Top 3 Twitter Tips
November 18, 2008 by Jonathan · 1 Comment
Whenever I tell someone that I work in social media (and explain to them that social media is things like blogs, wikis, Twitter, Facebook, etc) they almost always come back and ask me what Twitter is and why someone would use it.
I’ll save that post for another day (although I’ve written about it before, try searching my blog to find Twitter posts, there are a lot of them).
If you understand what Twitter is, here are my Top 3 Tips for better Twittering:
- Don’t try to read every single tweet — Twitter messages — that the people you follow send, it gets overwhelming very quickly.
- Reply to others early and often, it build good will and you’ll get more from the Twitter experience this way.
- Search for conversations you may be interested in and join-in! — use Twitter Search to search by topic.
If this wasn’t a “Top 3″ what tips would you share? There are a lot of different ways to Tweet, and this is only one way to do it.
Hurricane Ike Media Review: KHOU.com
September 15, 2008 by Jonathan · 1 Comment
Among the Houston based local media scene, KHOU is a solid contender and very popular station. Like the other local network affiliates they had “wall to wall” coverage on-air and online. Their broadcast transmission was also being streamed live online.
I do want to preface each of these reviews with the web technology or content management system (CMS) these media outlets are using.
The CMS decision a media outlet chooses (often a business decision more than a content decision unfortunatey) has a great effect on what they’re able to do without trying extra hard and breaking out of the confines of the particular system they’re using.
KHOU.com is a Belo station, using a custom built CMS common to Belo owned television stations.
KHOU unfortunately had one of the least informative web sites of the Houston market. Their site was predominently weather based, very important information during a hurricane no doubt! However, after the storm passed through their area it seems no changes were made.
What I’m seeing across most of the media web sites in Houston is that shortly after 11 am Saturday morning they switched gears from weather related focuses to breaking news mode, presenting information on recovery and rebuilding.
As of Sunday afternoon KHOU was still predominantly showing weather information on their web site, with news updates further down the page.
The Good:
- Weather maps and information very clear and easy to read, constantly updated
- A Blog with updates being sent very quickly. They were writing short, concise updates quite often. This is what emergency based news should be. The screenshot below shows the blog at one point Sunday afternoon.
The Bad
- Very little user interaction, comments were open on the blog but the barrier to entry was too high. The blog was not linked prominently on the homepage and it took me several minutes to find.
- KHOU was taking advantage of a PHPbb discussion board. These boards were getting fairly consistent traffic and served their purpose of creating conversations. One problem I encountered was that the boards required registration, however the links to the registration form was buried at the bottom of the page. Also, the system would let me get so far as to hit Submit for a comment before giving me an error saying I had to be registered.
- User generated content was minimal and hard to find throughout the site. There were solicitations to send in photos and videos on the KHOU homepage, however it was not
- The station’s official Twitter stream was a purely one-way road, the opposite of the spirit of Twitter and online conversation. KHOU was simply automatically piping in the latest headline from their site. They did not have any profile information entered, and had no avatar (profile image)
Overall, it’s unfortunate that that user experience around Hurricane Ike on this particular web site was so poor.
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This post is part of the Hurrricane Ike Media Review series by Jonathan Coffman. I welcome your comments below.
Hurricane Ike Media Review: Judging Criteria
September 15, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
As I mentioned yesterday, I’m going to be writing reviews of the local and national media’s response to Hurricane Ike this past weekend.
What I’ll focus on:
- Update frequency
- Web site usability
- User generated content solicitation and usage
- Multi-media coverage
- Distribution of content outside the “walled garden”
- Innovation, or lack thereof in coverage
Where I’m coming from:
- I have family who lives in a Houston suburb
- I am familiar with the Houston television market having visited several of the TV studios and spoken with employees there in the past
- I live in the Washington DC area, so do not have access to live television or radio coverage from Houston unless streaming media is available
- I work in social media for a major media company
- My background is in journalism, information distribution, and online community building
If you have any questions please feel free to leave them in the comments section of any post. Notice someone doing something that I’ve missed? Let me know and I’ll be sure to update posts or continue the series as necessary.
Each of the media outlets I’ll profile and review this week are major operations with large audiences. I don’t want to be too critical of efforts or insinuate that there is any one “right” way of doing things online because there isn’t. What I’m measuring them against are what I consider to be the current “best practices” in online media distribution.
Also understand that each of these companies have very different technical and infrastructure components which I’ll address where possible.
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This post is part of the Hurrricane Ike Media Review series by Jonathan Coffman. I welcome your comments below.
The Week Ahead: Reviews of the Media Response to Hurricane Ike
September 14, 2008 by Jonathan · 2 Comments
All next week I’ll be walking you through the online and on-air media response of both the national and Houston based media. As opposed to most national disasters I actually have a personal connection to this one with my family living in Missouri City, Texas, a Houston suburb. I currently live and work in the Washington DC area.
My perspective and reviews of advanced media efforts in the wake of Hurricane Ike will come from that of someone who does have a personal interest in the coverage but who also works for a major media company trying to make information distribution a more personal experience for the consumer.
There have been some winners, and some losers in the first 24 hours of “wall-to-wall” hurricane coverage and I’ll walk you through both sides. If you don’t already subscribe to my RSS feed, be sure to do so now.
We’ll see how things go this week, but right now my plan is for one to two posts daily. Each focusing on a different media outlet and the things they’re doing right as well as what they should consider improving.
If you have any questions or comments, my comments form is always open and email is a great way to get a hold of me.
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This post is part of the Hurrricane Ike Media Review series by Jonathan Coffman. I welcome your comments below.
Houston Chronicle Excels in Hurricane Ike Coverage
September 13, 2008 by Jonathan · 1 Comment
As someone who not only is interested in news and journalism, but who also works in social media for a living I constantly see television stations and newspapers who either don’t take advantage of advances in technology or completely ignore the true value in the power of people.
This morning as I think about my family who lives in Missouri City, Texas (a Houston suburb) I scoured the web to find the best and most complete coverage and information about Hurricane Ike.
First I turned to MyFoxHouston.com, the Fox TV affiliate for Houston. They have a a special live-chat, live-broadcast, maps, video, and audio going full force on a micro-site called MyFoxHoustonLive.com. This I feel was overkill, it’s too much to process at once. Yes they are using technology to extend their coverage beyond “wall to wall” - which I commend them for - but the page was cluttered, it was hard to focus on anything, and in general there was just too much going on.
I then tried the other TV networks, both national and local. Of course the national networks have information but still lack the “instant” updates that I wanted.
My next link was the Houston Chronicle (to be honest, they were actually the first place I looked yesterday afternoon for updated maps and evacuation information). Chron.com may not have the fancy cameras and satellites that the TV stations have, but what they do feature are blogs. Live blogs. This is my favorite format for live and constantly updated information. Blogs let the user read as much or as little as they want, and in chronological order.
Not only are there two blogs updating every few minutes (one focuses on the science, the other on news and information) but the Chronicle was also smart enough to start a Twitter feed of constantly updated informaiton, and also began pulling public “tweets” into their site.
To me, this shows absolute respect for their users both locally and nationally. and THAT’s the key to success in the news business - giving the customer what they want, when they want it, while maintaining your ethical standards.
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This post is part of the Hurrricane Ike Media Review series by Jonathan Coffman. I welcome your comments below.
Time For A Comeback (I’m renewed, refreshed, and ready to blog)
September 1, 2008 by Jonathan · 1 Comment
It’s been way too long since I last posted to my blog here. For that, I apollogize. It seems (and I plan to analyze this a little more later this week) that the more I Twitter and micro-blog, the more my full blog suffers. I’ve effectually decided to put my site and blog on hold, because of the immense value I get out of Twitter.
We live in such a crazy world don’t we!? My lack of blogging on my blog-proper isn’t for lack of topics and interest, live has just been crazy after moving to a new state, taking on a new job (which I love) and all of the associated things needing my attention.
In the time since I last blogged, a lot has changed in technology and social media. I’m here to help guide you through that. Come back soon, to read what I have to say and be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed, or Feedburner Emails there in the sidebar of the blog.
PS: I recorded a little welcome back video today with my Flip camera.
Why I’d Make A Good Social Media Club Board Member
July 14, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
—Please Vote For Me, Jonathan Coffman for Social Media Club Board Member by clicking here (voting is open until Thursday —
I’ll try to keep this post short and sweet, but I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and my ideas for the SMC.
If you weren’t already aware, I am a candidate for the final open seat on the founding Board of Directors of the Social Media Club. The SMC is a national non-profit organization that is working toward standarization, simplication, and openness in social media.
Members include people like me who live, work, and breathe social media professionally as well as people who support the ideas of an open and inviting social media landscape. I’ve been a member since about a month after they opened their (online) doors.
As someone who understands and works in and with social media daily for a major media company, and as someone who supports and honestly believes in an open and safe Internet I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to assist this great organization in getting off the ground.
My current employer is PBS, also a non-profit with beliefs above and beyond most American media brands. While I work each and every day to spread and enhance social media adoption and usage across the system I also devote a large amount of my personal time to research and participate in conversations surrounding the best practices and most inclusive ways to foster online community building. Here at my personal website I publish and evangelize my own personal beliefs outside of my professional capacity.
Social media is more than a job for me, it’s a way to look at world. My vision is for a social media landscape that we don’t even have to call social-media. Social media should become as ubitquitous as the Internet itself.
My vision and passion for social-media and online communities is why I’d love to assist and be a part of the Social Media Club. I feel like I can bring a lot to the table for them and help to not only evangelize current and emerging standards, but also serve as a beacon to newcomers in this exciting time.
Please feel free to contact me via any method that’s efficient for you and I will gladly answer any questions or clarify any information.
What Working for PBS Engage Means
June 23, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
As the product manager for PBS Engage, the social media initiative of the Public Broadcasting service, I get to work with magnificent people day in and day out to bring social-media to the masses. It’s a very exciting time to be working in social-media, and especially at such a stellar organization.
My one month-iversary at PBS is this week and here’s a sampling of what I’ve learned:
- Public Broadcasting loves you
- Public Broadcasting is relevant to your life
- Public Broadcasting is inexpensive to the everyday American
- Public Broadcasting wants to hear what you have to say
- Public Broadcasting depends on Viewers Like You for support
- Public Broadcasting hires and retains some of the awesomest people I’ve ever known
- Public Broadcasting has amazing online content that just wants to be found
- And so much more!
Learn To ‘Social Media’
June 22, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
Since I work in social-media I see it everyday, some people get it, and some people don’t. Building social-media isn’t a one-time thing. It takes time to find conversations, to build reputation, and learn the best ways to share your knowledge with the world.
Here’s the thing, social media isn’t going anywhere. It’s here to stay. Now it may not always be in the same form that it is right now but it’ll be here.
As one of my final projects at the Missouri School of Journalism in the Convergence Journalism department I wrote up some tip sheets on personal branding, and some of the basics of social-media. Take a look at the Lessons In Social Media series and let me know what other topics you think people who are just beginning to “get it” need to know!
Here are the posts I have up right now:
- The Basics of Managing Your Online Identity
- Social Networking Quick Tips
- How To Get Hired Using Social Media
- Google Alerts For Personal Branding Management
- More to come!
Google Alerts for Personal Branding Management
June 22, 2008 by Jonathan · 1 Comment
Googling yourself isn’t just for padding your ego, it should become a vital part of your online identity. Since so many of the world’s search queries go through Google in one way or another, knowing what information Google knows about you is more important than ever.
Below you’ll find the basic, quick, and easy steps to start tracking your online identity through Google Alerts
1) Visit Google Alerts
2) Type your search term into the form field
3) Select what type of content types you would like to be alerted about. Typically you should select Comprehensive so that you are notified of any content regardless of format.
4) Select how often you would like to receive notices, depending on your plan of action a digest of all hits once a day may be enough, or for a proactive approach select As It Happens.
5) Type in your email address and click the Create Alert button.
6) If you aren’t signed in to a Google Account you will be asked to confirm your email address by clicking on a verification link that Google sends you.
If you have a Google Account you’ll be able to edit, change and view all of your alert subscriptions in one place. Signing up for alerts will help you see what content you create is being picked up by Google’s spiders as well as what the blogosphere and other people are saying about you or your company.
Signing up for alerts and knowing what content is out there is a big step, however you also need to plan on how to handle both positive and negative items as they come through.
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