July 29, 2011

The essential guide to doing great journalism on Facebook

First, why use Facebook for your journalism?

When I’m teaching social media I find the first hurdle is that many journalists are suspicious of it as a publishing platform.

They get Twitter, but with Facebook they’re not so sure. It's just too social for them, too much about friends sharing stuff that's very personal to a small circle.

But I think it’s a great platform. Here’s why.

Facebook is beginning to move down the Web 3.0 route that underpins our interest, as journalists, in social media, and which is covered in depth in Masterclass 2 of MMJ.

I talked there about how readers were creating personalised news stands of the material they were interested in.

That's exactly what users are able to do with Facebook.

On Facebook, users can become fans of us, of our content, and welcome our Facebook publishing stream onto their own news feed page.

There, our content is delivered alongside material from their own social circle.

The result is a hybrid of personal communications from friends and material from organisations that an individual likes, enjoys, values, and wants to follow.

So Facebook is a very special place, and a very significant one for journalists to work in.

But we need to learn how to use it most effectively.

I posted an introduction to Facebook here If you are a subscriber to MMJ you can check it out, to become a susbcriber, buy the textbook, in ebook or paper form, here

I won't go over that ground again, but try to give an overview of the latest advice and thinking about optimising Facebook for journalism.

One key thing.

Keep your personal Facebook presence separate from your journalistic presence. I have separate accounts, so there is a complete separation. Others simply create a page for their journalism on their existing account.

Next: Top tips. Guidance for journalists from Facebook

July 27, 2011

Four journalistic things to do this summer - for when doing nothing is just too much effort

These are the latest additions to MMJ free Journalism Summer School.

Hopefully they'll give you stuff to do on the rare occasions you want to engage your brain in the coming weeks.

How's your social media clout? Comparing Klout, TweetGrader, Post Rank, Peer Index and Twitalyzer: http://www.multimedia-journalism.co.uk/node/1880

How to use Sina Weibo to leap the Great Firewall of China: http://www.multimedia-journalism.co.uk/node/1886

Want a job? You need to sell yourself online with a really impressive CV, resume or portfolio: http://www.multimedia-journalism.co.uk/node/1891

How to create multimedia timelines and visualisations - with no coding or graphics skills: http://www.multimedia-journalism.co.uk/node/1900

July 26, 2011

How to create multimedia timelines and visualisations - with no coding or graphics skills

OK, you could learn Flash and Photoshop

But life's too short

So what multimedia journalists need are simple, free software applications that take all the technical stuff out of creating timelines and visualisations.

We need to be able to combine text, images, video and audio, and root all that information into a timeline that is easily embedded in our websites or blogs.

We'll take a look here at two applications that give us everything we need: Dipity and Vuvox

I've trialled them both, seeing how easy they are to use, and how much they can do for us.

They're both great. But they aren't the same.

So I created a timeline on the Murdoch crisis in each for comparison.

If you want to build timeline fast, Dipity is perfect:

If you want a higher level of design, Vuvox is the answer:

Next: how to use Dipity to create a multimedia timeline fast

July 20, 2011

How to sell yourself, and your skills, with an online CV/resume/portfolio

Follow @andybull

Job hunting? Your best advert for you and your skills is the work that you are already doing

The content you create, and your activity on social platforms, will show potential employers just how well you can hack it as a multimedia journalist.

So you need to make everything you do online an advert for you; a selling point for your skills, experience and talents.

There are two sides to doing this:

One is making sure you have great content on your websites or blogs, and that you are active on the most important social media.
The other is creating an online hub – a CV, resume or portfolio that tells an employer everything they need to know to convince them you are worth serious consideration for a post.

That online CV should be an at-a-glance guide to everything that is great about you.

And, as much as possible, you need to ensure that any bit of work or social interaction an employer comes across links them to your online CV, so they can check you out.

You won't always have control over that side of things, but if you do, then buttons such as 'Follow me on Twitter', 'Share on LinkedIn' and others are very useful.

So what are the best ways to build your online CV or portfolio?

That’s what we’ll look at here.

What we won’t look at now, because we have already covered it extensively in a range of MMJ Masterclasses, is which social media you should use, and how to do them well.

For the low-down on that, if you are a subscriber to MMJ, you can check out these Masterclasses:

Masterclass 6: How to master Facebook and Twitter http://www.multimedia-journalism.co.uk/node/441

Masterclass 8: Getting the most out of YouTube, flickr and LinkedIn http://www.multimedia-journalism.co.uk/node/546

Masterclass14: Audioboo http://www.multimedia-journalism.co.uk/node/1060

One area we haven’t yet covered is Google+. Its potential for journalism isn’t yet clear, but as soon as it’s possible to gauge its potential – and I’m cautious because of the failure of Google Buzz and Google Wave to live up to expectations – we’ll take an in-depth look at it.

So here’s what we will cover here

We’ll look at a range of ways of presenting your skills and experience online including:

How to create a simple one-page CV/resume/portfolio website on Wordpress, Blogger, or any other platform you fancy
How to create a more advanced CV on Wordpress using a bespoke theme
How to put your CV on your Facebook page
Other useful services such as Journalisted, e-byline, Findstringers and Retaggr

This is just a brief introduction to the subject of promoting yourself online, and we’ll return to it with a full Masterclass later. It forms just a small part of substantial careers content on the MMJ site

Want to know more about developing your career in journalism?

On MMJ we have an extensive range of Masterclasses covering most aspects of choosing, starting and developing your career in journalism.

There are links for subscribers below.

If you want to subscribe, just buy the textbook – in e-book or paper form – and you’ll get free access to the whole of this website

MMJ careers content in full

Sector guides

Masterclass3: What the B2B sector has to offer http://www.multimedia-journalism.co.uk/node/356

Masterclass 7: What consumer journalism has to offer http://www.multimedia-journalism.co.uk/node/472

Masterclass 9: What TV journalism has to offer http://www.multimedia-journalism.co.uk/node/562

Masterclass 10: What local paper journalism has to offer http://www.multimedia-journalism.co.uk/node/569

Masterclass 29: Celebrity, showbiz and arts reporting http://www.multimedia-journalism.co.uk/node/1739

Masterclass 30: Business and Financial Journalism http://www.multimedia-journalism.co.uk/node/1789

Masterclass 31: Travel Journalism http://www.multimedia-journalism.co.uk/node/1812

Masterclass 32: Science, Health and Environment reporting http://www.multimedia-journalism.co.uk/node/1821

Masterclass 33: Fashion Journalism http://www.multimedia-journalism.co.uk/node/1840

Next: How to make an online CV, resume or portfolio

July 6, 2011

How’s your social media clout? Comparing Klout, TweetGrader, Post Rank, Peer Index and Twitalyzer

Want to know how well your social media strategy is working?

We need to know that we are engaging successfully with colleagues, influencers and our wider audience on Twitter, Facebook, Linked In and elsewhere

Otherwise, we can’t know whether we are getting all we could out of those social platforms.

A number of applications are clamouring to give us the low down.

The loudest is probably Klout, but it’s by no means the only one gaining traction.

There are also TweetGrader, PostRank Analytics, Peer Index and Twitalyzer, among others.

I’ve been trialling that shortlist for a couple of weeks, to see what each could tell me about my social engagement.

They’ll all give you a grade, so you get some idea of how well you are doing, both in absolute terms – marks out of a 100 usually – and compared to others.

But, when looking at how these apps perform, it’s hard to compare like with like.

For example, in the grab below you'll see the latest handful of tweets that happened to land from those I follow just as I was writing this sentence.

Klout and Peer Index seldom agree

The number alongside the orange K is their Klout score, the yellow-backgrounded number is their Peer Index score:

None are the same. Some are reasonably close, but others vary wildly.

So how can I - and they - know which of these two scores is the more accurate measure of their social engangement?

One, the other, neither?

Using myself as an example, I found that my scores on the five platforms I've been testing are all very different.

They differ because the five all appear to use different algorithms, and to put weight on different aspects of your social presence.

Hence, you’re likely to score differently on each of them

Which is why, I guess, I can get a high of 95 on TweetGrader, a low of 1 on Twitalyzer and marks in between – 46 on Klout, 52 on PeerIndex and a highly variable ranking, today of 0 on PostRank. It's often 1, and at other times varies wildly, but has never been higher than 35.

All of which is puzzling, and confusing.

Which of the five scores I get is the most objective, and hence the most valuable?

Which actually measures the aspects of my social performance that are important to me?

I’m not going to pretend I have been able to gain a completely clear answer to that question, but here’s a run-through of what each of those brands says about me, and a bit about how they work.

What’ll be the best one for you?

Who knows.

The best bet is probably to try a couple that looks like they do what you need, trial them, and take it from there.

This content continues on Multimedia Journalism: A Practical Guide, as part of the FREE Summer School feature

You can click below to get started with the first app I look at.

Next: Klout

July 5, 2011

Free multimedia journalism summer school from MMJ

Things are a little more relaxed at the free MMJ summer school.

From July to September we'll be covering a range of new areas for the social, mobile, multimedia journalist.

These won't be big projects, they won't involve a lot of effort to master, but they will be areas where there are new developments worth getting up to speed with.

They're designed to be absorbed easily - I picture you on a beach, up a mountain, or in a bar, just taking a quick half hour on your laptop, mobile or tablet.

And looking for something to prevent your brain turning to mush.

This stuff is free, it won't be paywalled until you've fogotten about it.

All I ask of you in return is this:

If you are an educator, check out the new eductors' area and see if you can't give me some ideas for what you'd like me to do to help you deliver journalism courses.

If you're a journalism student, please get involved in the MMJ project and tell me what more I could be doing to help you.

And if you're a working hack - perhaps drawn here because you'd like to pick up some new skills - then let me know what's useful, less than useful and what more you'd like to see added to the MMJ poject. And maybe take a look at this.

Here's a rough list of what I aim to tackle

When (if) an item goes live then a link will work for it below.

But don't count on it all coming good. After all, my brain's turning to mush too.

How’s your social media clout? Comparing Klout, Tweetgrader, Post Rank Analysis, Peer Index and Twitalyzer. Find out more...
Behind the Great firewall of China: Weibo for round-eyes
Sell yourself: the best online CV/resume tools
Google's mobile-site maker compared and contrasted
Xtranormal for animation
Social media management tools - what's best for you