DFM chat on engagement projects for the holidays

Journalists, Digital First Media peeps, at least one twitter cat and  anyone who wants to are going to be taking part on our Twitter chat Wednesday at noon, Eastern Time, to talk about all things journalism.

Today with are talking about engagement projects for the holidays! Sure, you've got your holiday lights tours, but how are you doing it? What are you using? What other things are you doing to engage with your communities? What tools make things easier to accomplish this?

If you want to chime in, post a comment in the container or a tweet with the hashtag "#dfmchat" so it can automatically appear below.

Thanks for coming!

How to better engage your audience

Journalists, members of Digital First Media and pretty much everyone else who wants to - are going to be taking part on the weekly Twitter chat at noon, Eastern Time.

Today we're talking about better engaging your audience. How should reporters respond to questions in stories? Should they?  Does your brand account respond to questions from social media?
Is your newsroom talking the engagement talk but privately dissing it? (You know who you are ;D)
Bring your #REALTALK.

The feed is posted below. You can also check out past chats over here.

If you want to chime in, post a comment in the container or a tweet with the hashtag "#dfmchat" so it can automatically appear below.

Facebook for small newsrooms

Do you manage a Facebook page for a local media organization? Is your page reach down" (SPOILER: Yes, it is) What can you do about it from an organizational way?

We're leading a workshop at 3 p.m. ET on managing a news organization Facebook page in order to increase reach when having limited resources and time. You can use the container below if you have any questions or use #DFMchat on twitter to post questions or comments.

Previously: DFM chat on Facebook page engagement

DFM chat on user-generated content

Journalists, members of Digital First Media and pretty much everyone else who wants to - are going to be taking part on the weekly Twitter chat at noon, Eastern Time.

Today we're talking about best practices for gathering and publishing user-generated content.

The live feed is posted below. You can also check out past chats over here.

If you want to chime in, post a comment in the container or a tweet with the hashtag "#dfmchat" so it can automatically appear below.

DFM chat on engagement ideas, tips and tricks for the summer

Journalists, members of Digital First Media and pretty much everyone else who wants to - are going to be taking part on the weekly Twitter chat at noon, Eastern Time.

Today we're talking about engagement ideas, tips and tricks during the summer. 

The live feed is posted below. But you can also follow the chat here or here or also here. And you can also check out past chats over here.
If you want to chime in, post a comment in the container or a tweet with the hashtag "#dfmchat" so it can automatically appear below.

DFM chat on engagement projects, goals and platforms

Journalists, members of Digital First Media and pretty much everyone else who wants to - are going to be taking part on the weekly Twitter chat Wednesday at noon, Eastern Time.

Today we're talking about engagement in journalism: What projects work? What are the goals? What platforms should you use? Bring your questions, too, because, you know, engagement!
The live feed is posted below. But you can also follow the chat here or here or also here. And you can also check out past chats over here.

If you want to chime in, post a comment in the container or a tweet with the hashtag "#dfmchat" so it can appear below.

DFM chat on how journalists can cultivate an engaged community

Journalists, members of Digital First Media and pretty much everyone else who wants to - are going to be taking part on the weekly Twitter chat Wednesday at noon, Eastern Time.

Today we're talking about how journalists can cultivate an engaged community and why. Bring your toolbox.

The live feed is posted below. But you can also follow the chat here or here or also here. And you can also check out past chats over here.

If you want to chime in, just post a tweet with the hashtag "#dfmchat" so it can automatically appear below.

Livestreaming when everything goes wrong

The image above is actual criticism we received during the livestream community media lab event which featured Healthalliance leaders.

@dailyfreeman your ustream setup is bad, and you should feel bad.

— Alex Panaoijoiwjorij (@gammysupset) May 16, 2012

We did, indeed, suffered a smorgasbord of difficulties.


I was using the Freeman's wireless connection, which is fairly strong. Testing went well. Everything was perfect.
Wrong.
For whatever reason, the connection kept going in and out once the livestream started, which I noticed on a different device, so I knew it wasn't the computer. This happened early enough during the livestream, so I switched to a wireless carrier. This most surely would solve the problem, I thought.
Wrong.
The connection went from one bar to none, then two bars, then none. So the stream kept going in and out. I had a phone with a second carrier, but I was using CoveritLive to monitor comments and THAT connection failed as well.

No problem, then. Let's hardwire.
I grabbed an ethernet cord and plugged the computer (this had to be done as the forum continued, since it was being recorded anyway, or so I thought). The reason I didn't hardwire in the first place was that the connection is in the other side of the room and I didn't want to have a long cable going all over the place, since I'm not a fan of people falling down. And I wanted to set the camera on the other side.

But since there was no choice, I got the cable and plugged it in.

Connection problem solved. Wrong.

After about 20 minutes, I lost the connection to the livestream again. I checked the third-party service on a different device, and a third one. This time I was at their mercy.

Facing this problem, the only thing to do was to completely set up the livestream with a different service, and even though it would have taken about 10 minutes to set up and embed it all, I stuck it out with Ustream because the connection came back.

Ten minutes later, I lost the connection again. So I started setting up a separate livestream service while trying to get the connection back, which I did. I was 5 minutes until the schedule end of the event, however, so I didn't bother.

LESSONS:

1. Hardwire. Always. I never thought a wireless connection and two carriers all would fail me. They did.
2. Expect the unexpected. Have a plan B setup, at the ready. A good test doesn't mean things will always be fine. Develop contingency measures and have them ready. .If Ustream fails, have Livestream ready to go (or the other way around). This would take you too long to set up (long by web standards, anyway), so have your embeds and browsers on standby. I've been testing G+ Hangouts on Air and that's also possibility. Quality is better and there are no running ads, so I'm moving in that direction. Here's a test screenshot from today:

Credit where credit's due. Meme generated by Melissa Weiss.

@ivanlajara @gammysupset I would have preferred a mention as the creative talent behind that meme, but whatever.

— Melissa Weiss (@melissaeweiss) May 16, 2012

Community Media Lab 2.0

At the Daily Freeman, we are excited and eager to be part of the expansion of Digital First Media's Community Media Lab initiative.

Our community encompasses a vast geographical area which showcases different and peculiar needs. We intend to continue our efforts to become the hub for information, discussion and engagement for the communities we serve.

To that end, we’ve assessed the community needs and those of our newsroom in crafting our Community Media Lab plans for 2012.

These include:

·         Soft opening of a small-scale Community Media Lab in the Freeman's conference room on selected dates, to feature public availability of computers and wifi, with public tutorials to accommodate access to microfilm and archives elsewhere in the building. We believe that with a little creativity and adjustment, we can begin to provide these services to continue fostering our relationship with the community.

·           Continued recruitment of local blogger network and subsequent regular informal and informational meet-ups at an outside location.

·          The development of classes geared toward better communication between community, government and police agencies and the Freeman..

·         Expansion of livestreaming sessions and political debates with live public questions and with physical public participation at an outside location. These sessions are also scheduled to include a post debate discussion with the community, as to further the Citizens Agenda project as well.

 

·         Establishment of an occasional ‘mobile bureau,’ where once a month, a reporter sets up ‘camp’ at different locations to gather story ideas, get community tips and feedback and develop sources.

·         Resume newsroom tours.

·         Continued use of the (small) conference room for events, and the implementation of livestreamed newsroom discussions and training sessions. 



What else do you think we should do?

DFM chat on how to improve a newsroom's engagement

Good morning! Journalists, members of Digital First Media and pretty much everyone else who wants to - are going to be taking part on the weekly Twitter chat at noon.

 Today we're talking about how to improve a newsroom's engagement efforts.

 The live feed is posted below. But you can also follow the chat here or here or also here. And you can also check out past chats over here.

If you want to chime in, just post a tweet with the hashtag "#dfmchat" so it can automatically appear below.

Type your question in the box below if you want some clarification.

How engagement improves your journalism

This was a topic we tried to address during last week's Digital First Media chat. I've condensed and curated some of the answers for clarity.

DFM chat on engagement in journalism

Good morning! Journalists, members of Digital First Media and pretty much everyone else who wants to - are going to be taking part on the weekly Twitter chat at noon.

 Today we're talking about engagement in journalism: why it is important, how it improves journalism,  how to do it and — and often overseen thing — how to find time to do it.

The live feed is posted below. But you can also follow the chat here or here or also here. And you can also check out past chats over here.

If you want to chime in, just post a tweet with the hashtag "#dfmchat" so it can automatically appear below.

Type your question in the box below if you want some clarification.

How to use Pinterest to enhance your articles

Here's a quick and practical way to use social media newcomer Pinterest to add images to specific parts of your story. This is helpful if your Content Management System is limited and doesn't let you add images to specific parts of your story.

Obviously, you'd need to have a Pinterest account. 

1. Find or create the images you want and upload them into a board.

Create your board. Give it a name. Then find or upload your images. You can also add images with   the 'Pin It' button.

Example: I wanted to write a column about Google search auto-complete fails. So as I was performing searches, I took screenshots and saved them.
(Tutorial within tutorial! To save your screenshots, press CTRL+PrintScrn on PC, and paste (CTRL+V) in Paint or Photoshop. This is Command+Shift+4 on Macs, you select the area and you have an image on your desktop.)

Source: Uploaded by user via Ivan on Pinterest

2. Grab embed code. The next step is easy. Once your image is pinned, you can just grab the code and post it in the code (HTML) part of the story on your content management system.

3. Paste code wherever it fits in the story. 

What you get is something like this:

Note that I took the liberty of cleaning out the credit paragraph in the code to make the column flow better. (In the code, that's all the stuff starting right at "<p style=" ).
If you click on the image, you are still sent to the pin. But You should only do this with your own images, otherwise it's just not nice.


If you are using a web-first CMS like Wordpress or Blogger, you are probably scratching your head, because you can already do this (or use Picasa or Photobucket albums and embeds to do similar things). This is primarily for those CMSs who don't allow for this. But there are some added benefits.


Why Pinterest? 

1. Because it also allows you easily add more submissions into a neatly organized board. Again, I understand that you can do this with other sharing sites. 
2. If done right, it will increase the visibility of your site. And you can showcase some of your other and even older work posted in other boards. 
3. You can also crowdsource images before and after a story, add Pinterest contributors.
4. You can also make boards with your old photos and offer prints for sale (just put some low resolution images of your scans). 

Ideally, you could open up your newsroom's library in your Community Media Lab, scan your old photos (or images from old pages from microfilm), upload them or have your fans do so — as payment for access and high res versions of what they want — and then offer your old images for sale while you are digitizing your old archives.

Win-win.

I should stress, this is just one way of doing something you can do with other third-party platforms. And obviously, if you have your own proprietary software, you should use that.

Some things to know:

Source: graphicsfairy-crafts.com via Ivan on Pinterest

Source: mashable.com via Ivan on Pinterest

Source: dl.dropbox.com via Ivan on Pinterest

Forum on civic engagement highlights

Forum for Engagement live at 6 p.m. Thursday

(Editor's note: This post is a completely lazy copy-and-paste job from a previous post. But now it includes a live feed and chat)

A small group of area activists, politicians and journalists (and yours truly, for some reason) will gather in Kingston on July 14 with the goal of creating a vibrant community through "A Forum for Engagement," an event which aims to focus on turning vision into action.

I'll be representing THE EVIL MAINSTREAM MEDIA OF DOOM AND DESPAIR AND DECADENCE and will try, with the rest of the group, to find a way for you to easily participate with matters that, uh, matter to you. In short, my role will be, with your help, to figure out ways for us at the Freeman to collaborate and improve our coverage of issues that are important to you. I'll also be adding some needed DOOM AND DESPAIR AND DECADENCE, because that's how I roll.


The forum takes place from 6 to 9 p.m. on July 14 at Stella May Gallery Theatre, 5 Sterling Street, Kingston.

Area activists, politicians and journalists set to act on civic issues

A small group of area activists, politicians and journalists (and yours truly, for some reason) will gather in Kingston on July 14 with the goal of creating a vibrant community through "A Forum for Engagement," an event which aims to focus on turning vision into action.

I'll be representing THE EVIL MAINSTREAM MEDIA OF DOOM AND DESPAIR AND DECADENCE and will try, with the rest of the group, to find a way for you to easily participate with matters that, uh, matter to you. In short, my role will be, with your help, to figure out ways for us at the Freeman to collaborate and improve our coverage of issues that are important to you. I'll also be adding some needed DOOM AND DESPAIR AND DECADENCE, because that's how I roll.


The forum takes place from 6 to 9 p.m. on July 14 at Stella May Gallery Theatre, 5 Sterling Street, Kingston.

Scott Tillitt, who organized the forum, explains:

Engaging with the audience, the group will use an organized creative thinking process to explore the issues that matter most and, more importantly, act on them. Following a discussion moderated by Brian Mahoney, editor of Chronogram, the group will break to organize the discussion into major themes. Then they’ll reconvene with the audience to focus on the most important issues, break them down further into actionable projects, and form teams to work on them.

Audience members are encouraged to engage with the group in the discussion and the action-focused process. But even if you go to just listen, your presence is participation enough, the organizers stress.

To bring more folks into the process, organizers will stream the event live online and monitor chat and Twitter during the discussion. Audience members and those who can't make it can submit comments and questions before the event and follow the action live on Twitter using the hashtag #civickingstonny.

The group is schedule to include: Kevin Cahill, NY State Assemblyman and person I like to make fun of; Michael D’Arcy, Kingston Neighborhood Watch; Elizabeth Hare, ReadyCollective; Tom Hoffay, Kingston Alderman and person I like to make fun of; Brian Mahoney, Chronogram; Rebecca Martin, Kingston Land Trust; Tillitt of BEAHIVE and me, of THE EVIL MAINSTREAM MEDIA OF DOOM AND DESPAIR AND DECADENCE.


The event is produced by BEAHIVE, sponsored by Chronogram and Freeman, and hosted by Stella May Gallery Theater.


Space is limited. Refreshments will be provided. Event details and RSVP are at http://on.fb.me/civickingstonny7-14.


You can also join the Civic Kingston NY Facebook group (http://on.fb.me/civickingstonny)

JRC Chat on community engagement

It's Wednesday! And that means that members of the Journal Register Company's Idealab - and anyone who wants to - are going to be taking part on the weekly Twitter chat at noon.

Today we will be talking about community engagement: What we've done, what we should do, what we have yet to do, how to do it well and how to replicate proven successes. Or something like that.

The live feed is posted below. But you can also follow the chat here or here or also here. And you can also check out past chats over here.

If you want to chime in, just post a tweet with the hashtag "#jrcchat" so it can automatically appear below, or post a comment in the field at the bottom of the chat box.

As always, you are welcome to participate at anytime you want.