#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – build your news brand on Foursquare

Earlier this month Foursquare published a blog post advising users of the location check-in network to follow various (US) newspapers in order to get restaurant reviews, recommendations and “local tidbits”.

It is worth checking out what “local papers like Metro Focus in the tri-state area, the Baltimore Sun, the Austin American Statesman, and the New York Daily News” are doing to inspire ideas for using Foursquare as a news organisation.

Foursquare’s blog post is at this link.

For more ideas listen to this podcast from September on how journalists and publishers can best use Foursquare.

Tipster: Sarah Marshall

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link– we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

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The Twitter reaction to France’s ban on discussing predicted presidential results

By Guillaume Paumier on Flickr. Some rights reserved.

“The results were like the elephant in the room” – that’s what one journalist told Journalism.co.uk after users were said to have taken to Twitter to try and get around a ban on the discussion of predicted results in the French presidential election.

The law, which dates from 1977, bans the reporting of results, projections and exit polls on the day before and day of the election until the closure of the last polling stations.

The ban will also apply to the run-off between Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande on Sunday 6 May and is expected to remain in place, after Jean-Francois Pillon, the head of France’s polling commission, reportedly said he would call on state prosecutors to bring charges against media organisations and individuals who had allegedly defied the ban.

The last polling stations closed at 8pm on Sunday, but before this deadline the hashtag #radiolondres, a reference to resistance broadcasts made in the Second World War, was being used to discuss the projected results, with the candidates being given code-names to try and circumvent the ban.

French tweeters are evading the blackout on reporting poll numbers before 1800GMT with coded messages #radiolondres #france2012

— Tristan Redman (@TristanAJE) April 22, 2012

Nicola Hebden, a freelance journalist covering the election, told Journalism.co.uk the events highlighted the issue of attempting to ban information spreading on Twitter:

While we were broadcasting, the results were like the elephant in the room – we all knew them – the news team, the viewers – but we weren’t allowed to talk about them on air.

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Storify stories now on news reader app Pulse

Curated storytelling tool Storify has partnered with news reader app Pulse.

The move marks Storify’s first syndication deal and sees curated stories by Storify users such as Al Jazeera’s the Stream, the Washington Post and the White House communications team available on the social newsreader app.

Pulse, which is available for the iPad, iPhone, Android, Kindle Fire and Nook, allows readers to chose to add their favourite news providers and feeds giving a personalised reading experience.

A Storified blog post by the company explains how to add your Storify creations to your personalised Pulse app.

You can also see your stories – or any account’s stories – on Pulse by subscribing to the RSS feed at the top of Storify profile pages. Then call the feeds up from Google Reader on Pulse. You’ll be able to see all those accounts’ stories on Pulse from then on.

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• Five stories to inspire you to try Storify – which anyone can now join
• Storify adds slideshow view for blog posts, presentations and broadcasts

#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – blogging tips for digital journalists

Over on Ideas Tap Stevie Martin has collected some key pointers from visiting professor at City University London Paul Bradsaw, TheMediaBriefing’s editor Patrick Smith and founder of fashion blog Frassy Audrey Rogers, on blogging. Tips range from choosing a subject you’re passionate about, keeping updates fairly regular and networking with other bloggers.

Read more here.

Tipster: Rachel McAthy

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link– we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

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#jpod – How to engage a subscriber community: Lessons from the Times and Financial Times

Image by Dreamer, via Wikimedia Commons

Community management is a key part of an online news outlet’s operation, and in this week’s podcast we speak to two people at the heart of community operations at the Times and Financial Times, to offer a unique insight into engagement strategies for subscriber communities.

Ben Whitelaw, communities editor at the Times and Rebecca Heptinstall, community manager at the Financial Times, discuss how subscribers use comment facilities to interact with journalists, the ways to recognise the value of subscriber through greater interaction and involvement in feedback and what community engagement really means both on the news website and on social media platforms.

Podcast: Download

For more on the topic of community engagement, this previous podcast looks in more detail at managing reader comments and here’s a feature on how the New York Times is using social media for “deeper” engagement.

And here is a link to the FT’s LinkedIn Readers’ Group referred to by Rebecca in this week’s podcast.

You can hear future podcasts by signing up to the Journalism.co.uk iTunes podcast feed.

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – create a Pinterest board to thank pinners

Here is an idea from Northcliffe Digital title This is Kent. Journalists there have has created a board on online pinboard Pinterest to reward and thank pinners.

Here is their board Hey, thanks for pinning us.

And here are 10 ideas for news outlets using Pinterest.

Tipster: Sarah Marshall

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link– we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

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Citizen journalism site Blottr launches Facebook app

Citizen journalism news site Blottr is the latest news organisation to release a “frictionless sharing” Facebook app.

Blottr has opted for a Guardian-style app where readers access news and comment without having to leave the social networking site.

The Huffington Post UK, which released an app at the end of February, followed the Independent in promoting social interaction on the news site.

In a release Blottr said:

The app leverages the social functionality Facebook users are already familiar with to automatically discover and highlight Blottr content their friends have read. Through the app, users will also be able to report news and add content directly to the Blottr site.

We want to engage new readers who may not already interact with Blottr. Registered users can now notice Blottr’s content via their friends’ interactions or activity report on their wall.

Blottr founder Adam Baker said in a statement:

This move signifies the importance social media plays in the distribution, discovery and consumption of news content. Our aim is to make consuming and contributing to news-related content as efficient, simple and timely as possible.

The Blottr Facebook app socially connects people with each other through the type of content they consume and makes the discovery of our content much more fluid.

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Tool of the week for journalists: Muck Rack

Tool of the week: Muck Rack

What is it? A site that aggregates Twitter and social media feeds for thousands of professional journalists.

How is it of use to journalists? Journalists often break or share vital information first through social media. Muck Rack allows you to monitor trending topics among journalists in real-time. Its aim, according to Muck Rack’s creators, is to deliver “tomorrow’s newspaper to you today”.

Launched in 2009, Muck Rack now draws content from thousands of journalists who use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other sources to break news on a daily basis.

Built around a central directory of verified professionals, Muck Rack now boasts an extensive directory of top journalists from around the world which can be searched by name, publication or even beat.

Professionals only need a valid Twitter account to apply for verification, although the process is heavily vetted to ensure certain standards are met such as relevance of tweets or posts and consistent activity.

The site also emails out a daily analysis of what journalists are saying called the Muck Rack Daily, which is pored over by its editorial team.

Muck Rack dovetails well with previous Journalism.co.uk tool of the week Press Pass, which organises journalists by beat, media outlet or region.

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#jpod – Advice on verifying social media content and correcting errors

In this week’s podcast we collect together practical advice from those working in digital journalism on the best techniques and tools journalists can use to verify content posted on social media platforms.

The experts emphasise that wherever possible journalists are encouraged to make contact with sources of content directly, such as by phone, but there are also additional checks journalists can make as part of the verification process.

Advice featured in the podcast ranges from how to effectively monitor platforms, how to investigate both the content and source of material and then, once it has been reported (with clear reference to the level of verification achieved), what to do if material later turns out to not be as it first seemed.

Interviewees include:

• Claire Wardle, director of development and integration, Storyful
• Malachy Browne, news editor, Storyful
• Fergus Bell, senior producer and UGC lead, Associated Press
• Paul Bradshaw, course leader of online journalism MA at Birmingham City University, visiting professor at City University London and publisher of Online Journalism Blog and HelpMeInvestigate
• Craig Silverman, founder, Regret the Error, now published on Poynter

Podcast: Download

Background reading/resources on verification:

• Paul Bradshaw, Online Journalism Blog: ‘Content, context and code: verifying information online’
• Craig Silverman, Columbia Journalism Review: ‘Best Practices for Social Media Verification’
• Peter Verweij, Memeburn: ‘Seven top tips for verifying tweets’
• Craig Kanalley, Media Helping Media: ‘Trusting Tweets, a guide for journalists‘
• Journalism.co.uk: ‘#media140 – Al Jazeera’s early start reporting revolutions’

During my interview with Craig Silverman this week, we spoke about the use of crowdsourcing in verification. His comments on this are in the audio below, in which he also refers to some of the advice shared with him by Andy Carvin from National Public Radio:

You can hear future podcasts by signing up to the Journalism.co.uk iTunes podcast feed.

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – making the most of LinkedIn groups

The LinkedIn blog has a guest post which includes advice for publishers in getting the most out of LinkedIn groups.

Monica Wright, community editor at Search Engine Land, shares her tips “that have fostered our group, and built a community that is nearly 40,000 members strong and engaged”.

She explains each of the following headlines in more detail in this post:

1. Set the ground rules
2. Disable news feeds
3. Enable promotions and jobs features
4. Seed the discussion
5. Solicit some help
6. Use manager’s choice
7. Cross-promote discussions
8. Participate in LinkedIn Today

There are an additional 10 tips for journalists from Journalism.co.uk.

Tipster: Sarah Marshall

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link– we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

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