Category: Social Media

One year later: Top 10 list of tips for journalism students

One year ago today I posted:

By a factor of four, this has become the most popular page/post on my site with more than 2,200 pageviews (Sidenote: I began using Google Analytics on Jan. 15, 2008 and have been blogging since Nov. 24 – yes, I missed my first blogging anniversary).

I don’t want to navel-gaze, but I’d like to use this as a quick lesson in the power of the Web, specifically Google and linking. Some of my inspiration for publishing these figures comes from Mindy McAdams and William (Mark) Hartnett, so I’ll tip my hat.

Links to the “top 10” post have appeared on several sites, including this recent post by Suzanne Yada:

Suzanne’s post was linked by a number of people, including Jeff Jarvis on BuzzMachine, Jay Rosen on Twitter and Ryan Sholin on Invisible Inkling. As a result, her blog became the No. 3 entrance source for my post. Powerful stuff, eh?

With the exception of zero pageviews from Aug. 17 to Sept. 6 (I have no idea why), the post has been viewed almost daily. Traffic increased after Sept. 7 and has been up markedly Suzanne’s post on Jan. 1.

The top traffic sources (by pageviews, including those temporarily under a different URL) were:

  1. Google (1,318)
  2. Direct (228)
  3. suzanneyada.com (151)
  4. mediageeks.ning.com, aka Wired Journalists (55)
  5. digitaljournalism.org (51)
  6. Yahoo (38)

(Note: A link to the post is included in my blog sidebar under “top posts,” which also drives traffic)

Social media  sources:

11. Publish2 (20)
15. Del.icio.us (16) [+ 4 listed under source No. 29]
16. StumbleUpon (16) [+ 13 while temporarily under a different URL]
22. Twitter (6)
27. Facebook (5)

Being such a big fan of Twitter, I’m a little disappointed by that number. But it’s important to note that this post came only one month into my experience with Twitter when I had no Twitterfeed set up and relatively few followers.

Moving on…

Fellow SEO nerds, take note of the top five keywords:

  1. journalism tips (150)
  2. advice for journalism students (68)
  3. top 10 journalism colleges (44)
  4. tips for journalism students (30)
  5. tips on journalism (30)

Conclusion: If you want a post to have a long shelf life (now I’m channeling Pat Thornton), make it timeless and make sure it’s got good SEO juice.

Another method is to save links to your most noteworthy posts on your social networks. For example, I manually shared the link on Publish2, Delicious and Wired Journalists. Also, my blog is included in the Wired Journalist Feedstream, which includes these cool people.

Finally, make friends. They’ll give you link love. And maybe they’ll get some link love that helps you too.

PS. Don’t forget to check out the original post:

Beyond Bootcamp kicks off at UM School of Communication

For the next week I’ll be assisting Rich Beckman‘s annual Beyond Bootcamp multimedia workshop, which he began a decade ago at the University of North Carolina at Chapel-Hill.

Now that Rich is here at the University of Miami, he has brought the bootcamp to our School of Communication.

I’m going to try to blog as much as possible (particularly about the lunch and dinner keynote speeches), but the sessions are 12 hours each day and plus we the assistants shuttling people around, so I can’t promise a certain frequency.

What I can promise is tweets. Tweets galore! As long as my Tilt, iPod Touch and laptop batteries can all survive the long days, I’ll have updates. The School of Comm also has lots of outlets, so I should be ok.

Follow all the related tweets on this page:

www.greglinch.com/multimedia/beyondbootcamp

Please share the link and interact with bootcamp tweeters!

My entry for the Publish2 “I am the future of journalism” contest

I AM THE FUTURE OF JOURNALISM CONTEST. Rate my entry!

It’s hardly a modest proposal, but on Tuesday morning I submitted my entry for Publish2‘s “I am the future of journalism” contest.

My submission includes text and an audio slideshow.

To view and vote on my entry, click the picture to the right. You must be registered with Publish2 to vote.

Enjoy!

(Unfortunately, that’s not a photo of me. My fedoras always fit perfectly, thank you very much.)

Sidenote: If you’re a journalist and you’re not familiar with Publish2, I recommend you check it out. In simple terms, it’s like del.icio.us for journalists but with features specifically tailored for its users.

“But I’m already signed up for a million social networks,” you say.

No worries, Publish2 helps you share links on your other networks. With the simple check of two boxes, you can also save a link to del.icio.us and post it to Twitter.

You can also create a profile on Publish2 with your work experience, add your clips and list all the sites where you publish.

Check out my profile and follow my links.

ONA: New site for them, new role for me

New ONA site
New ONA site

Tah-dah! Another social network!

The Online News Association officially launched their new Web site (see right) Monday evening.

If you’re a member with full access, or even a non-member just perusing, you can tell this site is big step forward.

Here are some of the features, as outlined in an e-mail from ONA President Jonathan Dube:

  • Networking features, including discussion groups that connect members by region and area of interest, giving you the ability to have one-on-one conversations and to chat in real time.
  • An easy-to-navigate membership directory – searchable by name, type of organization, areas of expertise, and more – enabling you to more easily network with people with common interests.
  • A Career Center that allows members to post and search job openings.
  • A new training section with innovative digital presentations tagged by topic, source and medium. This section features videotaped sessions from ONA’s sold-out 2008 annual conference, with tips on the latest techniques in multimedia storytelling from the New York Times, Washington Post, USA TODAY and the BBC, among others.

So why I am blogging about this? Earlier this month I was asked to be the student group discussion leader, a role I enthusiastically accepted. 

I’ll be posting there a couple times a week in order to start conversations on topics such as classes, cool projects and internships. The group has six members so far, including two pros. 

If you’re a student ONA member, please join us!

If you’re a student interested in online journalism, I highly recommend joining ONA. I joined in April and think ONA is a group often overlooked by student journalists (read about membership benefits).

For only $25 a year, you can’t say no.

One benefit is that you get a heavily discounted conference registration — we’re talking less than half the pro rate.

And if you saw my posts or tweets about this year’s gathering in D.C., you’d see why the experience is so valuable. I went to a number of great sessions, but more important are the connections you make.

NETWORKING IS KEY! (see No. 8)

As someone in the midst of an internship – and soon job – search, I can’t emphasize that enough.

Rich Beckman discusses how to reshape journalism education

I keep forgetting to post these notes, but tonight’s grand conversation on Twitter about journalism education reminded me.

Read the Twitter discussion: Twitter discussion about journalism education or see it as a Wordle visualization.

Context: Rich Beckman, Knight Chair in visual journalism at the University of Miami, gave a presentation on Nov. 11 about how we should reshape journalism education. He spoke as part of the first Knight Chair Lecture Series.

Continue reading Rich Beckman discusses how to reshape journalism education