Cindy Morrison (@tvnewsgal) of KTUL Channel 8 (@ktulnews) interviewed me yesterday regarding the use of social media and specifically twitter. We talked for more than an hour and I hope I didn’t bore her.
Our conversation ranged from the specific personal and business usage of twitter all the way to the philosophical uses of social media including collective knowledge, engaging in a community, etc. What resulted was a very balanced story which can be seen at the bottom of this post.
Part of our conversation turned to the media’s usage of social media tools, not just twitter, but all tools. I shared some of my thoughts – those I give away for free and she asked how much I charge for general consulting. My rates, by the way, are affordable (sorry for the shameless plug) or you can enroll in my Social Media course offered through the Journalism and Broadcasting school.
One element of social media I love is the altruistic nature of most engaged. So much is freely given away simply because we love what we do. Another element is the positive Karma which goes around. The ebb and flow of positive interactions are all around to be found, people helping people (see #followfriday as just one tiny example)
Cindy, like many, is new to social media but excited about all it offers. Knowing what I know about social media, if I were Cindy, I would encourage her (or her employer) to hire a sm consultant or tactician to help her (their entire news team) to engage and move quickly – first to market and those most flexible, by the way, normally dominates that market.
Taking all the above into consideration, altruism, karma, etc. for the great coverage about social media, I’m going to make Cindy an offer – one hour of pro bono work set aside just for you. I have reviewed your engagement on the Internet (yes, more than just twitter) and, to give you a feel for what we might discuss, the highlights of some of my recommendations, in no particular order are below. If you are interested and want the rest call me for more (cmfm) – your hour awaits.
- Great idea to be on Twitter – I would encourage you to encourage all your news team to be on Twitter. If they aren’t today, they will be forced to be soon. The same argument applies that applied to having an Internet site (do you remember how those arguments went?).
- Change your twitter name. No one knows who tvnewgal is. Don’t get me wrong, I like the name but it isn’t you. Social media is all about transparency so I would suggest cindym, cmorrison, or something that capitalizes on your name (i.e. @talkradiojoe from KRMG who, by the way, uses Twitter very well) which you keep no matter where you are or what you are doing. If you decide to change your name, don’t worry, it is easy and you won’t have to start over.
- You are using twitbacks on your twitter page which is good. Make sure all those sites are up to date. Set aside just an hour every two weeks and review/update/remove as needed. Yes, I said remove. (cmfm)
- On your twitter page include a link to KTUL or your bio page on KTUL. Or, be a really nuevo sm goddess and include a link to the KTUL Wikipedia page which provides some pretty good content. (cmfm)
- Start following everyone (yes, I mean everyone) who follows you. Not the same advice I would give most but for you it is different. (cmfm)
- While you are following them, follow your competition. That sounds crazy, right? Its not – you guessed it, (cmfm).
- While you are working on following your followers, start following those who aren’t following you. Be proactive and strategic. (no longer using cmfm, opting for a simple * when there is more to share)
- How will you manage following several hundred/thousand tweets?*
- Solicit story ideas every morning and be patient. One day you will wonder why anyone still uses the old fashioned press release.
- Tweet stories that don’t make the news cut. You only have so many minutes of coverage to offer Green Country but that doesn’t mean you can’t find alternate ways to share good news, stories, information, etc.*
All the above, by the way, takes news at KTUL, or whatever station might be reading this, in a whole new direction. Your station needs to prepare for this and, more important, capitalize (some might say monetize) on it.*
So much more but I think we can fit most in an hour!
Suggestions from the audience? I promise to share my earnings…
If video won’t load it can be found here
Twitter Comment
@siwjournalism re profs, journalism and twitter, au contraire mon frair, I preach their union daily. see [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
My “devils advocate costume” looks exactly like all of the faux costumes I “put on” while writing, blogging, etc — aged whitie tighties, nearly knee high socks and an oversized shirt that reads “Don’t Hassle Me I’m Local.” The shirt covered with potato chips, of course.
And Abby, it wasn’t just a “social media team.” We were the gah-damn, Max Fischer Players. Show some respect. But yeah, best group ever and I’m continually stoked that we were assigned the same group. Thanks Bill.
I’m gonna take a swing at your question for Bill. People use twitter or blog or engage in online communities for the same reasons they do in the real world — money or power. You’ve asked about those not using it to (in)directly monetize for their business. So, it’s safe to assume that they use it for power. Power comes in all shapes and sizes, particularly online. However, it always involves being heard. Maybe you just want to look cool. So, you microblog via facebook updates and say things like, “poundin’ a case of PBR and smoking lots of cigarettes.” Maybe, in your respective circle, dorky is cool (or, at least that’s the stereotype you’d most like to be thought of). So, you update with things like, “wish I was at Comicon” or you post a link to the new Watchman trailer because that shows that you’re dorky, but also, as Bill would say, an earlier adapter — you know things first — which makes you even more “cool.” What truly differentiates the two are their inherited qualities. FB is displayed to your (real life) friends. So, it’s primarily socially driven — real world status driven. Twitter is made available on a global basis. So, it’s naturally more targeted towards people hoping to expand (keyword: expand) their online voice. They want people to hear what they say, they want to be opinion leaders and, for lack of a better word, they want to be “cool.” So, I stand by the idea that the purpose of Twitter isn’t for any other reason than to promote yourself in whatever likeness you think desirable or beneficial. Why you want to do that, well, it varies.
also…the limited twitter characters didn’t allow me to add that all these people wanting you to speak regarding social media is such a high and well deserved compliment to you! osu should be proud to finally have a PR professor who can do his job well, effectively connect with students and provide information that is useful beyond a X.0 to add to the gpa (no, seriously).
chad, your throw-up of questions, comments, knowledge, probing insight makes me proud that you were on my “social media team” back when neither of us really had any idea what the hell we were doing (has that changed?). so a few questions for chad and bill.
chad:
first, and most important, what does your devil’s advocate costume look like?
not a question, but i think you’ve done an excellent job of finding your niche in the sm world (via blog, twitter, etc.). i think this is a tricky thing for people (see my below questions to bill).
bill:
if you aren’t tweeting for your job (or aren’t under your name…) and you aren’t tweeting as a professor/advice giverer, what do you tweet? what is the purpose of tweeting for your students and professionals who aren’t tweeting directly related to their company? my tweets are often meaningless and my audience a small group just over 20 of some friends. where do i go from here… the blog i wanted to create never got off the ground because i wanted to say something worth reading and wasn’t sure what that looked like either. any breif directional advice?
please note i started using my last name.
Twitter Comment
Pro Bono offer to @tvnewsgal [link to post] from: @billhandy
– Posted using Chat Catcher
Twitter Comment
Reading @billhandy blog. Interesting stuff. [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
Chad, great comments. Am working on a response. Hope to have it up soon. Time isn’t on my side so “soon” may be in the next few days.
A couple post scripts:
-The story is awesome, well done
-is it me, or has your blog gotten significantly better and completely awesome post domain change?
-and, I think what prompted my spewing rant was the voice over, “Bill Handy ACTUALLY teaches a class on social media” and “social media is the wave of the future.” Hello, we’re living in it people. We’re not talking about space/time travel here.
-Finally, you’re the man in social media Tulsa — clearly.
This is me apologizing for a blog size comment, but I’ve got a question, damnit.
Sure, I obviously agree with you. That is, I think there’s value in virtually every wave and ripple of mainstream Web 2dot0. (changing into my devil’s advocate costume). I gotta ask though, what I think to be, the underlying question, why? The bullet pointed assertion seems to be that it’s promotion, ay? Sure as hell make’s sense to me — what’s the answer to 99 out of 100 questions? Money. You tell tvnewsgirl to follow everyone who follows her, to proactively follow others. Essentially, the advice is to grow her tribe to hundreds, thousands even.
Let me expound on my original question of “Why?” Because, what I really meant by “why” is, is there actually a large enough group of people using Twitter in Tulsa Oklahoma that it’d justify the effort of speaking globally via twitter? I mean, once you go online, you’re suddenly broadcasting way, way, way outside of those TV signals (you know the ones that bring in ad revenue). So, are there enough people in any restricted area (especially Tulsa) that capturing a small percentage would yield worthwhile promotional results for the effort?
Off the top of my head (making random things up), I’d say no. You’d be hard pressed to even capture a half a thousand devoted, opinion leading followers on Twitter, from Tulsa.
I know it sounds like I’m saying this news anchor should jump ship, but what I’m really saying that when she (inevitably) calls you up for this pro bono offer of consulting, instead of preaching to her the gospel of social media as promotion, you should wash her hands of all this hubbub she hears about the effectiveness of blogs or twitter or any of it. You should tell her, “hey, twitter isn’t going to make you any money and it’s probably not going to drive more people to watch your mug every night at 9.” However, what it can do, if used effectively is truly make the local news watching/gather experience more insightful, inclusive and enjoyable. If it was me, I wouldn’t tell her to friend every half witted spammer from Bangkok. I’d tell her to only give love to the Tulsans. I’d tell her instead of talking just to talk, to nurture her small but relevant following on Twitter — like you said, give them content that didn’t make the broadcasting cut or engage with some @replys. The ultimate goal there not being that she has a large number of followers who casually read over a completely irrelevant (to them) micro-blog, but a manageable following that she can nurture to become her offline validation — the people who enjoy her so much that they want to tell their friends about it, over a cup of joe.
So, I know I had one question (that really turned out to be another, followed by me blabbering on with my opinion), but what I’d most like your opinion on (because I hope to someday move back to tulsa) is if you think Tulsa is engaged, informed and/or large enough that “traditional” SM tactics can usually (key word: usually) be effective to businesses? Or, does an audience like Tulsa need adapted, more simple social media tactics? And, is everyone (not just Tulsa) buying into a myth clouded with a couple of buzzwords that only actually works substantially for a few?
That was like 78 questions and thoughts. Have a good one.
Cheers.