How do you build local engagement on Twitter?

A Journal Register Co. editor mentioned a common challenge in a newsroom trying to master social media. How do you build an engaged audience on Twitter? My answer to the editor (expanded some as I’ve thought more about it):

Engaging followers is largely a result of two factors: following people who care about your community and conversing with them.

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Guest post by Mimi Johnson, with social media advice for Bill Keller

As my wife, Mimi Johnson, and I were making plans to spend a few days in southeast Utah enjoying canyons and arches before I start my new job, she made a simple, but firm request: I needed to unplug. Yeah, I’m mostly wireless these days, but I knew what she meant: Put away the laptop, put away the iPhone (except to take photos). No blogging, no tweeting, no reading important or interesting links.

But yesterday morning before we left Salt Lake City, while I was leading the workshop that brought us to Utah, Bill Keller got Mimi all stirred up. And she hadn’t brought her laptop. She can’t post from her iPad to her blog (a really good blog; if you missed her post about me leaving newspapers last year, it’s worth catching up). She also can’t post to her blog from my laptop. So she commandeered my laptop last night (she knew I wasn’t going to be using it) to write a guest post for me. As you’ll see, she’s addressing an issue I might have written about anyway. Better that you get it from the best writer in our family:

It was with some reluctance yesterday that I pointed out Bill Keller’s latest column for the New York Times Magazine to my husband. I have been known to scold Steve for being too strident, especially when it comes to The Times’ paywall experiment and Mr. Keller’s opinions on social media. So I was relieved when Steve posted one amusing tweet on the column and then sighed, “I’ve written enough about Bill Keller.”

“Good,” I said. Good. And then I was the one who just couldn’t let it go. As my mother used to say, “I did not care for his tone.”

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Digital storytelling and mobile strategy

Update: I’ve added some digital storytelling links to the end of this post (more to come).

Update: Thanks to Steve Klein for curating today’s digital storytelling examples provided by my tweeps. And thanks to Mindy McAdams (I lost count of how many examples she provided) and others who responded with examples. I will be blogging more on this topic, with links to examples in the blog and sorted by topic. But right now I am unwinding in the canyons of southern Utah.

Update: The workshop is over. Thanks to all who shared examples. I will update later with links to the examples, but you should be able to see most of them on the Twitter hashtag or the liveblog replay.

I’m leading a workshop today on digital storytelling and mobile strategy for a meeting of editors of Pioneer Newspapers.

I will be asking on Twitter for examples of different types of digital stories, using the hashtag #digitalstory. I will be collecting those examples in this liveblog:

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Another extraordinary opportunity: this time Journal Register Co.

I tell journalism students they are entering my profession at a time of extraordinary opportunity. I still believe that, even if the opportunity at TBD didn’t turn out to be what I was expecting.

I agreed today to pursue another extraordinary opportunity. I will be rejoining my friend and mentor Jim Brady and joining the visionary John Paton, Jon Cooper and other Journal Register Co. colleagues I am eager to meet.

I will be leading community engagement efforts for JRC: social media, community blogs, community conversation, the full range of community engagement. More on that as this adventure unfolds.

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The Buttry version of social media best practices for editors

Yesterday I criticized ASNE’s report on best practices in social media. Today I’m going to take a positive approach, suggesting alternatives. Here are my 10 best practices for social media (written for newsroom leaders; the list would vary for other journalists):

1. Smart and frequent conversations among newsroom leaders and their staff members are the best way to guide effective, ethical use of social media.

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ASNE offers good advice on social media, but too much fear and not really ‘best practices’

Update: I’ve added a response from Pam Fine, co-chair of the ASNE Ethics Committee at the end.

Editors are starting to accept social tools and understand their importance. But they remain afraid of social media. Their need to control remains an impediment to innovation.

That’s my quick take on the American Society of News Editors’ “10 Best Practices for Social Media.”

The report is a PDF, which indicates the group’s continuing print orientation. It would be much better as a blog, starting a conversation by inviting comments on each section. The structure is thoughtful, providing some discussion, a “teachable moment” and sample policies for each of the 10 points. An appendix of social media policies is helpful, even if the policies are far more fearful and restrictive than they should be.

For instance, this sentence wanders in entirely irrelevantly (it’s the first sentence in a discussion about whether to break news on Twitter):

Social media can become a gigantic time suck, distracting reporters from conducting traditional reporting or executing their job duties.

Insert “telephones,” “the Internet,” “your computer,” “your co-workers,” “your children,” “your spouse,” “your editor” or “most newsroom meetings” for “social media” and that sentence would still be true. But no editor would write it. But fear of social media is strong in newsrooms, especially among top leaders, so this document is loaded with unnecessary warnings and discouragement. The fact is that social media can also be excellent tools that help you beat journalists who are stuck in traditional reporting. And social media are essential now to executing your job duties (yes, for the top editors, too). Social media can also save you time. Someone needed to take a very traditional red pen to that sentence.

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Fuego! Erik Wemple joins the Washington Post

Erik Wemple, editor of TBD, will excel in his next role, blogging media criticism for the Washington Post.

Erik told the staff of his move this afternoon. He wrote a lot of media criticism as editor of City Paper, and his video Fuego/Frio riffs have been a delight at both City Paper and TBD. We’re wondering whether the high-energy F/F can make the transition to the staid Washington Post. Even with his editing duties at TBD, Erik did some outstanding media criticism for as well. With the 2012 election campaign already rolling, Erik will focus initially on political media.

The energy, edge and drive that marked TBD, especially in its first six months, were a direct reflection of Erik’s leadership. He has been a joy to work with and leaves with my deep respect, admiration and affection.

I’ll repeat publicly what I told Erik this afternoon, before leading a round of applause from the staff: He did a hell of a job under difficult circumstances.

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5 big problems with ‘Navigating News Online’ study

You might find some valid research in the Navigating News Online study published Monday by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a project of the Pew Foundation.

But the study needed lots of context that an organization committed to excellence in journalism should provide. For instance:

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Wimgo: not just a calendar, a local where-I’m-going site

I blogged recently about the many possibilities I see for news organizations to pursue new revenue streams. I mentioned calendars as one, citing Wimgo, the events site developed by The Oklahoman.

Some points I should have made in that post are that your organization doesn’t have to start from scratch on every project yourself and that you can find a revenue stream by developing a good solution yourself and then offering that solution to other media companies. This is exactly what Wimgo is doing, so an organization seeking a robust calendar can partner with Wimgo and focus on developing its own solution somewhere else.

Wimgo was launched in 2008 with a clever set of TV commercials that explained the distinctive name, short for When I’m going, Where I’m going, Why I’m going.

In an email exchange, Rob Wescott, Wimgo’s chief product officer, answered my questions (and explains Wimgo in greater detail in a video here):

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Simple guidance on social media: What you should do, not prohibitions

Mathew Ingram of GigaOm has nailed the most common problem with newsroom social media policies:

One of the biggest flaws of most policies is that they spend so much time talking about how bad social media is for the profession, and so little time talking about what makes it useful, or how to approach it as a positive tool for journalism.

I have written extensively here about newsroom social media policies, often making similar points. So I’ll praise and encourage you to read Mathew’s advice about what you should do:

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