3 social media branding tips for reporters

Lizzie Jespersen

Reprinted from GateHouse Newsroom

Why do we use social media, and how do we use it to connect with readers, rather than just push out content?

In the most recent training from GateHouse Media's professional development series of webinars, "Social media branding for reporters," University of Texas senior lecturer and former social media editor Robert Quigley answered these questions as he advocated for using social media first and foremost as a branding and engagement tool.

Here are three of our favorite nuggets of social media wisdom from Quigley's training:

Don't limit yourself to driving traffic

Quigley said that often, driving traffic back to your news site is overemphasized as the justification for investing in social media – and that most days, traffic won't be that noticeable, especially if you use platforms like Periscope, Snapchat or Instagram.

This shouldn't deter reporters from using social media. Where traffic is lacking on an average news day, brand and community building is a critical part of establishing a loyal readership that more than justifies the time spent posting to social.

Plus, as Quigley noted, when news breaks or a story from your news site goes viral, the daily groundwork you have already laid on social media will pay off in traffic.

Be a real person

When your followers look at your Twitter account, do they feel like they may as well be reading an RSS feed or ticker of news updates? If so, it may to time to re-evaluate your online persona – starting with remembering that you are a very real person. The online extensions of yourself should reflect this truth.

For many, news consumption is a big part of social media. There's a reason why these people choose to access their news through social channels rather than traditional ones: they want to be engaged while doing so.

Quigley encouraged webinar attendees to post in a conversational tone ("think of it like talking to a friend, but with your editor over your shoulder") and to share more than just your own work. That means photos of your hobbies as well as interesting tweets and articles from other sources are fair game.

Don't be discouraged if initially, it feels like you are talking to yourself

If you mainly treat your social accounts as a way to push out your own news content, and then randomly throw in a more conversational call for engagement, it's unlikely that people will respond. Don't give up if your first attempts at interacting with the greater social community don't work out. It takes time to establish a voice for yourself on social media, and even more time for your followers to trust your voice.

Consistency is the key. Interact with your followers daily, rather than just when you need help with a story, and eventually you'll carve out your niche with your own avid readers.

Lizzie Jespersen is the content initiatives coordinator at GateHouse Media, where she works with newsrooms to implement industry best practices. Before joining GateHouse, she worked as a freelance writer and photographer for Texas-based news publications and nonprofits.