Yes, social media is great for sending out tweets and posting stuff to Facebook. It can also be a valuable tool for staying on top of what’s going on in your local area or within your beat. 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.

1. How to Identify and Track
Your Social Community
November 2012

2. 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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3. Welcome to the three-week
social media portion of training
Use this
http://bit.ly/npr-social-training
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4. 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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5. Yes, social media is
great for sending out
tweets and posting
stuff to Facebook
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6. 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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7. 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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8. Here are 5 tools you can
use to go scoop them up.
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9. Twitter Search
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10. 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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11. Live demo
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12. Twitter Lists
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13. 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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14. Twitter Lists
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15. Live demo
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16. Reddit
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17. 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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18. What is Reddit?
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19. What is Reddit?
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20. What is Reddit?
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21. What is Reddit?
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22. What is Reddit?
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23. What is Reddit?
www.reddit.com/r/austin
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24. What is Reddit?
www.reddit.com/r/austin
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25. How You Can Use 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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26. 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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27. 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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28. Live demo
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29. YouTube Search
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30. 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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31. YouTube Search
 You can filter your searches by Upload Date to find the
most recent videos people have uploaded.
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32. Live demo
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33. Facebook Search
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34. Live demo
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35. 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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36. Twitter Contest
Twitter can be a great tool for journalists and we
believe it is best learned by doing.
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37. 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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38. 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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39. 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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40. Questions?
eathas@npr.org tgorman@npr.org
@ericathas @gteresa
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