Social networking class at Poynter

Just a quick alert: Poynter Institute will be hosting a live webinar called Social Networks: The New Architecture of the Web. Paul Gillin, a content marketing consultant, will lead this virtual class, which will explain:

• Why online “friends” are the foundation of social networks’ appeal
• How trusted sources are migrating from mass media to friends’ networks
• From examples of news organizations that are leveraging social networks to extend their influence
• What newspapers can do right now to tap into emerging communities

The webinar is scheduled for April 14, 2-3 p.m. The cost is $24.95.

Up for a Twickie?

No, it’s not quick Twitter sex. It’s a tool to help you integrate Twitter responses into a blog post.

(Unless I say, “Let’s have a Twickie,” in which case I’m talking about sex.)

Journalist would gladly pay for Twitter

At Read Write Web, Marshall Kirkpatrick explains why he would shell out 50 bucks a month for his Twitter account:

I’m a news writer for a living. Using Twitter, I find news stories to write about. Such good stories, so fast and so often that I wrote a year and a half ago that Twitter is paying my rent. A couple of news tips a month that lead to stories that blow up big on Digg and the investment would be worth it to me.

Kirkpatrick also says that Twitter is far more effective at finding stories than as a marketing tool:

Mashable monetizes Twitter

Earlier this month, Mashable launched Twitter Brand Sponsors, which attempts to surpass traditional  online advertising by getting brands and consumers talking to one another:

Here’s how it works: a limited number of brands (and one charity!) looking to engage with the social media community can have their latest Tweets syndicated into the Mashable sidebar, and interested visitors can choose to connect with those brands on TwitterTwitter reviews.

A new tool for audio journalists

Audioboo is a service that allows users to upload sound files, including news updates. Would love to hear back from my radio journalist friends out there on the usefulness of this application.

Twitter tweets Tweleted

Because it seems nothing is ever really “gone” in the digital age, Tweleted is a service that will recover anyone’s deleted Twitter tweets.

Now you have the benign power to recover tweets that you accidentally deleted. Or, if you’re a journalist, find tweets from public officials who assumed they were safely disposed of forever.

If Facebook can do it, so can newspapers

In late January, Tim Windsor blogged about ways media companies can increase their local ad revenue through partnerships with local businesses. Included among his ideas were proposals to help businesses develop their social media and location-aware strategies, and customized ad aggregation for consumers.

In recent days, I’ve stumbled upon a few ideas that reminded me of Windsor’s post:

Tips for online video

J.D. Lasica offers an informative post on how to create compelling online video (hint: follow your passion). Also included is a link to a series of related roundtable discussions on subjects like distributing video, monetizing your work and how to measure success.

Beatblogging defined

Who better than Beatblogging.org to describe what beatblogging is and what it means for journalists:

A beatblogger, simply put, is a beat reporter who uses their blog as a tool to engage their readers, interact with them, use them as sources, crowdsource their ideas and invite them to contribute to the reporting process. When a beat reporter uses social networking with the community to create hyper-local and hyper-focused stories – that’s beatblogging.

Read the entire post, “What it takes to be a beat blogger.”

Journalists and community building

Respond to readers’ comments, connect with them via Twitter and Facebook, read blogs in niche areas of coverage: This is just some of the valuable advice Gina Chen offers at Save the Media on creating communities of readers. The benefits, as Chen explains, is that journalists will increase their readership while learning what those readers want to know:

You follow up by listening to your readers’ friends’ ideas, including them in the conversation and connecting with them through social networks. Eventually, your readers will start promoting your blog or your stories by tweeting them or posting them as links on their Facebook page. You may gain readers outside your geographic area who are interested in your topic; embrace that. We’re in a global world.