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Social media checklist for international journalists
By following the seven points listed below a journalist will have:
Aim to have a unique take on the local and regional situation via your own social media research 1: Research using social media
Set up search columns in Tweetdeck, Hootsuite or your preferred Twitter aggregator for the name of the country and the city or cities where you are going to be working, and at least two names of people in the news. Jot down the issues being discussed. Search using these key words or, if they are regularly used, set up a column for them in your Twitter aggregator. (If you are not set up on Twitter yet, please carry out step two in "How to become a global media brand in 60 mintues" before you start.) By the way, there are many more - please check the Social Media Kitbag for latest updates. Use Twitter to follow real-time information using key words about the country you are visiting 2: Curate your own respository of essential information
Perhaps consider curating a collection of tweets and associated links, videos and images using curation tools such as Scoop.it, Curated.by or PearlTrees; there are many others too. Curation is the way to gather a unique collection of material specific to the task you are undertaking. All the information will already be in the public domain, but the mix of content that you collect will be unique to your needs. What's more, you can share that material and invite others to comment and contribute. Create your own repository of essential information that you can refer to, add to and invite others to comment 3: Monitor the social media noise
Continue to monitor the tweets you have found and follow any links to try to discover the most active news organisations in the area. Check the news site’s About Us page to find out where they stand and who is backing them. Bookmark those that offer you the best information. Get to know the local media scene. Find out whether the leading newspapers, radio and TV stations and online offerings have Twitter feeds. Check if they have a Facebook page. There may be several, some set up by fans. Visit them to find out what people are talking about. Find out the names of the editors of the country’s newspapers. Search to see if they are tweeting or being tweeted about. Consider following them. Check which local media organisations have a social media strategy 4: Find the active social networkers
Find out who is tweeting the most interesting material. Click on their username/profile and find out more about them. Check their biography and follow any links. See if they have a blog. Check it out. If it’s interesting consider subscribing to the feed. Figure out whether they could be a good contact. If so, consider following them. Enter their user name into Tweetcloud and see what key words they are tweeting about. Do that with others. Try to map out the country’s leading bloggers and tweeters, or those most active on Facebook. In many Asian and African countries you will find that Facebook is the preferred social network. Check out what others exist in countries where alternatives to Facebook are flourishing – such as in Vietnam and China, for example. Be sure you know who are the active social network users and monitor them 5: Build your own local network
If you spot a tweet that looks as though it could be breaking news, copy and paste the tweeter’s name into the Twitter Network Browser. This is a great tool for researching contacts and for news gathering. Once you have copied and pasted the name into the search box on the left, click on the black arrows to the right. You will see the person you are following appear in the middle of the page. Within seconds the 16 recently-active tweeters in their network will appear. Hover over a name to see their most recent tweet. If relevant or interesting click on that tweeter's icon. They will now appear in the centre of the browser and, in seconds, their 16 most active network contacts will appear - and on and on. Check their influence using Klout. Copy the names you want to follow and start building a local network. Build your own network of active news makers, news gathers and news distributors 6: Contribute to the conversation
Watch and listen to the conversations and, after you have assessed the tone and the mood, consider chipping in (but only if you have something to offer). Make sure you are contributing rather than taking from the social network conversations you are eaves-dropping. Don’t butt in. Try to build new relationships. Put the Twitter name of the person you are consider following into TwitterSheep and generate a word cloud of the key words used by those they are being followed by. This way you will know more about the content and tone of the tweets currently being discussed. This is important information to gather and digest before jumping in. Offer help, advice, free training resources, tips etc. Ensure that whatever you do you don’t put anyone in harm’s way. Tread cautiously, but when you do enter the conversation do so with confidence and with a purpose. Join the conversation and contribute to it rather than simply trying to take from it 7: Ensure you make the most of portable tools
If you have an tablet such as iPad or a smartphone, check out the apps that exist and which might help make sense of all you have done in points 1-6 above. First, consider creating Twitter lists to store the names of the new contacts either country- or topic-specific. You can make these lists public or private. If you use Flipboard on iPad you can create a magazine page entirely made up of tweets from those on a specific list. Another great tool is Zite which let's you personalise feeds. You can also create personalised streams on Taptu and a host of other tools. Note: Declaration of interest, the author has provided consultancy input for Taptu. Have a look at Paper.li, which enables you to build your own personal newspaper based on 1) the tweets of those you are following, 2) the contents of one of your twitter lists, 3) a hashtag, 4) your Facebook feeds, or 5) a hybrid site mixing various feeds. Your personal Paper.li can be public or private. Either way it will pull together all the information you are gathing through your social networks for your benefit (and the benefit of others if you want to share it with the world. Consider creating an all-in-one-place personal magazine/newspaper of the information you are following Note: I have been carrying out these steps for some time now and each time I arrive in a new country I already feel as if I know the place, know the issues, the key players and, what is more important, have made some valuable contacts - and all through using free, social networking tools. Some of those I have contacted using this process attend my training and, in two cases, have worked alongside me as co-trainers. It makes such a difference compared to landing in a country with a folder full of old, dog-eared newspaper clippings and out-of-date online print outs. If you have any more tips please consider adding them in the comment box below
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