Trade Pressed

We’ve gotten rolling with social media at our company. Our editors are Tweeting, we’re on Facebook and we have our own Ning network. I guess I’ve been focusing all my efforts on winning people over on social media. Now that we’re all on the same page, everybody wants to know what the master plan is.

Like I have a plan! But here’s my thought process on social media.

• We need to be where our readers are, and where they will be in 20 years. This means Twitter, Facebook and Flickr today. Could mean something totally different tomorrow.
• Twitter is personal. Editors each Tweet under their own accounts, and it’s the editor’s chance to chat with readers and promote whatever they like.
• Facebook is more promotional for the magazine, but we also link to outside content. We use RSS here, so our news feed appears on our Facebook page. There’s a chance here to have our readers get to know us. Something I’ve been meaning to do is take pictures of editors at their desks so readers can get a behind-the-scenes look at us.
• Our Ning site belongs to our readers. I don’t want to see too many posts from our editors here. I wouldn’t frequent a forum where the editors are doing all the talking. We generate conversation when there’s a serious lull, but it’s not about promoting ourselves.
• Flickr and YouTube are the hard sell right now. I’m not getting across the message that the communities around these sites are important to tap into. We pretty much have the attitude that we should keep images and video on our own URLs to drive traffic. I don’t disagree, but I think we’re missing out on an opportunity with these sites. I put photos up on Flickr myself, but it’s not a priority.
• I have a Delicious account, but I mostly use it for personal stuff. I’ve been thinking about starting an account for our magazine brand, but I’m still thinking.

Past this, I don’t have much of a plan. It seems that of all these, I need a better plan for our Ning site. It is the most marketable to advertisers. We have quite a few members, but they could be chatting a little more frequently. So how do I do that?

Before you go, look at this presentation. It’s  awesome.

Here’s some analysis of my first year of using Twitter.

- Been using since June 14, 2008, thru WhenDidYouJoinTwitter.com.

- 127 updates. I thought that number would be higher.

- 196 followers. I’m surprised it’s that many.

- We’ve had 392 visits to our magazine sites that originated from Twitter.

Just today I received a story lead through Twitter. I’ve followed public opinion on our industry through Twitter. So I’m going to keep it. I think we’ve only scratched the surface on what Twitter can do for us, and I predict I’ll have twice the followers by this time next year. And they’ll be quality followers.

And these are the tools that will help me do an even better job in my second year.

• Twibes.com. Great for following events and our industry in general.
• BackTweets. See who’s blogging about a URL, including yours.
• Bit.ly. URL shortener that also tracks how many people click.
• Twitter Feed. Send your blog posts directly to Twitter automatically.
• TwitPic. Send camera phone photos to your feed. I’d use yfrog if I had an iPhone.
• WhatTheTrend? Find out what’s trending and why.
• TweetDeck. Keep it up all the time and you’re on top of Twitter all the time.
• Help A Reporter Out. This guy links reporters with sources. I just found this, so we’ll see  how good it is.
• TweetStats. See how much work you’re doing on Twitter.

I’d also like to point out Angela Maiers’ 70-20-10 Twitter Engagement Forumula. I think this is a great guideline for us. Found at the Blog of Mr. Tweet.

70% of your tweets should share resources- sharing others’ voices, opinions, quotes, blog posts, articles, content and resources

20% of your tweets should engage in conversations with others, responding, connecting, collaborating and connecting with others.

10% of your tweets can be chirping, chitchat as Angela calls it, on trivial details or self-promotion.

Wow — this is a sign of a new day. From Poynter: FTC to Investigate Bloggers Receiving Pay for Posts.

I’ve always felt that it’s caveat emptor with blogs, but I can see the point. I like a nice separation of church and state, although the Internet has bent if not broken a lot of those rules.

If you set yourself up to look like a news source and you’re really just a PR service, the reader should be told what’s really going on. But are we not giving the reader enough credit? Can the average reader tell the difference between a paid blog and a legit one?

Poynter asks if this may amount to “rattling the saber at blogs and social media” by the FTC, but it’s definitely exciting to see web reporting legitimized by the investigation. The FTC is basically saying there’s good blogging going on out there, and it should be differentiated from unethical reporting.

I’ve been to the conferences and I know what the (current) Web 2.0 tools are. The obvious ones. And I agree. We should be using these tools. But how? Standing up in front of a bunch of editors and saying “Twitter,” like it’s completely self-explanatory, is just going to leave them confused, especially if they’ve never heard of it.

So how are you using Twitter for work? I searched Twitter for the word “magazine,” and here’s some of what I found. Vermont Business Magazine has tweets that seem to link to news stories on its site. No chit chat. Just the facts. So here, Twitter seems to serve as an RSS feed for site content.

Punchline Magazine has a Twitter account that’s a lot more chatty, like a personal Twitter. It also links back to site content, including video interviews. Punchline has 75 followers on Twitter, and the interaction with the editor(s) is really good. Having a lot of loyal followers who like to talk seem to make or break a magazine’s Twitter. Otherwise, you’re just talking to yourself. Only thing – who’s tweets are these? What’s your name, Punchline tweeter?

I thought this was really cool – Craft magazine uses Twitter as a repository for How To tips. This seems perfect for Twitter. I get a quick list of story headlines (HOW TO – Recycle Old Crayons) delivered to me, and I decide which are interesting enough to click. And these aren’t all full-blown articles. Some are quick blog posts.

Are you using a Twitter feed on your site or linking to a magazine Twitter page? What’s the theory behind yours? Letting readers get to know you a little better? Promote good content? Just messing around?

We interview a lot of people, but unlike some newspaper reporting, the profile feature article needs to get to the core of the story subject — find out what makes a business owner tick. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just ask, “What makes you tick?” And the subject went on for 20 minutes on what makes him/her really article-worthy?

Doesn’t happen. So what do you ask to really get the good stuff? I just heard a good one — What two or three things about your business really keep you up at night? What’s your favorite interview question?