Media Helping Media Blog

Twitter

When setting up a Twitter account please follow the basic instructions in section two of my training module in how to become a global media brand in 60 mins.  (You can access all my training resources on the Media Helping Media Training Section.

Remember to: 

• Use hashtags (#) to ensure that the key words are found by others. Here is a training module on the best use of Hashtags.
• Check your new followers every night, read their biography, look at their tweets, check their website if they offer a link, look at who they are following. Here is a Twitter training module on how to follow people.
• Decide whether you want to follow any of your new followers. If you do you might want to put them in a Twitter list.  Check this training module on creating and using Twitter lists.
• Learn more about tweeting, sending people direct message, replying to tweets and retweeting.
• The Twitter Basics site is extremely useful and covers most issues.

Hootsuite

All of you have registerd for a free Hootsuite account and are using it already. The Hootsuite site has an excellent help desk with many training modules that can help you use the tool more effectively.  

Storify

You used Storify for creating asset-rich articles that could be embedded in any blog, shared on any social network, and exported to other sites.  This is an amazing tool for displaying content and helping your audience share that information with a wider audience.  There is a good guide on the site to help you use it properly.

Posterous

We used Posterous to built this site. You now all have a Posterous blog. This enables us all to upload stories via email or from the web so that the information can be shared widely. It is a fast and agile system.

• You can add Hootsuite streams of the latest tweets containing key words, #hashtags, your lists and many other options.
• You can export your Storify articles directly to Posterous
• You can create a closed, password-protected group blog that you can use for collaboration with colleagues or you can create an open blog that anyone can view.
• You have your own blog which you can make public or private. If it is private you will not have any social media buttons; once you make it public those buttons will appear and you can share your information.

Posterous has a great helpdesk containing many FAQs (frequently asked questions).

Other tools

I also showed you some other tools including Silobreaker, which will help you improve your research and information gathering.

You might want to look at SoundCloud that enables you to upload audio from your laptop and put it online so that it can be shared, embedded and commented upon - a great free tool.

Whenever I find a new tool I test it out and post about it on a site called The Social Media Kitbag for Journalists. This is on a free tool called Scoop.it. You might want to consider checking this for updates. The beauty of the site is that people can comment on the items and share them.

Media Helping Media

Please feel free to use any of the training modules on my site, Media Helping Media. You are free to use these and translate them if you want them in your own language. All my material is availalbe for reuse under Creative Commons, which means all you have to do is acknowedge the source. There are training resources there about journalism basics, editorial ethics, social media, investigative journalism and many other topics.

Regards

David

The author of this piece, David Brewer, is a journalist and media strategy consultant who set up and run the site, Media Helping Media. He delivers media strategy training and consultancy services worldwide. His business details are at Media Ideas International Ltd. He tweets @helpingmedia.