How to Identify and Track Your Social

CommunityFebruary 2013

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Submit questions on the right

Tweet with #NPRKnight

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The importance of headlines Web writing Your daily workflow Visual storytelling Using aggregation as a reporting tool Making the most of Facebook

Previously, on #NPRKnight

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Distribution: Sharing your stories as a station or an individual

Reporting: Finding story ideas from your social media community

Creation: Create stories that people want to share

Welcome to week 2 of social media training

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Distribution: Sharing your stories as a station or an individual

Reporting: Finding story ideas from your social media community

Creation: Create stories that people want to share

Welcome to week 2 of social media training

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Social media is great for

spreading your content and

fostering conversations.

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

your local communities.

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What can you find? Story ideas, sources,

news tips, photos, videos, firsthand

breaking news accounts and local voices below

the “mainstream” radar

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Here are some tools you can use to identify and track your social

communities…

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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 twitter.com/search 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

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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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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?www.reddit.com/r/austin

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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?• 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.

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What You Might Findwww.reddit.com/r/oklahomawww.reddit.com/r/adriondackswww.reddit.com/r/chapelhillwww.reddit.com/r/jacksonvillewww.reddit.com/r/ coloradowww.reddit.com/r/montanawww.reddit.com/r/wichitawww.reddit.com/r/philadelphiawww.reddit.com/r/missouriwww.reddit.com/r/baltimore

Search here: http://www.reddit.com/reddits/search

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What You Might Find• A lot of everything.

• Photos and videos.

• First-person accounts of news.

• Stories that haven’t been told by media.

• Reaction to local news.

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Demo

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LinkedIn

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What is LinkedIn?

• An “online rolodex”/more professional social network

• But you can find sources, story ideas and resources for your work there, too

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What You Might Find

• Company updates linkedin.com/companies

• Sources, guests, experts

• Local groups: linkedin.com/search-fe/group_search

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Live Demo

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(Old) Facebook Search

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(New) Facebook Search

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Reminder: YouTube Search

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Assignment• Find one story idea by searching social

media.

• Search around on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit and YouTube.

• E-mail your story idea and how and where you found it to dseditorial@npr.org by end of day Thursday.

• Go here: http://bit.ly/social-assignment

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Questions?

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Reminder: 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.

• Try live-tweeting.

• Contest runs for next two weeks.

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Twitter Contest Highlights: Week 1

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Assignment• Find one story idea by searching social

media.

• Search around on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit and YouTube.

• E-mail your story idea and how and where you found it to dseditorial@npr.org by end of day Thursday.

• Go here: http://bit.ly/social-assignment

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Next Week

What Types of Local Content do People Share?