During our Week 7 session we were treated to a visit by LA Weekly web editor Keith Plocek, who is responsible for driving traffic to the Weekly's site by, among other means, getting the word out about unique and intriguing editorial content via Facebook and Twitter.
Using social networking -- Facebook, Twitter and even YouTube -- is an increasingly large part of an editorial operation's work online. You report it, produce it, and write it. Now you have to get people to read it in a crowded marketplace. (There are instances -- and the Weekly can be good at this -- in which an aggregated story can get more readers than the original as a result of snappy writing and deft use of social media).
Plocek talked about not overcrowding your feeds. On Facebook, he tries not to promote one story per hour so that the page can breath and subscribers won't be inundated with content.
On Twitter he said he tried not to tweet out a headline more than every half hour or so.
He also talked about how to write headlines on Facebook and Twitter. He often shortens them and uses question marks to tease and intrigue. This isn't the same as writing a keyword-rich headline for your stories. This is writing for friends and professionals who already know you have news.
However, with Twitter it's always smart to aim an extra tweet to a a subject who might be in your story (@OccupyLA has been known to retweet our stories to its followers after we tweet it at them using "@OccupyLA" in the headline). It's also good to have an idea what's "trending" (see the topics at the right of your Twitter home page) and, if applicable, add a hashtag topic (#Occupy or #OWS, for example) that will index your tweet for those searching that topic.
Interestingly, a recent Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism study reveals that some of the big media outlets with the fewest actual tweets have the highest number of followers. Tweet with care.
Following fellow journalists and giving them a shout-out tweet on "Follow Fridays," recommending that your friends follow them (example: #FF @keithplocek @dennisjromero, etc.), can endear you to them and get others to follow you.
Retweeting their work can also get you in their good graces.
Be careful getting into shouting matches on Twitter (by replying to tweets). Try not to get personal. Try to be professional.
If you're going to use Twitter a lot and want to, for example, divide your followers between journalism professionals and friends, you might want to try HootSuite, according to Plocek. It seems to be a good way to organize things if you follow a lot of accounts.
We also discussed Week 6's homework, which was to use original video as the centerpiece of a blog post. Most of you turned in some pretty cool stuff, with some of you using multiple videos for graphic soundbites.
Finally, we talked about the evolving ethics and rules of aggregation, using the example of Huffington Post writer Amy Lee, who got in trouble for aggregating perhaps a little too much (while doing so at an organization known for its aggressive aggregation).
New rule? If you're relying wholly on someone else's work, try to bring a new perspective to it, go as short as possible (five paragraphs) and clearly attribute and link early and often (say "read more" and link again at the bottom). Even better, as we've discussed before: Site and link to multiple sources. Best? Pick up the phone and advance the story with an interview or go and check things out in person (and maybe even come back with audio and video).
Our homework for Week 7 was to write a new post -- aggregation is okay -- and use Facebook and/or Twitter to promote it (showing me through a link or screen shot), AND getting someone to comment on your piece.
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