News Leadership 3.0

June 11, 2009

Social media essentials: Join the networks, be mobile, be human

Amy Gahran offers advice to traditional news organizations as they adopt social media

What are three critical ingredients of successful social media projects for traditional news organizations? I’ve asked faculty of Knight Digital Media’s “Using Social Media to Build Audience” class to offer their lists.

Here’s Amy Gahran:

- Get onto the networks. “Figure out which parts of your community use social media and where they hang out. And go where they are and listen to them,” Gahran says. “You need to become a presence in their community on their terms first.” Follow their lead.

- Make yourself mobile friendly. “Mobile and social media are very deeply intertwined because a lot of lot of people use social media via their cell phones and far more people have cell phones than are at computers.” And don’t forget to enable text messaging and make it easy for people to respond to you by sms.

- Be human. The authoritative mindset “definitely doesn’t fly in social media,” Gahran says. Instead, it’s important to be transparent, receptive and grateful. “And especially to laugh at yourself. Humor and humility really work in social media.” She cites recommends checking out @coloneltribune on Twitter for an example of humor at work for the Chicago Tribune.

Here’s a full podcast of Amy Gahran’s remarks with more discussion of mobile opportunities. I posted Paul Gillin’s list of essentials here. I’ll have an additional installment from JD Lasica next week.

What’s on your list of critical ingredients for creating communities online? Please share your ideas in the comments.

By Michele McLellan, 06/11/09 at 4:28 am
Posted in 09 Class: Using Social Media to Build Audience | Mobile delivery | Social Networks Comments (0) • Permalink • Tell-a-Friend

May 19, 2009

How tech-savvy is your newsroom?

If the White House, the Vatican, Major League Baseball and, yes, even the FBI, are going tech, should your organization be far behind?

Mark Luckie at 10,000words puts the spotlight on four traditional organizations that are spiffing up their Web presence with photo galleries, podcasts, YouTube offerings, iPhone apps, Twiiter feeds and more. Compare your efforts to Luckie’s four examples.

By Michele McLellan, 05/19/09 at 10:48 am
Posted in Mobile delivery | Social Networks | Technology Comments (0) • Permalink • Tell-a-Friend

February 13, 2009

Weekend reading

Links: Growth in use of micro-blogging tools such as Twitter, survival guide to going digital

Alan Mutter offers a rich recipe for struggling news-gathering companies in “Can newspapers transition to digital?”

Mindy McAdams launches a highly practical series called “Reporter’s Guide to Multimedia Proficiency.”

Pew finds “Mobile Americans Increasingly Take to Tweeting.” (link via @stevebuttry on Twitter.)

By Michele McLellan, 02/13/09 at 11:17 pm
Posted in Blogging | Mobile delivery | Tools for journalists Comments (1) • Permalink • Tell-a-Friend

August 07, 2008

Upwardly, outwardly mobile

Poynter’s Biz Blog features
a mobile news startup in Dallas

Rick Edmunds has a good overview of the Pegasus News, a new mobile service in Dallas-Fort Worth. Take a look at it here. At a glance, it seems to have a lot going for it: simplicity, phone-centric information including restaurants, events, movie times and bar happy hours. Users can add content as well. Check out Your Neighborhood and The Daily You.
With the growing popularity of mobile media, Pegasus seems like one model for news organizations who want to own mobile in their local markets. What’s your mobile strategy?