April 20, 2009
KDMC/NewsU classmates dive into Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter for this week’s assignments
Here are instructor Paul Gillin’s assignments for the online class “Using Social Media to Build Audience,” for those who want to follow along:
While different social networks abound, we are going to focus this week on three that are popular and distinct: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
We’d like you to spend some time on each of these networks during the course so you understand how they work as you develop your organization’s online strategy and social media project.
We’re less interested in your becoming expert users (although that would be nice) than in giving you an opportunity to understand the appeal of these networks to their members. Among the advantages are:
- Ability to communicate with a large number of casual connections;
- Ability to find people they know or people they want to know among the network’s membership
- Ability to communicate in multiple media, including visual and audio
- Shared applications enable members to share personal information and engage in friendly competition;
- Ability to grow personal and business networks with the addition of network “friends”
- A culture that embraces self-promotion and recognition of individual expertise
This week:
* Join the social networks Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Find at least three people you don’t know personally and want to meet on each service and establish a connection to them. Update your status on Facebook at least once this week. Post at least two “tweets” or “retweets” daily on Twitter this week. Create a professional profile on LinkedIn. (If you’ve been on any of these networks for a while, you may not need to complete that part of the assignment.)
* On Facebook, look at three successful groups and identify features and tactics each is using to be successful. Describe these features and tactics on the Assignment Desk. Here are examples of successful groups:
Nike
Victoria’s Secret
Chris Moyles Show
Pink Floyd
Texas
Harley Davidson
Newspaper Escape Plan
By Michele McLellan, 04/20/09 at 5:51 am
Posted in 09 Class: Using Social Media to Build Audience | Social Networks | Tech Tools for Leaders
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August 26, 2008
Find their keywords,
and they will come
What’s your search strategy?
Powerful as “search” has become on the Internet (think Google), “search engine optimization” still remains mysterious territory to managers of some news sites. The Bivings Report has a fairly simple explanation of SEO and the importance of keywords in “SEO Basics.”
Here’s a summary:
Search optimization techniques to improve content visibility center on use of keywords that users are likely to employ in their searches. The key to key words is figuring out and using (in headlines, tags, text, etc.) words or phrases that someone searching for content that you have on your site will use in her search. Simple example: “Restaurant” is probably more widely used than “café” or “eatery”. But there are a lot of restaurants, so “French restaurant” or “Thai restaurant” or “‘Name of neighborhood’ restaurant” might fare better in a search. Or “pizzeria” might do better than “pizza restaurant.” Or… that’s the mystery.
This chart shows how the spelling of “barbeque” might affect search:
Your Web site’s traffic analytics program is one place to look for keywords people are using to find your site.
“SEO Basics” offers a handy list of free services to help you figure out the best keywords:
Google: Suggest and Adwords’ Keyword Traffic Estimator Tool and Trends
Microsoft: AdCenter Keyword Forecast Tool
WordTracker: Basic Keyword Suggestion Tool
KeywordDiscovery: Basic Search Term Suggestion Tool
For more, check out the full report.
What’s your formula for keyword success? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
By Michele McLellan, 08/26/08 at 9:16 am
Posted in Audience development | Metrics | Search and SEO | Tech Tools for Leaders
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August 04, 2008
Ryan Sholin offers ways to use
Twitter to gather, report news
Ryan Sholin makes it easy for newsrooms to get started with Twitter with “Five Ways to Gather and Report News with Twitter.”
Mindy McAdams offers some perspective with “Twitter is Growing on Me.”
Think you don’t have time? Try this: Open a Twitter account and sign up to follow Sholin and McAdams (five minutes). Check the account a couple of times a day (five minutes). See where it leads (one potential window into the future of news gathering and delivery)
Are you using Twitter? Please share experiences in the comments..
By Michele McLellan, 08/04/08 at 6:17 am
Posted in Interactivity | Innovation | Mobile delivery | Tech Tools for Leaders
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July 30, 2008
Twitter traffic on earthquake shows
power to collect, disseminate news
If your news organization has not been using, or at least following, micro-blogging tools such as Twitter, Jack Lail’s “Twitter as personal news wire” gives ample reason why news organizations need to pay attention. These are powerful tools, not only for pushing out breaking news feeds but for monitoring eyewitness accounts when news breaks.
Lail noted that the Associated Press moved a story nine minutes after the quake hit Southern California on Tuesday. “By the time AP moved a story, Twitter already had thousands of first-hand reports. Twitter has often been described as micro-blogging, but the Twitter blog says that for many people, the concept of Twitter is evolving to personal news-wire. We’ve seen this all along, but it’s growing.”
Update: Chris O’Brien, who is heading up the Next Newsroom project, posts his thoughts on Twitter, the earthquake and implications for newsrooms. It’s worth reading in full.
By Michele McLellan, 07/30/08 at 3:57 pm
Posted in Interactivity | Innovation | Mobile delivery | Tech Tools for Leaders | Technology
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