{"id":106,"date":"2009-03-02T12:31:57","date_gmt":"2009-03-02T20:31:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/poynter\/?p=106"},"modified":"2009-03-02T12:31:57","modified_gmt":"2009-03-02T20:31:57","slug":"session-2-how-can-journalists-get-and-give-value-on-blogs-and-social-networks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/poynter\/2009\/03\/02\/session-2-how-can-journalists-get-and-give-value-on-blogs-and-social-networks\/","title":{"rendered":"Session 2: How can journalists get and give value on blogs and social networks."},"content":{"rendered":"
Session Convenor: <\/strong> Michele McLellan<\/span><\/div>\n
Session Reporter:<\/strong> Jenn Hemmingsen<\/span><\/div>\n
Discussion Participants: <\/strong> Sara Justicia Doll Liz Monteiro Tanja Aitamurto Ron Menchaca Karen Duffy Jeremy Iggers Leslie Fishburn Clark Laura Kessel Carol Zuegner Lou Ureneck<\/span> <\/span><\/div>\n

Do journalists have to differentiate themselves from bloggers?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do they have to? Michele thinks they should be part of those communities.<\/p>\n

Some newspaper blogs are tired excuses. But other journalists do it well. The education reporter at the Dallas Morning News uses it as a reporting tool \u2013 sends out questions and gets information from readers.<\/p>\n

Tanja is a print journalist and she blogs. She doesn\u2019t see that big of a difference. Blogging doesn\u2019t have to be about opinions \u2013 it\u2019s creating a new journalistic product.<\/p>\n

Check out beatblogging.org\u00a0\u00a0— a site for journalist bloggers<\/p>\n

howardweaver.com<\/a><\/p>\n

placeblogger.com \u2013 aggregates blogs by community<\/p>\n

How do you publicize and drive blog traffic?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Start a conversation with bloggers you like \u2013 link and be linked.<\/p>\n

Comment on other blogs and refer them back to yours.<\/p>\n

What is a journalist\u2019s blog supposed to be?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Material that didn\u2019t make the cut. Peeks behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

Reporting on personal experience rather than opinion.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes people think they have to be a ranter to have a blog,\u201d Michelle said. \u201cI disagree with that. I think you have to be a conversationalist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeremy: The rules are looser. You can write a lot more freely, conversational.<\/p>\n

Michele: You\u2019re giving a quick, focused thought in real time.\u00a0\u00a0Another thing blogs do really well is just providing links to what\u2019s out there: \u201cThere are linkers and there are thinkers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeremy is interested\u00a0in\u00a0ways journalists can connect with outside bloggers and social networkers \u2013to engage neighborhood bloggers, etc.<\/p>\n

Crowdsource \u2013 ask your community questions \u2013 use it as a listening device.<\/p>\n

Lou Ureneck suggests: Serialize the blog with cliffhangers. Tell a story.<\/p>\n

Michele thinks a key strategy is to go to other blogs and comment on them, so they know you\u2019re aware of them. Then you can link to you.<\/p>\n

Be smart about your keywords<\/p>\n

Use Twitter to drive people back to the site<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

Twitter:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jennifer\u2019s paper uses it for a lot — including traffic updates and accidents<\/p>\n

To build your clientele on Twitter, re-tweet something that a major Twitterer has said.<\/p>\n

Social networks and blogs can help you build audience and it can improve your content.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI think all a newsroom can do right now is build the audience,\u201d Michele said.<\/p>\n

Carol Zuegner thinks it\u2019s important, too, because that\u2019s where people are. At least if you\u2019re there, you\u2019re reaching an audience you have no other way of getting.<\/p>\n

Think of different ways of delivering content.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no single answer, just a bunch of tools<\/strong><\/p>\n

Can news organizations become the trusted referrers \u2013 where you\u2019re not only producing content, you\u2019re a curator for content.<\/p>\n

Michelle Ferrier says you should take different approaches for geographical and topical communities. To promote her geographical site: \u201cI ran it like a political campaign \u2013 I was walking the streets, I was shaking hands, I was pressing the flesh.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sources would see the stories on the blog and they got invested. She established \u201cpool rules\u201d after which readers could post their own content. Tend to your comments, so people know you\u2019re hearing them and also to model a certain tone.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to get out of the one-way mindset.<\/p>\n

Michelle Ferrier: How do you get and give value? You have to value people and relationships, as opposed to putting out a product and expecting people to follow you because it\u2019s credible, or because it\u2019s trustworthy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Session Convenor: Michele McLellan Session Reporter: Jenn Hemmingsen Discussion Participants: Sara Justicia Doll Liz Monteiro Tanja Aitamurto Ron Menchaca Karen Duffy Jeremy Iggers Leslie Fishburn Clark Laura Kessel Carol Zuegner Lou Ureneck Do journalists have to differentiate themselves from bloggers? … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-session-notes"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/poynter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/poynter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/poynter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/poynter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/poynter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/poynter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/poynter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/poynter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/poynter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}