The 10 Commandments of Social Media

Social Media 10 Commandments

• Tweet constantly. Every time both reporters or feature writers go out to film/write a story, tweet every action. Whether you are on the train, stuck in traffic, waiting for the interview to commence, we want to hear about it. 
• Tag relevant people in each tweet. If you are doing a sport story, tag the relevant team members, managers, fan pages. 
• Don’t only tweet. If you think your story/feature is going to be big, tweet, use Facebook and tag people in your comments on Facebook, email people who would be interested in the story/feature. 
• Take pictures! When using social media to promote your stories/features, include pictures. If you can use a decent DSLR camera and bring them to your features/stories then that’s brilliant. If not, even taking a photo on your phone of anything would be beneficial. Email me on Facebook, or to my email address georgia.spears@hotmail.com any decent photos so I can update the Tumblr account. Then use these photo’s in your own tweets/Facebook posts. This will attract far more followers. 
• Remain professional. Remember, future employers will and can use your twitter accounts to see more about you. If you want to use your own personal twitter account to write whatever you want, that’s fine. However, create a professional personal account if you want to use your private one to say what you want. That therefore means when you tag people in posts, they won’t see anything unprofessional on your account.
• Especially in the world of Journalism, social media is more important and crucial to Journalists than it’s ever been so make the most of it. When looking for a job in the Journalism world, if you can say you have used social media to your advantage, and that you understand how important it is, this will help you! 
• Keep an eye on your page views on your stories/features. Although it’s extra work, this will help you out in the future, as you have proof to future employers that you can produce content that gets an audience. 
• Features: make the most of your own magazine accounts through social media. Many people are interested in local fashion, music and what’s on. Use this to your advantage as much as possible. Follow everyone of interest to you so you can retweet them and tag them in our tweets. 
• Update everything as much as possible. News is now, so if there is a story that you don’t have time to film, make sure you do a written story and get a picture that can be included. By keeping the www.winol.co.uk site up to date, it makes us look far more professional as Journalists and also proves we can do our job. Ultimately, by updating the twitter accordingly, it proves we are multi-functional and can get the stories, pictures on time and use social media to promote it. 
• Finally .... Don’t hold back. Especially when using twitter, you only get 140 characters, so use every character to your advantage. If you think a quote would get people to click the link to read the story/report then use that. Ensure each word and letter has the desired effect. Make the most of everything available in regards to social media, as it will only help you as a Journalist be the best you can be, and will definitely help when looking for a job.