40 ways to improve your social media posts

A simple but powerful list. What are your secret tips?

1. Write with a consistent, natural and conversational tone of voice. 

2. Focus on your readers. Understand their interests, needs, desires and motivations. 

3. Focus on timely topics but add your own voice. 

4. Add value to a post by encouraging discussion, asking a genuine question (advice or opinion).

5. A post should be clear and easily understood.

6. Avoid simply promoting your own company or work. 

Twitter (follow me: @Scott_McQuade)

7. Post 4-10 times a day.  

8. Avoid repeating a tweet more than once a day. Don’t automate the same tweet.

9. Include 1-3 relevant hashtags in tweets to help people who search by key words.

10. Include links, to get 86% more engagement.

11. Use images for twice the engagement rate.

12. Shorter tweets get read and re-tweeted more (under 100 characters).

13. Use no more than 130 characters, so people can retweet and add hashtags etc.

14. Live tweeting of events helps people follow along: nominate a clear, simple hashtag.  

15. Post during working hours for 30% more engagement.

16. Ask for re-tweets of important posts: it drives 12x more re-tweets. 

Facebook (like my Facebook page) 

17. Consistent quality matters more than quantity.  

18. No more than 4 posts a day.

19. Short messages work best. Long messages are okay if they’re compelling.  

20. Timing matters, but your audience is international. Spread posts throughout the day. 

21. Don’t forget weekends! Readers are more engaged when they have more time. 

22. Photos attract readers, responses and re-shares. 

23. Emoticons receive a 59% higher engagement rate, but use sparingly.

24. Explicitly ask readers to like/comment: it drives higher engagement.

Google+ (put me in your Google+ circle)

25. Include an image to grab attention.

26. Include links or post web articles (web links usually include images).

27. Pose a comment or question to encourage discussion.

28. Monitor discussions and return to the post to interact with readers.

29. Hashtags are automated, but make sure they are appropriate and delete if needed. Include 1-3 hashtags at the end of your post, but only if needed.

30. Keep it short: 1-3 paragraphs. Only a few lines are immediately visible, so get to the point.

31. Share with specific circles as well as making posts public. Include usernames in the post or comments to draw their attention or give thanks, but do it sparingly.

LinkedIn (if I know you, let's get LinkedIn)

32. Only share high quality content. 

33. Share new, informative material. Readers are happy to learn.  

34. Be a thought-leader by only talking about your area of expertise. Join relevant communities.

35. Only discuss professionally relevant topics. LinkedIn is not a general discussion forum.

36. Start conversations with a thought-provoking statement or question. 

37. Avoid simply promoting a corporate initiative or service or posting a news story. Instead, put it in context, pose a question and invite comments.

38. Prepare to engage with discussants: don’t post and run. 

39. Don’t simply post a link to a website. Put the content on LinkedIn for better engagement.

40. Share your expertise: add your own tips below!

Most of these commonsense principles also apply at Tumblr, YouTube and other social media sites.

8 things every journalist should learn

There are so many different types of journalists that defining the curricula for journalism students can be a hot topic. Journalism includes small-town, all-purpose reporters; multi-purpose, multi-media workers; interactive data journalists and researchers; and specialists in many subjects.

Olga Khazan, writing in The Atlantic, proposes several common-sense core topics that should be in the toolbox of any journalist. Here are the headlines, with some thoughts of my own

1. Statistics
2. Data
3. Experiments and sampling (i.e. how to interpret studies)
4. Marketing (not only pitching stories and understanding public interest and e.g. viral media, but also handling pushy PR people and separating story angles from spin)
5. Civic issues (human and civil rights and media law should also be part of this)
6. Online writing (add broadcasting, video, audio and photography) 
7. The internet - how it works and why (include privacy and research techniques)
8. Plus: how about some basics, like story construction (5Ws+H, story pyramid, human interest), note-taking, writing techniques, hygiene (spelling, grammar, house style) and maybe even basic computer skills (keyboard, software etc.); plus some broader issues such as how to build rapport with readers, an understanding of human rights and journalistic rights, and a sense of ethics and obligation to match with your potential impact as an authority figure, commentator, critic and - perhaps - advocate (for a recent debate on the difference and merits of each, read this piece in The Guardian).

What do you think should be in every journalist's toolkit?

Simple data journalism tools

The Guardian's Datablog continues to serve as a beacon to data-focused journalists and others trying to use numbers to help tell stories.

This interview by O'Reilly's Strata blog includes reference to several of the key tools that the Datablog uses; some of them disarmingly simple: Excel, TextEdit, Google Fusion Tables, Google Spreadsheets,Timetric, Many Eyes, Adobe Illustrator, and Tableau.

Link

Understanding the publishing process

Publishing a document can be harder than it looks. If you have ever had to help a colleague, boss or client get a document published in a ridiculously short amount of time, you will know how helpful it would be if they understood all the steps involved, what could go wrong, and how much time is required.


If only all clients could be well informed. At least you can educate yourself, and a good place to start is this promotional video by the company Inís Communication, which focuses on the development sector. Since Inís offers a wide range of publishing services, the video provides a useful overview of the types of issues involved in developing a corporate document.

This information could be helpful for anybody who asks the question 'why does production take so long?'. After all, they probably just ran over time on developing and agreeing on the text and want to see the finished product already! A quick look at this video should clarify that a professional document requires some important decisions and involves a series of steps that take time. While some of these steps can be compressed, run in parallel or even skipped, you risk having a poor result. And if you are planning a major document for your institution, it is likely that you cannot afford to take those sorts of risks.

Publication steps
Procedures covered in the video include:.

• Client consultation (getting a clear brief from the person or team that wants the publication). What is the expected outcome? What is the overall scope of the project?
• Target audience and format. Messaging and tone, print vs electronic, overall nature of the result and how it will be used (what do you want to achieve as a result?).
• Filling the blanks: research and re-writing to get the contents to reflect the intended result. This addresses tone and length, structure and content, and overall messages and impact.
• Editing (language appropriate to the audience, accuracy, grammar and ease of reading). Note that this is a crucial stage and cannot be easily truncated. If your document was written by a member of your staff, or had inputs from a whole range of people, there is a strong possibility that the text simply does not match the needs of your target audience. Many institutional texts need substantial editing and even re-writing before they become truly accessible to diverse audiences. 
• Design (layout concept, visual identity, style and impact). The same as your prior documents? Or something new: modern or traditional, serious or fun?
• Layout (illustrations, photos, use of colours and space). This is also the stage for the final proofing of text. It is your last chance to correct errors (but the text should already be edited! This is also not a time for re-writing, so plan accordingly). 
• Adaptation to other outputs e.g. web, ebooks etc. (these should have been planned in advance).
• Production - printing, XML and web, loading into ebookstores etc.

Marketing
Don't forget the final important steps in promoting your publication! Consider how it will be released to the news media and other defined audiences. Will it be online in time for your public announcement? Are the files big enough to download or send by email? Should you put them on digital platforms like Issuu or Slideshare? Will it be sold or released through Amazon or the iTunes store? 

How to write a good blog post

Updated June 2013
Blogging regularly is generally agreed to be good practice: posting every day or every week can help you build a regular cadre of readers, since they know when to come back for more (or check your RSS feed).

Some people also blog because they want to be visible and demonstrate leadership. Creative types, entrepreneurs and freelance professionals typically need to promote their work and ideas, or to foster a community of interest. Their work provides a source of content, but they still need to craft a good story and do that repeatedly.

Others just blog for fun, so there should be no pressure. For example, I tend to blog about things that I find interesting and useful - and only when I get some spare  time - so my posts are sporadic, but I don't feel stressed about trying to maintain my blog. However, even casual bloggers might want to keep their blog up to date, but find themselves distracted or simply running out of inspiration.

So there may be times when you are stumped for something to say. I found a couple of useful articles discussing what to do about this.

Art business coach Alyson Stanfield proposes a formula that might help aspiring bloggers or anyone else wanting to communicate, but unsure where to start. These are her basic tips for creating a post with images:

• Title: before or after the blog is written.
• Introduction (how to 'hook' readers and draw them in).
• Main body text (stay on message).
• An image for visual appeal (or as a centerpiece of discussion).
• Conclusion (what happens now?).

If you are a creative type, Alyson is also running a blogging class for artists, called Blog Triage.

Social media trend-spotter Jenn Herman has posted a series of tips for overcoming bloggers' block ("When You Just Don't Want To Write"). She recommends:

1. Eliminate Distractions
2. Get Comfortable
3. Find Your Zone
4. Just Start Writing
5. Use Your Emotions
6. Don’t Procrastinate

If you need more, perhaps you would benefit from a training course on how to write and get inspired. There are plenty of options, many of them free online. For example:

• Creative Writing Now
• Crafty Writer's creative writing course
• Creative Writing: A Master Class eCourse (iTunes)
• Open University courses (many options available)
• Writing in the sciences (Stanford University, via Coursera)
• The Creative Spark (MIT OpenCourseware)

Good luck!