Archive for Twitter

15 Feb 2012
Facebook • Pinterest • Social Media • Tumblr • Twitter

The formula to social media success (or, why I suck at Pinterest)

Over the past few weeks, I’ve come up with a handful of reasons I’m not really digging Pinterest — from the cheesy logo to the gender-specific demographic (I’ve not seen the numbers, but I’d be willing to bet for every one guy on Pinterest, there’s 100,000 women).

After our head social media editor Anthony launched a Pinterest, I thought I’d dive in too, and that’s when I was faced with the real reason as to why I didn’t like Pinterest: It wasn’t the platform, it was me.

This would have been a better logo

Pinterest is for ‘pinteresting’ people. And I’m not one of them. In fact, spending a week on Pinterest has made me realize that, though I network with some very interesting people, I’m quite plain and boring.

Us boring people have gotten away with finding success on social platforms like Facebook and Twitter because we’ve been able to get away with just saying interesting things. But that’s changing with new social platforms like Tumblr and Pinterest, and even Facebook is morphing into a platform where doing things affects your social success.

Imagine if Rupert Murdoch suddenly stopped selling newspapers, or Howard Stern stopped broadcasting on the radio. Or Justin Bieber stopped creating the noise some call music. Would people still pay attention to what they had to say on Facebook and Twitter? Or would they sort of half-listen? Or would they listen at all?

I don’t claim to be an expert at social media, but I think I’ve figured out the formula for social success. It’s not about engagement (because, let’s face it, most of us suck at it). It’s not about having a conversation (it would be time-consuming and next to impossible to respond to thousands of at replies). It’s not about having an amazing personality (some of the most-interesting people on social have really crappy personalities). It’s not about having a cute avatar with a rockin’ background (unless you’re Justin Bieber).

Saying smart things + Being active in life and sharing it = Social success.

I’m going to work on not being as boring a person.

Matthew | 18 comments
07 Feb 2012
Facebook • Social Media • Twitter

Does Sky News not understand the Internet?

In 1969, two computers — one at Stanford University, the other at UCLA — were linked together for the first time, creating the first computer network in what would eventually become the Internet. A few years later, email came along, allowing professors and scholars from around the world to collaborate with each other on various projects at a speed that was previously unheard of: Near-real time.

Flash forward several years later, and we’ve got the Internet as we know it: From social media to streaming video websites, it’s a massive collection of servers and tubes carrying unbelievable amounts of data at lightning-fast speed.

That speed, apparently, was too much for one news organization to handle.

On Tuesday, it was revealed by The Guardian newspaper that News Corporation’s Sky News has rolled out a policy that will prevent its journalists on social platforms from collaborating with their peers in the future.

The policy, in part, instructs journalists not to share content delivered by other journalists on the website Twitter (“re-tweet”), mostly due to editorial concerns.

“Do not retweet information posted by other journalists or people on Twitter,” the email obtained by The Guardian reads. “Such information could be wrong and has not been through the Sky News editorial process.”

The policy really isn’t anything new. A colleague of mine at Sky — one of several people I know there — told me last year in a casual conversation that Sky News managers frequently frown upon their journalists from re-tweeting information delivered by people who aren’t established journalists.

But the policy revealed on Tuesday goes so far as to specifically instruct journalists not to retweet any journalist outside of the Sky News bubble — and now the policy’s in print.

It doesn’t end there either — Sky News is now discouraging, not just social collaboration with peers at other news organizations, but social collaborations with peers at its own news organization.

“Don’t tweet when it’s someone [else's] story,” the email goes on to read. “Stick to your own beat.”

If you need a moment to scream into a towel, feel free to take a few seconds.

Back? Okay, good.

Most of us could probably understand the overly-cautious stance of these social guidelines if they were coming from a news organization just learning how to walk on social platforms.

For Sky News, that’s not the case: One of their star social media players, Neal Mann (@fieldproducer), is already sprinting ahead of the competition.

In November 2010, Neal was picking glass out of his reporter’s hair during the  student protests in London while live-tweeting to a little over 2,000 followers on Twitter. Today, Neal is being called upon by universities and Fortune 500 companies like Nike to instruct others on how to take their first steps on platforms like Twitter and Facebook — while broadcasting to almost 40,000 followers on Twitter.

That kind of brand-establishment and following would not have been possible under Sky News’ newly-adopted policy of restricting collaboration with his peers, both inside and outside of the Sky News bubble. His collaboration on a wide variety of news stories not only landed him full-time employment with Sky News, but it brought him a huge list of contacts at many other news organizations — including myself — who have fed into his social network and helped him build an incredible presence and product.

Sky News should want that for all of their journalists.

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Food for thought: One of my social media rules is “On the Internet, you’re a collaborator first and a competitor second.”

Matthew | One comment
27 Jan 2012
Social Media • Twitter

ABC, Reuters, Twitter, Klout scores and newsroom policies

Yesterday, I did something I didn’t think I’d ever feel comfortable doing: I tweeted and Tumbl’d a photo of my Klout score as it stands now — to make a point.

What you’re looking at here is the Score Analysis chart of my Klout Score as it appeared between December 29, 2011 and January 26, 2012 — or, from the time my employment wound down at KGO-TV, the ABC-owned local station in San Francisco, to the time of my employment at Reuters.

See that sharp, increasing line in the middle of the graph? That represents the time period in-between January 9, 2012 and January 10, 2012, when my employment at Reuters was made public through a formal announcement.

I wish I had the chart to show it, but my Klout score used to be in the upper-60s prior to my eight-month career with the Disney-ABC Television Group (prior to May 2011). It fell sharply to the low-to-mid-50s during my time there, but has steadily increased over the past two weeks that I’ve been with Reuters.

So what happened, and what does this all mean?

The ABC Era

One of the reasons I was hired by KGO-TV was due to this social media supplement I had attached to my resume during the application process (if you’re a digital journalist or a social media expert, and you don’t have a social media supplement, you should definitely create one). Their impression by both my social following and my reach to other audiences landed me the job.

But I found it difficult to balance out the day-to-day tasks of uploading wire stories to the web, cutting videos from shows, fixing errors in stories, transcribing reporter packages from a TiVo and maintaining a personal social brand. This difficulty was enhanced thanks to several discussions and emails with management at KGO, who were less than supportive of maintaining a personal brand (“I need you to cut down on the amount you’re tweeting while you’re working,” one email from management read. “I need you focused on your job.”).

There were several behind-closed-door discussions and back-and-forth emails about my Twitter methods, the sort of language I’d use in certain tweets, the frequency at which tweets went out and whether or not it was acceptable to mention or tweet competitors. In responding to the criticism, I made sure to let my managers know that I thought their viewpoints were valid, but I never suggested that I agreed with them.

I think the bureaucracy, mixed with stagnant progression on the perception of social media at Disney-ABC, led to a decline in influence by way of my personal brand on Twitter. That was definitely disappointing, as I had hoped it would be perceived as a benefit to the company and the station, not as a disturbance.

(I know this is mainly about Twitter and influence, but while we’re on the topic, there’s a misconception that needs to be cleared up: Management at KGO never told me I had to stop publishing to Tumblr. The company never said I couldn’t either, and I never said on Tumblr that they did. The reason I closed it is because, like Twitter, I wasn’t being encouraged to keep it up and I couldn’t dedicate enough time to the product. I don’t like ‘partially-doing’ things, I like making things work, and if I can’t dedicate time to a project, I’d rather not do it at all.)

I’m not saying Disney-ABC was bad to work for. In the end, we perceived things differently, and it just didn’t work out.

The Reuters Era

So why the sudden jump in Twitter influence, as measured by Klout?

I get the feeling it has to do less to do with the size and reputation of the organization, and more to do with the position I was hired for mixed in with the progressive attitude the company takes when it comes to its own journalists using social platforms.

The company gives its employees room to breathe. I’ve seen several colleagues tweet things at Reuters that would never be allowed at KGO and would be frowned upon by the higher-ups at Disney-ABC, but this company recognizes that a little heartburn is expected now and then with the trade-off of allowing your people to be people — with personalities, opinions and thoughts.

The trade-off works. People like Social Media Editor Anthony De Rosa (disclosure: my boss) and Director of News Product Alex Leo have created an amazing dotcom product and built a tremendous community on various social platforms — including their own. Their personality and transparency plays a large part in why people follow them, and why Reuters content does well when either of them tweet or Facebook or tumble it out.

Anthony, Alex and many other journalists at Reuters also act as the face of the brand — news consumers feel a connection with them as human beings, not as  robots, because they’re allowed to be raw and transparent on their social products. The fact that they’re allowed to set aside time in their day to contribute to those products helps.

Another organization that has found similar success is NBC. The most visible individuals behind the brand on social platforms that aren’t on television include Anthony Quintano, Ryan Osborn and new hire Craig Kanalley. Each one brings a different personality to NBC’s social platforms — a colleague recently described Anthony as the rebel, Ryan as the diplomat and Craig as the strategist — and those personalities play out and attract follows and subscribers.

As it is with Reuters, all of that is good for NBC’s social media presence: A place where people are people yields better returns more than a policy where people are encouraged to be robotic. A place where, in this new age of social media, trust is built less through structure and more through raw, human interaction.

If you want proof of that, just look at my Klout score.

—

Food for thought: When you call a customer service line, do you want to spend five minutes sorting through an automated, robotic system or would you rather spend eight minutes speaking with a human being?

Matthew | 6 comments
13 Dec 2011
Social Media • Tumblr • Twitter

2011 Social Media Recap

January 8, 2011 was the day that got the ball rolling.

I had been unemployed for almost three months when I woke up that Saturday morning. Before starting my weekend plans of filling out various job applications, I checked my email around 10:30 a.m. A New York Times breaking news alert caught my eye:

News Alert: Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona Reportedly Shot in Tucson

I wound up spending the majority of the day tweeting various updates gathered from local Tucson news outlets and the 24-hour cable news operations, as well as videos, photos and graphics related to Gabrielle Giffords and the shooting suspect Jared Lee Loughner.

It was the discovery and publication of this graphic that got the most attention — to date, it has over 120,000 views and for a few days, it led to a flooding of new followers on my Twitter and Tumblr accounts.

Over time, I realized that my social niche was going to be breaking news, but with several breaking news feeds on Twitter at the time — including @BreakingNews, an MSNBC.com property — my feed was going to have to do a few things different in order to stand out.

• I’d have to be fast: This meant following a variety of news sources, discovering and monitoring hashtags and enhanced tags on Twitter and Tumblr, and keeping up with trends on all social platforms. It also meant following only a handful of people, at first, in order to weed out the social noise.

• I’d have to advance the story: It wasn’t enough just to publish one or two updates on a story. Social was moving away from a “news feed” and toward that of a visual medium like television (and the rest of the internet). The feed would have to advance the story with the first photos, first video, first court documents on social platforms.

• I’d need to stick with the facts: Anyone who wants to hear opinion programming can flip on talk radio or any of the 24-hour news channels during primetime. There was a great need for a social news platform that was devoid of opinion, that stuck with the facts. I credit this idea with driving some of the success behind my Twitter and Tumblr feeds.

• I’d have to hustle for news: When a big story broke in my backyard, I went from being an armchair quarterback to a roving reporter. When a hole opened up on Southwest Airlines Flight 812, a flight bound for Sacramento, I drove the five minutes to the airport to speak with passengers as they arrived.  When an evangelical preacher predicted the world would end on May 21, I covered the story in front of his Alameda home and was verbally assaulted by one of his supporters (the video had over 80,000 views on YouTube before it was pulled). When a large industrial plastics fire broke out in the town next to mine, I spent over an hour on location snapping and then uploading photographs of the blaze. Being active gave me a competitive advantage over those who sat in front of a computer and hit “retweet.”

• I’d have to give away what I created and acquired: I obtained several exclusive photographs from the Domodedovo airport terror attack and several exclusive videos from the earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan. And, against the advice of many in the industry, when CBS, FOX, ABC, the New York Times and others came calling, looking to purchase the rights to the photos and videos, I did them one better — I gave it to them for free. For me, it wasn’t about making money off of content that others gave me the rights to distribute. It was about exposure, and the hope that said exposure would land me a job. It worked, as ABC News, the New York Times, the New Zealand Herald and others picked up my work and gave me attribution. I soon became followed by several big news organizations, including NBC News, ABC World News, the Associated Press and others. Briefly, my YouTube channel became the most-viewed, beating out ABC and the AP. I’m in the process now of giving away my secrets.

There were several people who I credit with bringing my social platforms success:

• Anthony de Rosa: Shortly after the Gabrielle Giffords coverage began, he followed my account on Twitter and began referring me to his followers. Anthony was also one of the biggest supporters of my Tumblr activity, recruiting me to contribute to the Tripoli Neighborhoodr blog during the Libya revolution and giving exposure to my Tumblr tutorial in April.

• Neal Mann: The Sky News freelancer, who is now full-time with the news organization, was one of my biggest cheerleaders when it came to continuing my social product and finding a job. I think Neal’s vision for me was larger than my own at times, and his encouragement kept me going.

• Ernie Smith: The creator of the Short Form Blog provided my content exposure at a time when it wasn’t getting very much. Ernie and the Short Form Blog helped me build an organic audience on Tumblr by promoting my content and allowing me to contribute breaking news material during some of the larger stories of the year, starting with the Japan tsunami. Ernie has also been a great friend and colleague.

• Alex Johnson: The MSNBC.com editor followed me during the Gabrielle Giffords coverage and put me in touch with some great people at MSNBC.com and Breaking News, including Anthony Quintano, Cory Bergman, Amy Duncan and Thomas Brew. Alex is, perhaps, the biggest reason why my Twitter feed was a success this year.

• Ethan Klapper: Ethan gave my news gathering and reporting exposure by interviewing me for his 10,000 Words blog on MediaBistro. “Keep on fighting the good fight,” he told me at the end of the interview in reference to my ongoing job hunt (I don’t know why that stuck with me, but it was a source of great encouragement). Ethan is one of the most down-to-earth social journalists I had the privilege of getting to know this past year, and landing a job at the National Journal right out of college is only the beginning of his success.

There have been many others who were a source of support, encouragement and smarts over the past year — Craig Kanalley, Kate Gardiner, Jared Keller, Robert Hernandez, the Pantsless Progressive, Dana Franks, Niketa Patel, Dan Lopez, Erica Zucco, Evonne Benedict, Paul Balcerak, Sam Rubenfeld, Mandy Jenkins, Donna Cordova, Amy Wood, Judy Farah, Vadim Lavrusik, Sue Llewellyn, Anna Gonzalez, Nathan Byrne, Andrew Vazzano, Jen Lee Reeves, Liz Heron and many others — so to those journalists, I say, thank you and here’s to 2012.

Matthew | One comment
25 Aug 2011
Social Media • Tips & Tricks • Twitter

Spilling Secrets: Searching for breaking news photos on Twitter

Remember the first three words of my earlier post on searching for breaking news videos on YouTube?

“Keywords are king.” That’s true for any kind of search you do regardless of which social media platform you use, including Twitter.

Twitter is pretty smart as to how it handles keyword searches: Twitter’s search engine, unlike others, will allow a person to include URLs, and portions of URLs, in its searches.

THAT makes searching for breaking news photos much easier, which I’ll demonstrate in this tutorial.

SCENARIO: There’s an explosion. Somewhere. I dunno, let’s just pretend you’ve been tasked with search for explosion photos on Twitter for whatever reason.

FIRST: Log in to Twitter, then head to http://search.twitter.com.

SECOND: Type in the keyword “explosion,” followed by the word yfrog.

Adding yfrog to the search will pull up a timeline of all photos uploaded with the popular yfrog service. You can replace yfrog with twitpic or lockerz, which are other photo services recognized by Twitter.

Sidebar: Recently, Twitter reformatted its keyword search to perform much like YouTube searches: That is, Twitter’s computer believes it knows how to conduct effective searches by showing a person relevant searches.

With that in mind, THIRD: Change the way the tweets appear in the timeline from “Top” to “All.”

This will not only show you all the tweets in a timeline, it will remove the filter that aggregates only the top tweets from people you follow. This is essential for finding breaking news photos from outside your circle of Twitter sources.

FOURTH: Clicking on the white space within a tweet should open a slide to the right of the tweet, which will reveal the piece of media. It should look something like this:

TIPS AND TRICKS:

  • The above method also works if you want to search Twitter for YouTube videos, as opposed to searching YouTube for YouTube videos. Replace yfrog or twitpic with the word youtu.be or youtube. Also try searching twitvid for videos uploaded to the Twitvid service.
  • Twitpic and yfrog images that are retweeted may be truncated with the t.co or ht.ly shortners. These will appear in the timelines.
  • Be specific and get creative with keyword searches when browsing Twitter timelines. “Explosion” and “fire” are commonly used outside of the news sphere to describe things like desserts, etc. When searching for a fire in a particular neighborhood, searching “fire tribeca yfrog” will probably show better results for fires in the New York TriBeCa neighborhood than searching “fire yfrog” itself.
  • Search Twitter hashtags associated with an event (example: damage #eqnz twitpic or #eqnz yfrog).
  • Search early — usually the best time to search for photos on Twitter is within 15-30 minutes of a small- to medium-size news event and 15 minutes to an hour of a large-scale news event. After that, Twitter users may begin publishing photos they find on news websites or retweeting one piece of media multiple times, which sometimes makes it difficult to track down the original owner.
  • Save your searches for faster recalls by clicking the “Save this search” button at the top of the page if the story appears as if it will develop over a larger period of time.
  • If re-tweeting an image, be sure to cite the username of the person who photographed and published it.

There are also a few “Twitter search engines” for multimedia, including twipho and twicsy.  Both search engines offer the ability to customize searches for Twitter photos.

Matthew | 2 comments