Mar 21
Love0

Maintaining a Social Presence as a News Professional

By Media, Social Media

 I had the great pleasure of returning to my old stomping grounds at the Newsplex, today. For more than a year I was the social media correspondent and blogging segment guest on-air on CBS-19. Great fun, that, but my time on TV has been very limited in the last couple of years.

In addition to being included with the “talent,” (ha!) I did some consulting behind-the-scenes to help the news and sales staff with their social strategy. I returned this week, to both provide a refresher and update for the more seasoned staff members and social media orientation for the new folks.

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/schuttedan/status/182560714345549826″]

News professionals, whether in broadcast or print, all seem to have the same issues:

  1. Creating definition and separation between their personal and professional personas and online lives.
  2. A lack of comfort in sharing what’s personal (not private) online.
  3. How blogging, generally thought of as a venue for opinion, can be done as an objective journalist.
  4. How to deal with the really nasty and downright rude comments left by viewers/readers.

A couple of approaches shared today include the concept that there is a CLEAR difference between what is considered private and being personal (and personable) online. Never mistake one for the other. Your comfort level in engaging online is important — watch how someone else you admire conducts themselves online and let that be a guide to your own behavior.

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/carterjohnson/status/182483092517294081″]

Blogging as a journalist is commonplace. If you’re telling the story behind the story, you’re providing another perspective for the audience. It should enhance the experience, not replace it. Bloggers do not have to share opinions (being a blogger and being opinionated are only coincidentally common). Bloggers are, like journalists, expected to tell the truth. What would happen if a journalist who blogged didn’t blog about their beat or the news they cover, but blogged about their life as a journalist, or their personal interests?

Whoa, right?

Trolls, or the nasty mean people who leave anonymous (or even named, public) comments on blogs, websites and Facebook pages, are really awful. No one likes to read that kind of unfiltered, sometimes WAY over the top criticism. It’s hard to simply thank them for their feedback and walk away. Establish a policy (as the Newsplex has done) that you will delete obscene and inappropriate comments. Make sure you’re showing up and entering the conversation regularly. Turns out that even trolls are more polite when they know you’re in the room.

I encouraged the team members to keep an eye on their Klout scores and set some personal goals for influence and engagement. I think it’s great to see a local news team so genuinely interested in professional development and community engagement.

You can find the Twitter handles of all the on-air staff as well as News, Weather and Sports on the group’s website.

 

Mar 19
Love0

Conquering Your Shame: The Key to Innovation and Change

By Corporate Strategy

I just watched this TED talk by Brené Brown, a leading researcher on shame, vulnerability and courage. Wow, a weird topic for a communications company blog post, you say. Maybe. But once you watch it, you may never look at yourself in the same way again. I won’t even spoil its power by trying to sum it up. Just watch it. Some aspect of your life will resonate within her words.

Here is the video.

 

Mar 15
Love0

You Can Pry My Facebook Password From My Cold, Dead Hands

By Media, Social Media

There was an amazing article posted last week that reported a new and highly disturbing trend. Here is a recap. Apparently, more and more employers, college admissions offices, and even sports coaches are under the mistaken impression that they have the right to request or even demand login and password information to potential employees or applicants’ Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube accounts so they can browse them for potentially damaging information contained in posts.

I’m sorry, but I think that’s completely, totally, heinously inappropriate. Not only is it a serious invasion of privacy, highly presumptuous, rude, obnoxious, patronizing and potentially illegal, but it probably won’t work. Any player, student, or applicant worth having will probably run away from these opportunities because they will see this amazing privacy breach for what it is, a serious overreach. In other cases, they will simply conceal their true identity with dummy accounts designed to retain the privacy we all know is our right. Others will simply close their accounts, if the job is serious enough.

My problem is that I don’t think anyone should have to choose between employment, education, sports, and privacy. Last time I checked, it was an inalienable right. I can see certain industries, like national security or defense, requesting accounts to be closed or suspended, but I cannot advocate requiring actual access to personal account information as a condition of anything valid or legitimate, ever, nor can I condone forced friendship for “monitoring purposes.” What happens in the public area is fair game. Scrutinize all you want any thing I post for public consumption. But my friends, my data, my private time outside of areas I agree to share are just that–MINE. You can pry them from my cold dead hands. If you dare.

Thoughts?

Mar 14
Love0

Peeling Back the Layers: The Process of Uncovering a Brand Position

By Communications

It happens pretty much every single time we work with a client on nailing down their brand position. Usually a client wants to start with a mission statement. It’s usually super long and somewhat hifalutin. If we’re able to start from scratch, we take them through a brand positioning exercise, which often still results in something loooooonnnnnnnggg.

We get it: your business is yours. You’ve put a lot of thought, energy and effort into it. THERE’S SO MUCH TO SAY. And sometimes, your business is complex; it’s not easy for other people to understand, so it takes lots of five dollar words and prepositional phrases to get your meaning across.

Or does it?

In every case of working through the finalization of a client’s brand position, we peel back layers. We clarify. We eliminate the jargon. We break down complex sentences. We remove aspirational adjectives. We narrow the focus down to what you do now; how it’s different, and why you do it.  In every case, the content we start with is BIG and what we end up with is tight, concise and exactly the message the client wants delivered.

What does your brand look  and sound like? How did you get there?

Mar 14
Love0

Awkward Team Photos

By Communications

We’re getting ready to get some professional photos done of the Jaggers Communications team. Our friend, photographer Sarah Cramer Shields will be behind the camera, charged with making us look cool.

Poor Sarah.

Clients of ours recently had a team building exercise at a company retreat. They shared with one another, (and eventually, with us) some awkward photos of the executive team as gangly adolescents and nerdy middle-schoolers.

For some of them, those photos were from a year or so ago. (I kid!)

If you’re unfamiliar with the inspiration for this exercise, http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/ you really must go.  I think that this was a hilarious way to strip off the veneer and get to know other people on the team. We were all kids, right, and all had those awkward moments along the way of becoming the incredibly well-adjusted people we are today.

Ahem.

In the spirit of disclosure, I’m gifting you with an awkward photo of myself at 13. You’re welcome.