Top 5 ways to use social media
Recently at KEMPA’s Winter Adviser’s conference, JEA president Mark Newton spoke about the TOP FIVE.
Top Five what? you may ask. Well, the Top Five everything journalism & advising.
Mark encouraged us to make a top-five list and share it with each other via google document. You can check out the top-five doc, but here is my expanded version of the TOP FIVE WAYS TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA:
1. Don’t be afraid to try new trends. It seems as if every week, there’s a new social media site popping up online such as tumblr or pinterest. Encourage your staff (who probably already know how to use these sites) to experiment with a trend and make it work for your publication. My staff has a tumblr page for our website; it’s a work in progress, but they have tons of fun with it.
2. Designate social media directors. There’s some disagreement on this one: Some advisers/staffs believe that everyone should promote his or her own work. I agree with this, too; however, we’ve found that having assigned social media directors–whose grades are dependent on how well and how frequently they update–guarantees that the job gets done.
3. OWN IT! In order for social media to work for your publication, the students need to take ownership of it. For example, recently, a student took over our Twitter account as her responsibility and she rocks it every day. It is her focus.
4. Promote! Social media is the best tool to promote your publication, so make sure you’re using it that way, too. Contests can really help with this.
5. Start conversations. Ask questions on Facebook, Twitter, etc. to encourage users to interact with your site, your stories, and each other.
