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
• 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
• 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