Traditional media's attitude to social networking is evolving with varying results. Some are harnessing the opportunities offered, while others still refer to 'new media' with a condescending 'and finally' tone that suggests they may be losing touch with their audience.
The five don'ts
1: Don't appear out of touch
Never refer to social networking as a new phenomenon in your copy, bulletins, studio discussions or in a piece-to-camera and live radio spots. A large part of your audience is using Twitter and Facebook and increasingly turning to them and other sites as their primary sources of information. Your failure to grasp this will lose you credibility.
Your failure to grasp this will lose you credibility
2: Don't call it new media or new technology
It's not new. Using terms such as 'new media' makes it sound as though you are 'old media' and lagging behind. The term was okay towards the end of the last century, but you should be part of a converged news operation delivering content to whatever platform/device the user turns to in order to access information. If you are, then it is part and parcel of that. If you are not, then you should be.
If you keep calling it new you will come across as old
3:Don't leave it to your online team
Or worse still a junior member of staff to manage and monitor. Twitter, Facebook and other social networks should be an integral part of your newsgathering and news dissemination strategy. All your journalists should be using tools such as TweetDeck to monitor what people are saying and to discover stories. Take it seriously or you may soon find you are no longer taken seriously.
Twitter, Facebook and other social networks should be an integral part of your newsgathering and news dissemination
4: Don't snigger
Never let presenters refer to stories that involve social networking with that 'and finally' tone or that condescending, knowing nod and smile, as if it is all a bit of a joke. It could come across as patronising or (even worse) disconnected, distant and judgemental. Get some of your more connected correspondents (and there are loads around) to educate the studio presenters and some of the less connected producers. Those in the field often get it because they are rubbing shoulders with the audience on a daily basis and understand the significance of the changing audience behaviour; they also know, first hand, how your news organisation is being perceived.
Don't take pride in adopting a patronising, disconnected, distant and judgemental tone
5: Don't miss the story
Remember that the number and speed of tweets on an issue is a story in itself, and you can run that story even before you have been able to verify what is being said with the usual two independent sources. Simply reflecting the activity and taking the time to follow a few tweets in order to sample the diversity of perspectives and opinions will enrich your news coverage. If you ignore this phenomenon you will be ignoring news.
If you ignore this phenomenon you will be ignoring news
The five dos
1: Tweet your own news as soon as it is verified
Remember you can tweet facts, you don't need long, complex concepts. Tweet about things that your news organisation can confirm have happened as soon as the confirmation is in. You just need the facts in a short sentence. Subject, verb, object - send. The social network audience feeds off facts (and other stuff), and it is taking those facts to another place (their preferred social networks) where they add their own context and analysis by interacting with their friends (rather than sitting in front of a TV or radio or clicking through your webpages or thumbing through your newspaper/magazine pages). Always add a short URL if the story is supported by an article or audio & video online.
Tweet your own news as soon as it is verified
2: Take a gift with you
If you are going to gatecrash the social network party offer something that those who tweet will value. Your best offering is facts from stories where you are 'digging where others don't' or in the category of 'had it not been for you the world would never have known'. They won't thank you for regurgitating the wires and throwing up a slightly modified version of what is running on 100 sites, broadcast networks or newspapers. Originality is the key. Tweet facts that they can't get elsewhere. Automate your feeds through to Facebook and Twitter to provide a steady stream of content for social networks to feed off.
They won't thank you for regurgitating the wires and throwing up a slightly modified version of what is running on 100 sites
3: Change your tools
Think differently about the way you set up the desktop for your journalists. If they can only surf the net and browse the wires some may limit themselves to that window on the world - and your news offering will reflect that limitation. You need to observer, evaluate and, where appropriate, integrate the social network chatter and make sense of it in a way that informs the public debate and broadens perspectives. Also encourage your journalists to engage in conversations when they find a story, rather than just feed off what is already there.
You need to integrate the social network chatter into the tools your journalists use
4: Widen your contacts
Start to build up a new contacts file of those hundreds of thousands of (free) stringers who are filing copy (that's the stuff of headlines) free of charge 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year. (Imagine organising a rota for that -- the work flow implications are mind blowing, let alone the staff costs). So enlist those who are tweeting, and don't always turn to the known voices who may no longer have the connection with changing audience behaviour.
Enlist those who are tweeting, and don't always turn to the known and overused experts
5: Embrace, hug and welcome back
Find ways of bringing the social network experience back into your news production process, and not just as a token nod and wink, but as a serious reflection of how both you and the audience are changing. Those tweeting may have taken your facts away with them to their preferred social networking space to discuss with their friends, but in doing so, they and their contacts will add their own value to the growing story. Be sure to invite them back, and find ways of sharing that enhanced understanding and feeding it back into the system so the richness of knowledge and experience and the diversity of perspectives is available for all.
Social networking is a reflection of how the audience is changing - ignore it at your peril
See how others are doing it
Check out the Facebook sites for CNN, BBC News, the Wall Street Journal and other leading news organisations.
Look at how many followers they have. Check the number of times stories are commented on and discussed in the Facebook environment.
And look at all the automated links offering a direct route back to the media organisation. Next, check their presence on Twitter.
Free social networking tools offer viral dissemination, engage the audience where they want to be engaged, and providing return traffic; it's a no brainer.
Free social networking tools offer viral dissemination, engage the audience where they want to be engaged, and providing return traffic.
The 'broadcast/publish at' model died years ago. The 'engage with on our terms' model is in its death throes. Now it's about 'participate in' and empowerment. Those traditional media organisations that move to this model qucikly may have more chance of surviving.
David Brewer
The author of this piece, David Brewer, is a journalist and media strategy consultant who set up and runs this site, Media Helping Media. He delivers media strategy training and consultancy services worldwide and his business details are at Media Ideas International Ltd. He tweets @helpingmedia.
http://www.mediahelpingmedia.org/training-resources/social-networking/399-social-networking-tips-for-traditional-media
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