Social Media Weekend

Top social media tips for marketers, journalists, and more

Social Media was the hot topic at Columbia Journalism School’s Social Media Weekend the last weekend of January. A whirlwind of strategies, tips, and tactics was a constant centrifugal force, but we managed to gather a few highlights for you.

Columbia Journalism School Professor Sree Sreenivasan led the 2012 Social Media Weekend (#SMWknd).

Marketers

Never cold call anyone, contact via Twitter, e-mail, then phone
Be careful of your tone so as not to seem intrusive
Important to respect the brand you work for, but also have a personal brand

Journalists

Join social journalism groups on Facebook & other platforms
Need to bring multimedia skills to the table to swim to the top in journalism these days
Keep your perspective
Speed is crucial for breaking news, doesn’t all have to be original content ~ Edelman SVP Steven Rubel, media futurist
Journalists should consider themselves as columnists: Their personal brands can be an asset to the parent company.
“We have a whole new breed of reporters coming in that are fearless; they recognize the value of personal brands.”

Political players

Social media acts as an “early warning” system for candidates, campaigns can track and respond to issues.
In politics, it’s not just about the numbers. It’s about the intensity within those numbers.

Social media is a broad-reaching topic covering many different platforms and professions. Whether you are a marketer, journalist, or political figure, social media can be leveraged to impact your initiatives.

Thank you to @Sree and all who contributed to the discussion at Social Media Weekend #SMWnd!

If you had to choose which profession could best harness social media, which would it be?

Social Media was the trending topic of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism the last weekend of January 2012. Hosted by the Continuing Education department, 2012 was the second annual Social Media Weekend.

Filled with panels, tutorials, workshops, networking, and idea-swapping, #SMwknd featured 50 speakers and a crowd of multifaceted social media experts. The 3-day event was led by Professor Sree Sreenivasan and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

Social media, best practices

Grammar and spelling rules always apply
Repeat, be clear, and concise, and repeat again
Be appropriate: High school athletes LOST scholarships based on inappropriate Tweets
On all platforms be, “helpful, useful, informative, relevant, practical, timely, generous…”- @Sree
Start your social media when you don’t need it, so it’s useful when you do need it
Whatever your biggest network/platform is, put your link in smaller platforms (ex: put FB page on Twitter profile)
Visual.ly is a tool to help take facts and makes them look beautiful

Facebook

Brand pages should include lots of questions to engage audience
Tip from Edelman SVP Steve Rubel, social media strategist: Adding a Facebook experience to a website poll drives website traffic! Try it!
Building a media company within Facebook is brilliant

Twitter

120 characters or less, including @ mention, #, and link
Be mindful of what you retweet as it may be seen as a validation/confirmation of the content
Keep your follow list in constant churn: Get in new voices
Every tweet is about keeping your biggest tweeters happy says
Only 1 of every 5 tweets should be about yourself
For every tweet you’re sending out: Your mission is to engage, connect, and inform
The RT button eats your characters without getting you anything in return
Tag all your work and “gather all the stuff to bring it back” to one place, such as Tumblr
To get around the Twitter character limit, think abt linking yr tumblr 2 yr twitter account: wikihow.com/Link-Tumblr-to
Twiangulate shows who your most influential followers are
Crowdbooster another recommended Twitter tool

Foursquare

You can import your feed into your Google Calendar = Nice tracking of your schedule

5 new ways media is operating and how to adjust, by Edelman SVP Steve Rubel

1. Curate to dominate

FB, LI, etc. have all hired journalists to become their own content creators
Be a curator on a specific topic to stand out

2. Have data guide your editorial strategy

Dig through your data and be timely
Data drives traffic + there’s a raging war for page views

3. Keep media alive

4. Make media go deep and time it well

5. Be a superstar journalist

A few fantastic social media tips from the top minds in the biz. With only three days to talk about social media, it was a whirlwind event for all who attended.

Thank you Sree Sreenivasan and all other Twitter contributors for engaging so many great minds in one place to learn more about social media.