• Add documents, story elements

• Reaction stories, Twitter fights, a dramatic event through others' words

Suggestion box > Polls

All Our Ideas: "Suggestion box for the digital age"

Example

Google Forms > "Tell Us"

• Exists in Google Docs

• Embeds on your site

• Feeds into a spreadsheet

• Can gather info privately or anonymously

Crowdsourced map: Google

Crowdmapping

• Free

• Lives online

• People submit on-site, by Twitter or text

• Quick to set up

Conversation > Comments

Engage with readers, control the conversation

Clear out the riffraff

Beat blogs and niche networks

Why get your own site?

• Brand yourself as an expert

• Connect with those who care about your area of interest

• Transparency in your story process

NOT to get page views

Beat Blogs

..a regular flow of reporting, resources and commentary in a focused area. 

Can be geographical, topical, activity-based or somewhere in between.

Source: Beatblogging.org

Private networks

• Message boards• File/link sharing• Limited access

Tools

Facebook GroupsGoogle GroupsYahoo GroupsSocialgo.com

Don't freak out

Connect IRL

Seriously!

Remember real life?

• Connect with your readers

• Have sources meet one another & readers

• Get story ideas

• Get feedback on your work

Hosting Meetups

• Meetup.com

• Eventbrite.com

• Facebook

• Twitvite.com

* More: Google Monica Guzman for info on her meetups

"Office Hours"

• Unplanned meetups outside the office

• Announce it on Twitter, Facebook or in a story

• Have it somewhere public

• Make yourself available

Experiments in engagement

Newsroom Cafe (Register Citizen)

Newsroom, cafe, citizen journalism classes, computer lab, library

How will you engage?

You're done!

Mandy Jenkins@mjenkins

zombiejournalism.comslideshare.net/mandyjenkins/