Using social media for better reporting - Millie Khanna 2 of 2

USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR BETTER REPORTING -‐ part 2 of 2

Millie Khanna, Director – Social Media & CreaFve Strategy OMLogic ConsulFng Pvt Ltd At exchange4media, NOIDA, India

THE IDEAL RESEARCH CHECKLIST

Ø  Blog: Expressive, Engages Readers, Quality CuraFon, AQract like minds.

Ø  LinkedIn: IniFates and parFcipates in discussions, Impressive professional network.

Ø  Facebook : Ease in maintaining informal

relaFonships and quality of interacFons. Ø  Twi4er: Wide network , balanced parFcipaFon

BE THERE. BE SOCIAL.

THE IDEAL RESEARCH CHECKLIST

Ø  Scribd / Slideshare : Knowledge sharing , constant learning , quality of ideas

Ø  Flickr: CreaFve and aestheFc bent of mind ,

right brain engagement Ø  YouTube: Comfort with mulFple modes of

communicaFon and expression

START A BLOG -‐ FREE AVAILABLE FROM WORDPRESS, BLOGGER, REDIFF…

MAKING YOUR BLOG COUNT

•  Share interesFng things about your area of research.

•  Provides glimpses into your life outside of work –

family, friends, hobbies, etc.

•  Link your social networking profiles

•  Talk about projects which led to the research. Make it Human

•  Include a link to your personal profile.

•  Keep your blog non-‐controversial

•  Appreciate comments and thank them

WHY BLOG?

1.  Blogging captures the moment

2.  Blogging frees you from the dictates of length

3.  Blogs contain mulFtudes

4.  Blogging enables greater breadth of coverage

5.  Blogging enables greater depth of coverage

6.  Blogging keeps Mainstream Media honest

7.  Blogging keeps bloggers honest

8.  Blogging enables the Long Tail of Opinion

9.  Blogging breaks down geographical barriers

10.  Blogging can help you find your voice as a writer

11.  Blogging sharpens your craf as a writer

12.  Blogging rewards merit

13.  Blogging expands your world

-‐ Amit Varma, Veteran Blogger, India Uncut

hQp://indiauncut.com/iublog/arFcle/the-‐big-‐deal-‐about-‐blogging/

SEO IS NOT THE ENEMY OF GOOD WRITING

Create a balance

STAY ON TOP

IGNORANCE IS NOT AN EXCUSE IN THE ERA OF INTERNET.

Consume as much informaFon as you can.

FOLLOW THE RIGHT PEOPLE

“Move in the right circles”. Follow the people relevant to your domain. Schmooze them.

Consume as much informaFon as you can

HAVE TO BE MULTI-‐SKILLED

Photography

Be a generalist. But find your specializaFon.

Video ediFng SEO

By-‐lines are sFll the most important currency. Where you get it from is rapidly changing.

MAKE FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE ONLINE

Use these principles on Facebook and TwiQer

DON’T USE AN INFORMATION ONLY BECAUSE SOMEONE TWEETED IT

#BasicsOfJournalism #CommonSense

WHATEVER YOU DO, DON’T DO THIS:


PLAGIARISM IS A MORTAL SIN. MOREOVER NOT GOOD FOR SEO.

You WILL get caught.

And frankly, it’s just not cool bro!


LINK DESCRIPTIVELY AND RELEVANTLY

•  Link to your previous arFcles to give some background

•  Don’t just link using useless text like ‘click here for my previous

arFcle’ or ‘for more informaFon click here’ – use your

headlines or relevant keywords.

•  Search engines look at the hyperlinked anchor text to help assess the relevance of a page to certain keywords. By linking

using your (already opFmised) headline, you give your last

arFcle an SEO boost.

PARTICIPATE IN ONLINE DISCUSSIONS

•  Dive into threads, like Media Rant on HotWired or the media

conference on the WELL. Post messages to Usenet

newsgroups, mailing lists and Web publicaFons' feedback and

leQer secFons.

USE THE LANGUAGE OF YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

•  Use Keyword tools to find the search volume around different

terms.

•  Are more people searching for President Obama or Barack

Obama?

•  Remember, matching your content to your readers’ searches in

this way will get you more traffic from search engines.

hQp://www.wordtracker.com/academy/seo-‐Fps-‐meda-‐journalists

USE THE LANGUAGE OF YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

ORGANIZE YOUR CONTENT IN A LOGICAL WAY

•  Could a user find the content she is looking for just by clicking?

•  If the answer is no, you should change it. It’s bad for users and it’s bad for

search engines.

•  Think about the topics you’re wriFng about, could they all be arranged into

categories? If it’s a recipe site for example, maybe you could have Italian,

Chinese, Thai or Chicken, Beef, Vegetables?


DON’T DUPLICATE. DON’T DUPLICATE.

•  Do you write for a blog or an online newspaper, but want to have your own arFcles on your

personal blog? In that case you’re beQer off just linking out to the arFcles, rather than

duplicaFng them.

•  Or you could use the canonical tag, to ensure that google knows that you’re not trying to pull a

fast one. So if you’ve wriQen an arFcle about Obama’s latest speech on the economy, on your

blog, www.yourblog.com/poliFcs/obama-‐gives-‐speech-‐on-‐economy, put the following line of

code in the secFon of the page:

<link rel="canonical" href="hQp://www.youremployer.com/poliFcs/obama-‐gives-‐speech-‐on-‐

economy"/>

•  In this case, your employer’s site will get the benefit. but your site won’t get punished. (And

indeed, if you use the author=rel tag, it might start linking the two sites, and giving your blog

more authority ...


USE REL="AUTHOR".


This is great for you, but it's also great for your bosses

WRITE EVERYTHING FOR READER. YES, EVERYTHING.

•  Write everything as though it’ll be read by a human, not a computer. In fact, write everything

as though it was your submission for a Booker prize. I’m talking descripFve Ftles and meta-‐

tags, punchy, minimal code, and URLs with snappy headlines in them.


USEFUL TIPS:

•  Add descripFons (“alt” text) to your images. Search engines cannot easily process images to

get text

•  When possible, detach text from images (i.e. have the text from a text-‐heavy infographics

piece on the page itself)

•  Do the same with Flash: Add informaFon from a Flash video or interacFve to the body of the

HTML page itself.

•  SomeFmes, it might be a good idea to use some common misspelled words and typos for your

keywords, along with correct ones (i.e. “Barack Obama” and “Barak Obama”)

•  Ask your friends and colleagues to add links to the story on their sites, with relevant clickable

text (“A great story about the aborFon rights in the EU”). Help them with links to their stories

as well. Links on social networks don’t work very well in this case. Sorry.

hQp://reesenewslab.org/2013/03/06/quick-‐and-‐dirty-‐Fps-‐on-‐opFmizing-‐your-‐story-‐for-‐search-‐engines/45504/

USE A TITLE THAT OTHER PEOPLE WOULD SEARCH FOR, NOT WHAT SEEMS COOL

Respect the readers.

USE GOOGLE ADWORDS TOOL TO RESEARCH YOUR KEYWORDS

Take care of your keyword density but don’t over-‐opFmize.

USE GOOGLE ADWORDS TOOL TO RESEARCH YOUR KEYWORDS

Use Google auto-‐suggest feature to gauge user interest.

TAKE CARE OF HYGIENE OF THE DESIGN

The format of the blog /web page has to be perfectly synced. Google knows everything. Sees everything.

PUT A FULL, UNABBREVIATED, SUPER-‐DETAILED NAME OF THE STORY IN THE <TITLE> FIELD

•  No need to be flashy -‐ Plain informaFve-‐ness counts

Eg: instead of the main headline for your story <Obama Raises STEM Issues Yet Again>,

do a more detailed headline using more nouns <President Barack Obama Talks STEM

EducaFon in the US For The Third Year in a Row in His State of the Union Address>.

•  Write a brief summary for the <descripFon> field. Try to do it manually and

summarize your story in a few sentences; copying and pasFng your first couple of

sentences won’t always work, especially if you start with an anecdote for the story.

•  Think of a dozen or so nouns that relate to your story. Don't use too many or too

few; about ten will just work. For the example above, my keywords should be

something like <STEM, math, science, technology, engineering, president, US,

Barack Obama, State of the Union, educaFon>.

PAY ATTENTION TO TITLE TAGS AND META DESCRIPTIONS

•  Generally speaking (and this is a very general statement, so bear with me) most CMS

pla~orms use the headline of the story as the Ftle tag.

•  The Ftle tag is one of the most important factors when opFmizing your pages, so be

as literal and specific as you can be, without making it too long.

•  The guideline for Ftle tags is about 70 characters max, so use your meta descripFon

tag to summarize your story. Provide the who, what, where and why as concisely as

you can.

BEHOLD THE POWER OF ANCHOR TEXT

•  Linked terms on your stories play a role in opFmizaFon.

•  So, resist the urge to use <Read more> or <See related story>.

•  Use keywords from your headline or story.

•  B specific when linking to other pages to your site.

YOUR URL STRUCTURE PLAYS A ROLE

•  Google provides technical requirements for arFcles to be considered as news story.

•  But, Google also considers appending a porFon of your Ftle tag or headline.

•  Providing keywords in the URL are important from a search engine and usability

perspecFve.

NOT EVERY ONE IS LOOKING FOR YOUR NEWSPAPER BRAND

•  Granted, a good chunk of your traffic is generated from your newspaper brand

•  We’ve seen up to 80% of traffic being driven by branded terms alone.

•  What about those long tail terms?

•  How about those searches for a person’s name, or town or school?

•  Good SEO is about page opFmizaFon, you don’t need to drive everyone through

your home page to your story.

STUCK? USE KEYWORD RESEARCH TOOLS TO HELP YOU

•  Not sure what word to use?

•  Keyword tools available to help you idenFfy how popular specific keywords are and

get suggested alternaFves, such as Googleís AdWords Keyword Tool.

•  You also may have access to paid services like WordTracker.com or Keyword

Discovery.com.

•  And, if you want to spend some Fme brainstorming that elusively perfect headline,

check out SEO Smarty’s post -‐ 5 Tools for Keyword Brainstorming.

MAXIMIZE YOUR EVERGREEN CONTENT

•  Special secFons, guides, seasonal content -‐ all can generate ongoing search results

and capture new audiences.

•  This content is easily sustainable, and because the content does not expire, the

longevity of the pages can help establish authority with search engines.

•  Relevant evergreen content can also help earn search traffic with inbound links, also

affecFng the search result.

PERSONALIZATION IN SEARCH IMPACTS THE RESULT

•  A search result in Chennai is not the same as it is in KolkaQa. And it is definitely not

around the world. Geography maQers, which makes local news important. Other

personal factors impacFng a Google result include the following:

•  Google personalized home page content

•  Google Reader content (RSS feeds)

•  Google Bookmarks

•  Search history (clicks)

•  Web history (sites youíve visited)

•  So although you may not see your arFcle about a local superhero acFon figure

collecFon come up in your search query, it very well may aQract the right people.

USE UNIVERSAL SEARCH RESULTS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

•  Increasing traffic (and therefore ad inventory) is paramount for most newspaper

sites.

•  But if you can go beyond driving traffic solely through your site, you can make the

most of Universal Search and own a search result page by pushing out your content.

•  Flickr, YouTube, Wikipedia, TwiQer, Facebook, LinkedIn, Delicious, Digg, Mixx,

StumbleUpon , you name it -‐ all can come up a search result for your content.

SO OPTIMIZE YOUR ASSETS. WELCOME TO SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING J

DON’T UNDERESTIMATE THE COMPETITION

•  When a person conducts a search, you are compeFng against nine other results on

that first result page.

•  Your Ftle tag and descripFon are your first impression to aQract potenFal audience.

•  You can capture new online readership by se�ng yourself apart with useful and

engaging tags.

•  Quality, relevant, in-‐depth content will not only aQract the bots, but will capture

new audience as well.

BUT ABOVE ALL, GOOD WRITING STILL PREVAILS

SUBMIT IT ON TIME. YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO BE LATE.

Respect deadlines. Be best or first or both.

GOOGLE IS VERY FAST… TWITTER IS FASTER

Learn how to be there

GET CITED AT RELEVANT WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE

ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER, IT’S ALL ABOUT AUTHORITY

ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER, IT’S ALL ABOUT AUTHORITY

•  Have all the relevant links on your profile

•  Follow experts of related subjects on TwiQer, ask them to review

your work and provide suggesFons

•  Find news related to your research paper, share on your blog and

give your feedback

•  Share the same on Facebook and TwiQer

•  Be interesFng

DON’T FEED THE TROLLS

FEEDS ARE EVERYWHERE-‐ G PLUS, FB, TWITTER

How do they subscribe to me?

SEARCH-‐SOCIAL CONNECT

CAN’T BE A

SO,

THE PLACE OF TRUE JOURNALISM VS. CITIZEN JOURNALISM

Social journalism celebrates the noFon of authenFcity over speed, collaboraFon over compeFFon. The news reporter’s primary rival today is not another reporter but the searing inFmacy of online tesFmony and imagery. We must make our peace with that. ‘True Journalism’ has never been so valuable. We sFll need the Ernie Pyles on the scene, taking their Fme to find the defining detail. But we also need a new category of reporter, responsible for finding the hidden signal in the noise. We desperately need skilled professionals who can turn isolated units of social content into compelling stories, who can shape the narraFve emerging out of the cacophony of conversaFon flowing through the social web. Here’s how Jason Fry of Poynter put it this week: Besides boots on the ground, news organizaFons also need an eye in the sky — someone charged with gathering informaFon, deciding what’s credible and what’s not, and presenFng it to readers. To pracFce ‘True Journalism’ in this new age we need humility. We need to understand we no longer have a monopoly over the words or images that define a story like Boston. When everybody is a real-‐Fme witness, that is the most foolish assumpFon. So many media failures this past week were driven by the ‘scoop’ mentality, a dangerous relic of the past. "First-‐hand witnesses cannot see the big picture," says Yves Eudes, a reporter with French broadsheet Le Monde. "They're not trained to understand whether what they're seeing is relevant to the big picture or to see what really happens. They're trained to see what they want to see. If you only rely on TwiQer or Facebook, you might end up howling with the wolves.” -‐ Mark Li4le hQp://blog.storyful.com/2013/04/21/when-‐everyone-‐is-‐an-‐eye-‐witness-‐what-‐is-‐a-‐journalist/

ALSO CONSIDER THE OTHER SIDE:

“You forget that the internet, for all its advantages, is a distracFon: you're always wondering whether what you're reading by others matches what you're witnessing yourself. If you don't have to worry about that, you can concentrate on pure observaFonal reporFng, which is a pleasure.” -‐  Peter Beaumont, Foreign Affairs Editor, The Guardian

BUT HEY!

BUT DO TAKE THIS PRACTICAL ADVICE:

hQp://wearethebest.wordpress.com/2007/01/26/12-‐and-‐a-‐half-‐rules-‐to-‐be-‐a-‐good-‐journalist/

Part 2 of 2 THANK YOU!

Ready to Be Social the Indian way? We would like to be your partner!

@OMLogic @anomillie

www.omlogic.com www.�.com/omlogic www.omlogic.com/blog

Using social media for better reporting - Millie Khanna 2 of 2

Social Media

Transcript of Using social media for better reporting - Millie Khanna 2 of 2