social media

Human, bot or something in between? Nieman Journalism Lab asked ABC News, The Associated Press, CNN, NBC News, The New York Times, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal how they power their Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Putting photos on Facebook posts and linking to stories in tweets may seem like Intro to Social Media for a newsroom, but Media General is finding that giving staffers a bit of formal training in those kind of site-specific maneuvers is paying off big.

LinkedIn has seen membership grow from 32 million members in 2008 to 300 million in 2014. One part of that strategy is inviting journalists into a group called LinkedIn for Journalists, which boasts more than 55,000 members.

Following a sprinkling of ads from brands in other categories, Macy’s is the first retailer to roll out Facebook’s auto-play video ads within mobile newsfeedsd. A rep for the department store giant revealed there were two other merchant brands testing the platform, but didn’t disclose names.

In covering tornados over the past week, broadcasters supplemented their more traditional on-air, real-time forecasting and weather radar images with warnings on social media sites, station websites and even robotic telephone calls. Doug Heady, chief meteorologist at KOAM Pittsburg, Kan., says: “I really don’t consider us nowadays to be TV meteorologists; we are kind of multimedia meteorologists.”

Today’s ratings system is in flux. Nielsen has begun using Twitter as a way to quantify viewing. And, broadcasters are betting social will play a big role in the future of how their programs are evaluated by advertisers. But no one has all the answers … yet. Learn how TV stations can use social media.

ABC‘s D.C. fixer drama Scandal has built big ratings in three seasons with a potent mix of often ridiculous plot twists and creator Shonda Rhimes’ savvy use of social media, which has bound fans closely to the show and its stars. That combo has paid off: Ahead of Thursday’s season finale, Scandal has added 3 million viewers (for 11.5 million total). It’s up even more in the key adults 18-49 demo, up 43% compared with last season, according to Nielsen.

Broadcasters had a chance to mine their frenemies relationship with Google, Facebook and Twitter more closely Tuesday at the National Association of Broadcasters Show in a spirited back and forth exchange. Two points were clear: both camps need each other in an inextricably entwined media landscape and broadcasters need to take a highly differentiated approach to each social platform as they continue to iterate.

Social media, particularly Twitter, is testing journalistic standards by pushing out large amounts of often unconfirmed information that reporters are expected to compete with. An RTDNA panel discusses how journalists can protect themselves from getting swept up in the frenzy.

Scott Bowditch, marketing product manager for OverDrive and Inception, while emphasizing that “there is no way a journalist can be successful without social media,” said news organizations must work hard to avoid the “Wild West” nature of the medium where traditional journalistic mechanisms promoting accuracy in reporting are largely unknown. By broadening their audience with social media, stations can build ratings and strengthen revenue with the more traditional commercial TV revenue model, he added.

NEW YORK (AP) – Stephen Colbert is done with the “Colbert Report” Twitter account. He teamed with one of Twitter’s founders, Biz Stone, on Monday’s show to symbolically blow up […]

A new survey by the Council for Research Excellence shows social media is exceeded by traditional TV promos, which are at least three times as influential in helping viewers find new shows.

When Gannett’s NBC affliate in Knoxville must make a tough ethical call or simply decide what’s appropriate, it uses Facebook to see what its viewers think. “Instead of us all pretending we know what the viewers are thinking, we should ask them,” says News Director Christy Moreno.

Twitter has just secured another of its Amplify ad deals, this time with ABC, the last of the four major broadcast networks to sign up. The partnership will begin on Sunday night during the Oscars, with Samsung as the sponsor of a series of 10 promoted tweets featuring celebrity selfies taken from the green room, sent from the account of @TheAcademy.

NEW YORK (AP) — HLN plans to rebrand itself as a TV gathering place for the social-media generation. The network says it will reformat its programming to curate news, trending […]

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A day after Rachel Fredrickson won the latest season of “The Biggest Loser,” after shedding nearly 60 percent of her body weight, attention wasn’t focused on her […]

Twitter and CNN have teamed up with Dataminr to launch Dataminr for News, a new alert system that promises to help newsrooms quickly and accurately identify breaking news and verifiable sources on Twitter.

During last year’s Super Bowl, Twitter users sent a record 24.1 million tweets, up from 13.7 million the previous year. The game was the most-talked-about subject on Facebook in 2013. And overall social media activity during the Super Bowl grew threefold over 2012. This year social media is expected to play an even bigger role in the game. Ryan Wofford, director of digital strategy at BFG Communications, talks about how advertisers are using social media this year, what digital innovations to expect in the game, and what commercials are driving the most pregame buzz.

The micro-blogging giant’s managing director of global brand and agency strategy predicts that growing social media usage will have a direct effect as soon as this spring.

In Brimingham, Ala., Allbritton Communications’ ABC affiliate WBMA-LD (and its two full-power satellites WCFT Tuscaloosa and WJSU Anniston) is finding success with its social media strategy. The station, known as ABC 33/40, has three detailed social media plans: one for every day, one for breaking news and one for severe weather. The strategy has the station just shy of 40,000 Twitter followers and 100,000 Facebook fans

The Gannett-owned NBC affiliate in Boise, Idaho, reports record growth on social and mobile in the past year.

It’s no surprise that social media are on the rise. For example, 59% of journalists across 15 countries used Twitter in 2013, compared to 47% a year earlier. Here are the International Journalists’ Network’s top picks of social media tools.

The binge-watching, recapping, Scandal-tweeting nature of the new television culture marks the small screen’s shift into both high art and blood sport.

Facebook said Tuesday that it’s testing video advertisements that show up in its users’ news feeds. As part of the test, Facebook said some of its users on Thursday will see a series of videos teasing Summit Entertainment’s upcoming release of Divergent, a film based on a young adult novel with the same name, in their feeds.

A slew of broadcasters have agreed to make their content available via Twitter and Comcast’s new “See It” platform. The idea behind See It is just what the name implies: Users who see tweets about shows and video content will be able to jump directly from Twitter to watch or record the shows on Comcast or any other cable operator who is signed on.

Vivian Schiller, the former NPR and NBC executive who will start as Twitter’s first news partnerships leader in January, in a blog post explained why she left NBC for Twitter. In part, her interest in Twitter seems to be much the same as her interest in NBC: she wants to use new technology to help media companies reach a broader audience.

TVB CEO Steve Lanzano: “Nielsen’s Social Guide reported that Sound of Music was the No. 1 topic on Twitter for the night the program aired and for the entire week, generating nearly 54,000 more tweets than the No. 2 TV-tweeted program, Scandal, did on Dec. 5.”

Internet companies including Twitter, Facebook, Google and Amazon are blasting a federal judge’s decision allowing an Arizona-based gossip website to be sued for defamation by a former Cincinnati Bengals cheerleader convicted of having sex with a teenager. The companies warn that the ruling to let the former cheerleader’s lawsuit proceed has the potential to “significantly chill online speech.”