1. What Journalistic Writers Should Know About Social Media
Lecture 5, Part 1

2. What are Social Media Definitions vary, but generally…
Web-based, where many people can join and contribute
Designed so users have choices in content and persons they want to follow
Platforms where ease of use and entry into the conversation are paramount
Largely un-edited, with minimal supervision and restriction

3. Social Media of Particular Interest to those in Communication Fields
Facebook – essentially the 3rd-largest country in the world with over 800 million users
Twitter – vehicle for short “micro-blogging” and a useful tool for driving eyeballs to view more content and for hashtagging
Linked-In – mostly but not entirely business-based
Google+ -- a social media platform designed along much the same lines as Facebook with smaller numbers of users but very powerful tools
YouTube – while not always thought of as social media, this platform encourages interaction and is used for a staggering number of searches
There are, of course, many other options

4. Why Social Media Writing is Different
While writing for social media may often share journalistic style, it is different from standard news writing in several ways…
It is often not the end product in itself – it is part of a chain
It is often meant to be shared
It is often meant to drive readers to other online destinations
It is often designed to start conversation and invite reader involvement

5. Social Media as a Link in the Chain
Very few people or organizations make their living entirely from social media
In the case of journalistic and public relations organizations, social media often serves to drive eyeballs to other places -- in the case of a news site, back to the site
Having said that, in some cases breaking stories are reported online via social media
Social media sites also serve as a place where readers can join in a conversation without the organization having to monitor the conversation

6. The Importance of Sharing
For communicators, the prospect of having your content shared is one of the great draws of social media
Twitter, for example, can magnify your audience enormously if people retweet your posts
You encourage sharing by writing content that people want to share, but there are also technological tools – such as programs for adding sharing buttons to your website and blog – that make it simple
In fact, productive bloggers typically have many sharing tools in their pages, including suggested tweets that you can just click on to post

7. Driving Readers and Viewers
Some examples of driving audience…
Tweeting a piece of advice and providing a link to your blog
Writing a blog post that has a link to your Amazon author page
Guest-posting on someone else’s blog with a link to your blog or home page
Posting on Facebook a video link to your YouTube channel, where in turn you may link to other videos and to your website
The goal? To magnify and multiply your audience and reach your audience on platforms they use frequently

8. Inviting People to the Conversation
One of the great strengths of social media is the ability to have readers and viewers participate…
Among other benefits it encourages people to make repeat visits to the page
This drives up eyeballs and encourages reader loyalty
But participation is not without drawbacks…
You can lose control of your message, including to spammers and saboteurs
Conversations can turn obscene and defamatory – reasons why traditional news organizations fell out of love with comment areas

9. What’s Next
Part 2 of this lecture will deal with ways of using your writing skills to maximum benefit in social media
In the meantime, spend some time online noting how skilled communicators use their social media presence to increase and diversity their audience
In particular, note how accomplished communicators create their own media ecosystem – where readers and viewers are drawn from one platform to another.