Tips for journalists at building one's audience on social media.

1. Building Audience &
Measuring Success
on Social Media
Mandy Jenkins @mjenkins S
Deb Petersen @deborapetersen

2. Metrics That Really Matter
S How many story ideas were inspired by what you
read on Facebook or Twitter?
S How many sources did you find on social media?
S How many times did people share or retweet your
message?
S How many of your followers discuss the topic you
cover?
S How many websites/blogs linked to you?
Credit: Kevin Sablan

3. Track Your Followers Over Time
Twittercounter.com

4. Measure Your Klout

5. Who retweeted you? Shared?

6. Compare Yourself to Others

7. Tweet at the Right Time
Crowdbooster.com

8. bitly can measure your clicks

9. See how users find stories

10. Be Aware Of Your Network
S Track retweets: retweet.co.uk
S See who's sharing your URL:
search.twitter.com
S Follow those who interact with you and
regularly share your links

11. Constantly re-evaluate follows
S By subject/location: Twellow.com,
Wefollow.com
S NearbyTweets.com
S Muckrack.com (for journalists)
S Look at others’ follows/followers
S Spy on Twitter lists
S Listorious.com

12. Search for Conversations
S Search by keywords, location
S Don't be afraid to butt in!

13. #Hashtags can…
S Help you find new sources
S Group tweets by subject/event/location
S Expand your audience
S Tap into a national conversation

14. Before You Hashtag
S Search for hashtag(s) already in use
S If a hashtag is already in use, adopt it
S If not, choose one that’s simple & unique
S Geographic abbreviation helps
S Geographic better than branded
S Promote the hashtag in advance

15. Target & mention big names

16. And the smaller ones, too

17. Know What's Trending
trendsbuzz.com

18. What's Trending Here?
Trendsmap.com

19. Grab a piece of the bigger story

20. Go Viral/Get linked
S Pick stories that are weird, exclusive,
heart-warming, head-shaking
S Target websites/blogs on your beat.
There are blogs for every interest.
S Submit your stories to them

21. StumbleUpon randomly gives
users links by topic area

22. Share your links into their system

23. Reddit readers get involved w/news

24. BreakingNews.com
S Drives huge page views to local news sites
worldwide every day
S Add @breakingnews, #breakingnews or
#breaking to a breaking news tweet to tip
them to it
S Or submit links online

25. More big sites to target
S Drudge Report- Politics, crime
S BoingBoing- weird, strange things
S Gawker- media, tech, entertainment
S Fark- Raunchy, weird crime, funny stories
S Huffington Post- Target specific verticals
w/relevant links

26. THANKS!
Mandy Jenkins
mjenkins@digitalfirstmedia.com
@mjenkins
Blog: Zombiejournalism.com
These slides & more at
slideshare.net/mandyjenkins