Get Active! New Ways to Listen, Learn and Engage Your Audience
By Abbey Niezgoda, RTDNA Editorial Team
Upon entering a session on active
listening, journalists were greeted by two guys. Both wearing red shirts. Both
with the glare of a computer screen in their glasses. And both with a lot of
knowledge when it comes to how to listen to the ever evolving sound of social
media.
“How many of you are using social
media every day?” Victor Hernandez, Director of Domestic Newsgathering at CNN
asked the crowd.
The majority of people in the room
looked up from their iPads or smartphones and raised their hands.
“Well we’re here to talk about how
to use those tools effectively, to engage with people and really listen,” social media journalist Jeff Cutler chimed
in.
From that point, the session
turned into an action packed hour of how to better use what’s familiar like
Facebook and Twitter, and how to hop on what’s new like Twylah and Get
Glue.Hernandez told the crowd that at any given time, he’s
exploring about 30 different social networks.
Sound overwhelming? Cuter has some
advice.
“Come into work 10 minutes early.
Put your coffee down and just take the time to look at your RSS feed, Twitter
follows, Google alerts, Facebook updates… Just do it,” Cutler said while
explaining what he’s deemed “the 10 minute rule.
Something else to keep in mind -
what Hernandez calls the “Joe Francis Rule.”
“Don’t produce content just for the
small percentage of consumers that actually appear or participate in your
effort,” Hernandez said. “Produce for the other 90 percent.”
After 45 minutes, everything from
Facebook’s new structure to Google+ predictions was discussed. By the end of the
session, no less than 30 new tools and websites were thrown out to a crowd
frantically trying to scribble down what could be “the next big thing.” Here’s a
few that Cutler and Hernandez say should be on your radar:
Addictomatic.com – Create a
custom page with the latest buzz on any topic
