Social Media & Your Professional Newsroom Brand

Social Media & Your Professional Newsroom Brand

Presented by: Lisa Jeffries – Marketing Manager, WRAL.com

[email protected] | @LisaAtWRAL919-821-8545

First, Let’s Talk About Viewers• What are their online behaviors?• What do they spend their time

doing?• How do we find out who they are?

Why Does TV News Care?• Nielsen: 40% of tablet and smartphone owners use them while

watching TV• Email is the top activity for both men

and women during television programming and commercial breaks

• When not in front of a TV, where are your viewers?• Are they connected?• What type of device are theyusing?

Your Personal Marketing Mix: Including Social Media• Social media is a tool like any other

marketing and communications utility• Success comes from planning, testing,

analyzing, and responding accordingly• Social sharing goes beyond text updates and

pictures• Video• Location-based

• Social media is about:• Current topics and news• Popular culture• Friends and family• Experiences

Avoid Social Media Burnout

• You only have so many hours in the day, and the majority of your time should be devoted to your primary job tasks and skillsets• So how do you select which social networks to

cultivate?• Go where the masses are

• There’s always going to be a “hot, new, latest thing” in social networking

• Are you in a niche industry? Is your audience already there?

• Commit to daily updates• Post a picture/video/link• Higher conversions andinteraction

Get the Most Out of Your Experience• Nurture each medium

independently• Each network speaks a different

“language”• Never underestimate the power of a

referral• 69% of follows on Twitter are

suggested by friends• Participate individually and equitably• Crowd-source your next great idea

or story

Social Media Networks & Stats

• Facebook• 1.06 billion monthly active users, 680 million

mobile users• More than 50 million pages and 10 million

apps• FourSquare

• 25 million users, 1 million businesses, 10.4 million monthly users

• Instagram• 100 million users, 4 billion photos• Acquisition/Integration with Facebook

• LinkedIn• 200 million users

Social Media Networks & Stats

• Pinterest• 25 million users

• Tumblr/Microbloggig• 150 million users

• Twitter• 500 million total users, more than 200 million

active users• 56% of customer tweets to companies are being

ignored• Top 3 countries on Twitter are the USA (107

million), Brazil (33 million), Japan (30 million) • 32% of all Internet users are using Twitter

• YouTube• 800 million users, 4 billion views per day

Facebook• Start building your professional

brand now• Facebook profile vs. Facebook page• You don’t have to accept “friend

requests” from viewers and people you don’t know

• 5,000 friend limit• Who owns it and what can you do

with it?• Every station has different rules,

standards, or guidelines

Twitter

• The same way you “segmented” your personal life and your professional brand on Facebook, you can and should here, too

• Call letters are your best friend• Twitter’s “Lists” feature is your

second best friend

YouTube

• Heavily searched• Well-integrated with Facebook• K.I.S.S. • Keep it “simple”• Keep it “short”

• Promotional value• Professional brand, portfolio

• Viewer posted content

Events: The Original “Social” Activity• @WRAL at the @NCStateFair• Deep-Fried Tweetup• Connecting daily tent happenings

to social media• Contests• Increase subscriber base• Promote product/service• Engage with new viewers

Foursquare

• Great for on-the-go or in the field reporters, journalists, and other members of the media

• Easily integrated with Twitter (not directly for Facebook Pages)

• Personal use vs. professional brand use

Instagram

• Image driven• Heavily-mobile userbase (just

recently launched web/online profiles)

• Heavily-female demographic

Pinterest• Time Inc.’s Cooking Light site has seen impressive

growth, with social media referrals and mobile playing a big part

• Social media referrals are now the #2 source of traffic for CookingLight.com, and “the brand has introduced new strategies to ensure these traffic numbers continue to grow”

• And since the mobile site launched back in February of last year, it has grown 106%

• While the brand is present on multiple social platforms and uses online video, Pinterest has come to play a major role in social marketing. Long Lowery tells Folio Mag:• “Pinterest is hugely important for us right now. Search

was a big part of our growth in January but social referrals was the number two reason and it was primarily from Pinterest”

LinkedIn• Viewers aren’t necessarily jumping at the

chance to connect with you here…• But your industry is!• This is a key place to build your

professional brand• And establish yourself as an expert• Topics and discussions are

underutilized by those seeking to establish their reputation

Tumblr/Other Blogs

• Blogging and micro-blogging is a tremendous way to set yourself apart from your peers, but it requires the most time and commitment

• Micro-blogging sites like Tumblr can be a small start to making this a regular habit for you and is very mobile friendly

Best Practices? What to Read?

• http://mashable.com/ - for an overwhelming amount of social media chatter

• http://www.poynter.org/ - for industry-respected newsroom training and best practices

• Consider your personal brand your business• http://business.pinterest.com/• https://www.facebook.com/business• https://dev.twitter.com/media/newsrooms