Rachel McCarver's social media presentation she shared first at the 2010 JEA/NSPA Spring Convention in Portland. In this presentation, Rachel talks about everything from promoting content and crowdsourcing to personal branding and ethics.

1. Friend MePortland 2010 By Rachel McCarver mccarverr@bcsc.k12.in.us

2. What’s comin’ up? What is social media? Promoting Content Interviewing News Gathering and Research Crowdsourcingand Building a Source List Blog and Website Integration Building Community and Rich Content Personal Brand Ethics: Remember, You’re Still a Journalist Experiment, Experiment, Experiment

3. What is social media? A service that focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in in exploring the interests and activities of others. Examples Facebook Flickr (Photo) Blogging Twitter Twitter Paul Farhi wrote, “Twitter attracts the sort of people that media people should love — those who are interested in, and engaged with, the news”

4. What is social media? (cont’d) Facebook Facebookgives reporters a means to connect with communities involved with stories, find sources, and generate leads. For media companies, Facebook is a way to build community and reach a larger audience.

6. Fan Pages Facebook fan pages are also being used by enterprising media companies to grow awareness of their brands and connect with readers. On November 5th, 2008, the day after Barack Obama became President-Elect of the United States, The New York Times ran an ad campaign on Facebook asking fans what Obama should do first as president. The newspaper’s fan page led with a call-to-action image asking fans to join the discussion. It also offered a free virtual gift of its newspaper with the headline “Obama Wins.”

13. Examples:

14. Joe Schmoe is excited about the newspaper coming out tomorrow

15. Susie Smith says don’t forget to buy your yearbook.

17. News Gathering and Research The power of real-time search is providing journalists with up-to-the-second information on the latest developments of any news, trends and happenings, worldwide. Sreenivasan said searches on social media sites can point journalists to supplementary information for their reporting. Farhi described Twitter as a “living, breathing tip sheet for facts, new sources and story ideas.” He added, “It can provide instantaneous access to hard-to-reach newsmakers, given that there’s no PR person standing between a reporter and a tweet to a government official or corporate executive. It can also be a blunt instrument for crowdsourcing”

21. Using groups or communities Last year the Orlando Sentinel discovered a Facebook group devoted to the lack of water at the University of Central Florida’s brand new football stadium This group provided immediate access to dozens of sources who had experienced the first opening game in 95 degree heat

22. Using groups or communities Building a community among social networks doesn’t happen overnight. Don’t try and parachute social network. An example: Jump in a group related to a particular event (like the Virginia Tech shootings) “Don’t be a parasite,” he said. “Do see this as a long-term investment in your community — contribute,” said J.D. Lasica, founder and editorial director of Socialmedia.biz and a former editor at the Sacramento Bee

23. How to get the community open up to you (cont’d) Working a beat takes time. It’s no different as a user on a social networking site. “It’s all about karma. The community won’t share with you unless you’ve shared (your experiences, your thoughts, your passions) with them. Don’t just be a journalist. Be human,” Lasica said.

38. Crowdsourcing and Building a Source list A journalist can tweet a question involving their reporting or announce that they are looking for a source via their FriendFeed and get some remarkable responses Not only do you have to find these sources, you have to keep them

39. Messaging Mass messaging to friends “Does anyone know someone who isn’t going to prom and has alternative plans?” “Do you know anyone who recently adopted a pet from an animal shelter?”

40. Publishing with Social Tools Publishing via social media tools can be as simple as updating readers or “followers” on Twitter during a breaking news event or building an entire news site focused around Facebook connectivity and conversations about local news Wordpress for blogging Twitter for live updates Facebook for posting articles or video Delicious for bookmarking Flickr for photos Youtube for video

41. Building Community and Rich Content The greater goal is to build a community through engagement. Crowdsourcing, live blogging, tweeting — it’s about building a network around issues that matter to the community. Social media should help journalists do their job and be integrated into their reporting, but not take it over. Content is still king.

42. Building Community and Rich Content (cont’d) Paul Jones, a clinical associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill emphasized the importance of creating rich content. “A tweet shouldn’t just be ‘I am eating a sandwich,’” he said. It should include a link with details that are useful to someone reading it. And retweets, he said makes the original tweet more rich and gives it credibility because someone else thought it was useful to share with their network. In a way, it is like the Associated Press wire picking up your story, Jones said

43. Personal Brand Students can’t stay in school forever — eventually they need to get jobs. Social networks can be used to build a personal brand that can help students land a reporting gig after college

44. Using your personal Twitter and linking it to your professional

45. Blogging with a personality

48. Ethics There are no hard and fast rules for ethics and social media yet. Keep in mind the horror stories of people not getting jobs because of their social media profiles and the things they put on them — remember that employers no longer just look at your resume.

49. Ethics in social networking Consider everything public Even though sites generally allow you some control over who sees your contributions, you should regard everything you post online as public. Some of your “friends” could pass along what you have posted. Once you post anything even to a closed network, you lose control of it.

50. Ethics in social networking (cont’d) Consider everything signed If there’s any chance you might use a social-networking platform professionally, it’s best to identify yourself, your publication and your position candidly.

52. Some people use fake names on social networks. Some people use fictional profiles. Some people will make exaggerated or false claims or accusations.

53. You will find valuable information on social networks, but it won’t always be easily distinguished from the lies, mischief and misinformation. Use the social network as a starting point in your reporting, but be sure to verify and attribute.

54. Double Check the Double Check

56. Discuss with your editors (or with your staff if you are an editor) what kind of statements of opinion, if any, are appropriate for you to make on social-networking sites.

57. If you have or are getting a Facebook page, leave blank the section that asks about your political views.

60. Could your “friend” turn out to be an embarrassment that casts doubt on impartiality

62. On Facebook, Twitter and personal blogs, many people discuss the everyday matters of their work life.

64. If you want to conduct truly personal social networking, consider maintaining a personal profile separate from your professional profile. Then you can do your reporting from one platform and pursue your hobbies or entertainment or sports interests separately from your professional work.

66. 2. Remember that nothing on Facebook or social media is really private.

67. 3. Once it’s posted there’s no way to take it back or restrict what other people might do with it once they get access to it.

68. 4. Reporters should disclose in their stories that they utilized Facebook as one of their reporting tools.

70. 7. Friending an unnamed source is the same as revealing the source’s identity. If you’ve promised confidentiality, you shouldn’t do it, even if the friend is using a pseudonym.

71. 8. Journalists are regarded as “journalists” virtually 24/7, especially nowadays with people with all kinds of agendas who are constantly looking for evidence of journalists’ bias.

75. “Poynter Develop Ethical Guidelines for Journalists Using Facebook, MySpace and Twitter” Kelly McBride

76. “TheJournalist’s guide to Facebook” Leah Betancourt

77. “WSJ Social Media Policy: Still Not Getting It”

78. “10 Ways Journalism Schools Are Teaching Social Media” VadimLavrusik“The Social Media Revolution: Exploring the Impact on Journalism and News Media Organizations” Ruth A Harper

79. CONTACT ME: Rachel McCarvermccarverr@bcsc.k12.in.us