Reading Think Piece: Adotnato, Chapter 3
Today, journalists are able to use social media to create a brand for themselves and their work. This is vital in interacting with the public, maintaining one’s reputation, and standing out amongst employers. In chapter three of Anthony Anordanto’s book, Mobile and Social Media Journalism, he explains the advatnages of good branding and how to acheive this.
Adordanto provides five “key points about building your brand”, go-to Source, real person,traditional journalistic standards, slow and steady, and digital business card.
Go-to Source: social media can be used by journalists to become audiences “trusted source” for factual and quality information.
Real Person: It is advantagous to show some personality to audiences while maintaining perfessional.
Traditional journalistic standards: social media represents both you and your work so maintain standards in all posts. This is still a reflection of you.
Slow and steady: time and consistency are key in building your brand.
Digital business card: social media can be used by journalists to create a brand that represents their work and can be used to appeal to future employers.
After these keys Adornato provides the foundation for creating a brand. He provides an exercise requiring one to look themselves up on three different search engines to show the value of posts as well as activity. The overall point? Assume everything is public.
With the ever increasing scurtiny of journalists writing and media, it is important that journalists maintain trust with their audience both on and off line in order to maintain a positive reputation. It is important to monitor your own page as well as any tags from other accounts that may occur for this represents you as well. With the exeption of Facebook, all should be for professional activity. This plays into the slow and steady strategy where it takes time to build up a reputation and makes maintainng that all the more valuable.
The Online Spaces You Should be in — Andornato proviedes the key online prefoessional profiles to build a brand. These include having a website, open social networking accounts, and video sharing sites. All platforms should maintained conistantly with handles, photos, and bios that represent one’s brand. Username, or handle, consitancy makes it easier to track a journalist across social media. Profile and cover photos give and insight to one’s work making them more accessable. Finally, bios can provide insight for audiences and employers that gives thems a sense of one as a writer.
Consistency is also vital in maintaining followers. Adornato suggests creating a routine of posting and responding on social media, checking platforms at least three times a day. Various platforms require a varying amount of attention for example, a fast pace site like Twitter should be updated at least three times a day where as Instagram should be updates two times per week. What one post is also important in maintaining one’s brand
Think before Your Post — It is important to remember these profiles are a reputation of one’s work and must connect with the audience while maintaining a professional attitude. Things not to post are “personal opinions about issues”, “political affiliation”, “details of personal life beyond hobbies or interests”, and more. Adornato recommends an 80/20 rule of social media. This means 80 percent of content should be professional and 20 percent should show your personality. He also adds the rule of thirds for social media which creates a balance of profession content, other sources, and personality.
Find a beat can provide a niche market for one’s reporting. For example, Justin Aciello created a live update Facebook and eventually Twitter for Jersey Shore Hurricane news. This was valuable to his audience and has since expanded into a highly-visited news site.
This chapter has shown me the importance of maintaining your brand on social media. This is not only a reputation of yourself but also your work. In addition, the value of coming off as relatable while still providing good journalism and a professional attitude. The most important thing this chapter has taught me is the value of a first impression and how this can gain views as well as appeal to new audiences and opportunities with employers. In going forward I challenge everyone to start to think of their brand and how they want to project themselves on media platforms. What beats interest you and are unique? How can you make them relevant to your community? The world? How can you use media to show this?
Sources:
Adornato, A. (2018). Mobile and social media journalism: a practical guide. Thousand Oaks, CA: CQ Press, an imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc.
