What Journalistic Writers Should Know About Social Media Lecture 5, Part 1

What are Social Media Definitions vary, but generally… Web-based, where many people can join and contribute Designed so users have choices in content and persons they want to follow Platforms where ease of use and entry into the conversation are paramount Largely un-edited, with minimal supervision and restriction

Social Media of Particular Interest to those in Communication Fields Facebook – essentially the 3rd-largest country in the world with over 800 million users Twitter – vehicle for short “micro-blogging” and a useful tool for driving eyeballs to view more content and for hashtagging Linked-In – mostly but not entirely business-based Google+ -- a social media platform designed along much the same lines as Facebook with smaller numbers of users but very powerful tools YouTube – while not always thought of as social media, this platform encourages interaction and is used for a staggering number of searches There are, of course, many other options

Why Social Media Writing is Different While writing for social media may often share journalistic style, it is different from standard news writing in several ways… It is often not the end product in itself – it is part of a chain It is often meant to be shared It is often meant to drive readers to other online destinations It is often designed to start conversation and invite reader involvement

Social Media as a Link in the Chain Very few people or organizations make their living entirely from social media In the case of journalistic and public relations organizations, social media often serves to drive eyeballs to other places -- in the case of a news site, back to the site Having said that, in some cases breaking stories are reported online via social media Social media sites also serve as a place where readers can join in a conversation without the organization having to monitor the conversation

The Importance of Sharing For communicators, the prospect of having your content shared is one of the great draws of social media Twitter, for example, can magnify your audience enormously if people retweet your posts You encourage sharing by writing content that people want to share, but there are also technological tools – such as programs for adding sharing buttons to your website and blog – that make it simple In fact, productive bloggers typically have many sharing tools in their pages, including suggested tweets that you can just click on to post

Driving Readers and Viewers Some examples of driving audience… Tweeting a piece of advice and providing a link to your blog Writing a blog post that has a link to your Amazon author page Guest-posting on someone else’s blog with a link to your blog or home page Posting on Facebook a video link to your YouTube channel, where in turn you may link to other videos and to your website The goal? To magnify and multiply your audience and reach your audience on platforms they use frequently

Inviting People to the Conversation One of the great strengths of social media is the ability to have readers and viewers participate… Among other benefits it encourages people to make repeat visits to the page This drives up eyeballs and encourages reader loyalty But participation is not without drawbacks… You can lose control of your message, including to spammers and saboteurs Conversations can turn obscene and defamatory – reasons why traditional news organizations fell out of love with comment areas

What’s Next Part 2 of this lecture will deal with ways of using your writing skills to maximum benefit in social media In the meantime, spend some time online noting how skilled communicators use their social media presence to increase and diversity their audience In particular, note how accomplished communicators create their own media ecosystem – where readers and viewers are drawn from one platform to another.