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Social Media Techniques You Can Begin Using Tonight. Cindy Royal, Ph.D Assistant Professor Texas State University School of Journalism and Mass Communication croyal@txstate.edu www.cindyroyal.com www.onthatnote.com cindytech.wordpress.com twitter.com/cindyroyal facebook.com/cindyroyal.
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Social Media Techniques You Can Begin Using Tonight Cindy Royal, Ph.D Assistant Professor Texas State University School of Journalism and Mass Communication croyal@txstate.edu www.cindyroyal.com www.onthatnote.com cindytech.wordpress.com twitter.com/cindyroyal facebook.com/cindyroyal
Have Passion • Care about something • Be sincere; authentic • Have a point of view • You can't fake true passion • Once you find your true passion, use social media to express yourself; develop personal brand
Start a Blog • Blogging allows you to explore your passion, improve writing skills, communicate with others who share your interest • Explore the topic and become current, eventually an authority • Blogger is simple; Wordpress allows you to add pages that make it more like a Website • Free; but pay for a custom domain • Allows you to have a Web site without knowing how to make one • Can customize via templates or CSS if you know it • You can add photos, video, links, other social features • Tag posts with appropriate key terms to help others find your content • Include a page with your resume
LinkedIn • LinkedIn is the professional social network • Your LinkedIn profile can connect you to thousands of professionals • Search for connections at companies of interest • Create a LinkedIn profile that reflects your interests and background much like a resume • Include your Website on your LinkedIn profile
Facebook • Facebook is a fun place to share with friends • But remember, any friend can be a potential career contact • Friend faculty and professional contacts, as long as you keep your Facebook activities professional and above board. Use privacy settings and friends lists carefully. • Get a custom url for your Facebook profile - facebook.com/username • Start a Facebook Group or Page for your interest. This allows you to communicate with others who share the same interest. • A Facebook Group is a listing of friends on a separate page, provides its own Wall, discussion, profile, ability to email • A Facebook Page allows users to become Fans. People will want to associate their interests with you • Any time you have new content for your blog, post to Facebook
Twitter • Start a Twitter account; free & simple • Follow interesting people. Some suggestions at the end of the presentation • Don't worry about “What are you doing?” • It's not as much about who follows you as who you follow • Sometimes, it's not about the tweet, it's about the link • Use RSS feeds and widgets to repurposeTwitter to your Web site or blog. New content all the time. • Respond to questions • Retweet interesting items
Twitter • Use a hashtag for conferences or conversations (#) • Use a url shortener (bit.ly, tinyurl.com) for links • Any time you have new content for your blog, Tweet it • Realtime search – ability to see what people are saying about any topic right now • Trending – ability to see the most popular things people are talking about right now. • Gary Vaynerchuk - “Twitter is perhaps the most powerful brand-building tool in your toolbox” • Use Twitter clients like TweetDeck, HootSuite, Seesmic or Tweetie to help organize tweets on your desktop
Photos • Join a photo sharing site like Flickr or Picasa • Learn how to upload photos and create a slideshow • Use the embed code from the slideshow or follow your blogs rules to embed it on your blog. Use HTML tab in blog form. • Learn how to optimize photos for the Web via Photoshop or via a Web-based solution like webresizer.com • Provide interesting captions to your photos that tell the story
YouTube • Get an inexpensive camcorder or camera with video capabilities • Learn to use simple editing software like iMovie or Windows MovieMaker • Interview people, have a talk show, do a video blog with commentary, make short films, be creative • Embed the video on your blog. Embed code is readily available to the right of your videos on YouTube • Your username becomes a channel • Tag videos with appropriate keyterms to help others find your content • Other sites, like Vimeo, Viddler
UStream.tv • Push the envelope with live streaming video • With a laptop and a Web cam (or camcorder connected to laptop), you can easily broadcast live from an event • Easy to embed in your blog • Show pages allow for audience to chat and comment on an episode
Go Mobile • Get a smart phone and find apps that will allow you to expand your social media activities • News apps help you stay in touch • Twitter apps – Tweetie, Twitterific, Twitterfon, UberTwitter, TwitterBerry – allows you to Tweet when you are on the go. • Qik.com – live stream video from phone • Make your own iPhone app. Companies like iLike provide formats for musicians. Other options
The rest • Analytics – use Google Analytics or those associated with your blog platform to get information about users, locations, link referrals, etc. • Delicious – social bookmarks. Tag interesting articles, put in categories, share with others • FriendFeed – recently purchased by Facebook. Stay tuned as to how they integrate that in their offering • Slideshare.net – use to upload presentations and pdf's that you can embed on your site • Use Google Sites to create own Web site; get some html skills and you can host your site anywhere, much more flexible • Ning or KickApps – start your own social network
Building your community • Comment on others blogs, tweets. Become part of the conversation. Others will respond. • Be positive. A super positive version of yourself. People respond to enthusiasm and will gravitate toward you more readily if you are positive, honest, transparent. • Focus on building community. Later you may be able to generate revenue from your blog but your focus should be the online presence at this point. • Include all your social media activities on your business card – domain, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook custom url • Later – advertising, speaking engagements, sell things, write articles, consulting, paying jobs...
Passion • None of these strategies will work if you don't have passion, a sincere interest in what you are doing. • You can't just sign up for one of these accounts and sit back and wait. You must put in time and effort. • Follow trends in your interest area as well as social and online media. Be aware of changes, new technologies. • Be open-minded. Be creative. • Become an active member of the community. • Help others with their social presence. • Have fun!
Some Twitter follow recommendations TX State faculty twitter.com/cindyroyal twitter.com/dquack twitter.com/jonzmikly twitter.com/mairalg twitter.com/txst - that's the official txstate twitter Professional Media twitter.com/nytimes twitter.com/wired twitter.com/smashingmag twitter.com/techcrunch twitter.com/statesman twitter.com/universitystar Other people/organizations twitter.com/jeffjarvis twitter.com/jayrosen_nyu twitter.com/aejmc twitter.com/ojr twitter.com/sxswi twitter.com/scobleizer twitter.com/thepeoplesmedia
Resources • SXSW Interactive - www.sxsw.com/interactive • Wired Magazine - www.wired.com • Cyberjournalist.net - Great Work Gallery - www.cyberjournalist.net/category/great-work-gallery • Online Journalism Awards - http://www.journalists.org/ • Knight Digital Media Center - www.knightdigitalmediacenter.org • Online Journalism Review Archives - ojr.org • Interactive Narratives - interactivenarratives.org/ • We The Media by Dan Gillmor • Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins • The Long Tail and Free by Chris Anderson • What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis • Remix by Lawrence Lessig • Editor & Publisher Awards - royal.reliaserve.com/eppy/winners2008.html • Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication - jcmc.indiana.edu
Key Terms Blog Web 2.0 User-generated content Mobile/Moblogging Mashup RSS Tag/ Tag Cloud Podcast/Vcast Wiki Web-first journalism Programmer/Journalist OpenSocial/Facebook Connect Widgets/Apps