By Lynn Walsh, Texas Watchdog

Social media and online communication tools are providing journalists with endless opportunities to create more and better news coverage. New technologies also allow us to interact with our viewers and have immediate discussions about the stories we cover every day.

Posting to Twitter and Facebook while covering a meeting or after a story has been published is just the beginning though. What about using social media and online interactive tools while reporting live from the newsroom or in the field? Below are some ways to use social media tools to enhance live reporting.



1. Location-based services. On the scene of a big event? Or maybe there was a big drug bust in a neighborhood? Big stories draw a lot of attention from viewers, especially those living on the same block of the story location. With so many people logging onto websites like Facebook and Twitter from their mobile phones it is easy to see where a tweet or post on those sites came from. Sometimes people do not want to go on camera, but they may share their opinions about the safety of the neighborhood or heavy traffic in comments on social media sites. Look to see where the comments are coming from and if they are close by say that. Think of how much more meaning a comment from someone that is 100 yards from the story has over someone who is on the other side of the city. (I would be careful not to share actual usernames, etc. because you are identifying the persons location.) Try iPhone application Layar, Facebook Places, Foursquare.

2. Behind-the scenes. On top of populating your website, you know have Twitter, Facebook, and lots of other sites to keep active. What goes on behind the scenes during a live broadcast in a newsroom or out in the field is something most journalists see every day, but viewers do not. Use this to your advantage and have someone take pictures, record short videos, etc. and upload them to the station blog, Facebook account or other social media outlets.

3. Don't tell them, show them. Graphics and pictures of people are great. But what if you can show someone the actual Facebook picture of an alleged criminal? Instead of just taking the picture on the profile and making it into a graphic, why not use your phone, a computer screen or a tablet to scroll through their profile while you are talking about the story? People are so used to doing more than one thing at once that it will seem natural to them. If a story is gaining a lot of buzz online, show your viewers that. Show them how many people have shared it, show them the comments, show them how many people have "liked" it on Facebook. Use the popularity to your advantage because when people think something is popular they general want to know about it too.

4. Record more often. At times, especially when covering a beat, it can seem like there is so much information to share and so many stories to do. And realistically there is, but some are more important than others. Instead of trying to cram all of it into one story or do too many stories on the same subject, try recording shorter, simpler videos about it or writing short blog posts or even uploading documents to the web and sharing the link to them. Then when you are reporting live send your viewers to these resources. Tell them you were live tweeting from the meeting and they can view all of the tweets on your Twitter page for a play-by-play review.

5. Answer Questions. As clear as we think we are sometimes there are always more questions to be asked. Use this to your advantage. Before going live, ask viewers what they want to know about the story and if you do not address it in your story use it in your introduction or your tag. And be sure to say the question came from Twitter or Facebook so viewers know you are monitoring the sites.