As I mentioned in my last post, yesterday, I attended the training seminars for Region 5 of SPJ. I wanted to create a post sharing some of the lessons I took away from the conference. Enjoy!
1. Figure out the value of YOU. Anyone can report, that is, share images with the public. However, not everyone can be a journalist. Only we, as journalists, have the training to properly interpret and provide perspective on stories. Our lunch's keynote speaker Dave Lindquist of the Indianapolis Star said, "80% of success is being there." Eventually, someone is going to call you because he/she needs a journalist who is in your vicinity to report on events occurring around you. Make yourself indispensable to any employer. Also, figure out your niche expertise, so that you're the person an editor has to call on topic X or Y.
2. Use the Internet to your advantage. There are numerous sites to analyze your social media reach and to help you generate story ideas and sources. The Internet also offers great resources for compiling information so that you don't have to scour sites all day by yourself. It can effectively organize data for you and can even send you alerts before other people have jumped on a story. For some of the most helpful sites, check out the list compiled by Jeff Cutler, a social media specialist for SPJ who spoke at 2 of the sessions I attended. My short list: make sure you have a blog, your own domain and, if you're a photojournalist, a Flickr account.
3. Freelance. You'll want clips from publications beyond your school paper or primary news outlet. It's part of getting as much experience and exposure as possible. It's easy to take what you're really passionate about and find a niche publication that needs your expertise in that passion AND in good writing. You'll be able to present a future employer with different types of writing, as well as a network of several editors who can vouch for your work ethic. It can also be a great way to make some money on the side, whether you're between jobs or just want some extra income and want to prevent rustiness in your writing.
4. Get to know your followers. Figure out what your readers are interested and what will keep them coming back to your writing. Make sure they're following YOU, not your outlet. Also, figure out when you have the greatest reach. According to social media experts, 7-10 p.m. is a good time to post on social media. 2-6 p.m. (or 3-5 p.m., according to Jeopardy) sees a lot of Twitter traffic, so you may want to schedule your tweets then.
5. Write with the assumption that no one trusts you. If you depend on the reputation of your news outlet, your writing will get lazy, and YOU (as a brand) will blend into the background. You need to write in a way that no one can deny what you're saying. You're only responsible for what you say, not how people perceive you. Be sure people know your sources. Make social media a conversation where you ask questions and retweet criticisms or quotations publicly and respond to followers' comments.
I want to close with a paraphrase of Amy Bartner of the Indianapolis Star talking about journalists and the direction journalism is taking to merge personal and professional.
We're all humans. We all have personalities. We all have opinions. We can't just pretend we're robots that sit at computers and type our stories [and don't care].
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