We’ve joined Google+; help us as we figure out how to use it to best serve our audience

Several weeks ago, Google opened it’s social network, Google+, up for brand pages. Many news organizations jumped in immediately, seeing another social media site to join as a plus (pun intended). I launched a Heritage Media account several days later, after trying to see the best way to utilize this new space.

The thing is, I think everyone is still trying to figure out what it means. We’ve become so ingrained with using Twitter and Facebook, that’s what we use to compare any new social site to. But Google+ clearly is different. It’s aimed at strengthening Google’s reach at most everything people do online, which can be seen as it integrates into more and more services across the web, including putting it into its Google News site. A television commercial even recently launched to advertise the service (although, I still can’t get over the fact someone has a circle labeled “Epic Bros.” Really?)

The question I’ve had since launching and experiment with the service is: How can we use this in a way to interact with our audience and give them something different?

The most obvious item is the use of Hangouts. This has to be the strongest feature in Google+, the ability to host a video chat with up to 10 people at a time, and allow others to observe. Even though Facebook announced Skype integration earlier this year, this is different. This opens up great interaction possibilities. I watched the New York Times’ first Hangout Wednesday, a day after it took place. All it was was two tech writers openly chatting with readers about anything that came up as a way to test it out. I was impressed, and saw great potential.

Of course, that  *is* the New York Times, and their audience far exceeds what we have in Washtenaw County and around the world, so it would be more difficult to host a Hangout with people waiting for spots to get in. But it could be used for an online chat with local leaders, sports reporters talking to readers about upcoming matches and their predictions, etc.

How is the best way to grow  an audience on Google+ to use some of its bells and whistles more effectively? I’d love to hear what other places are doing to grow their engagement on this new site.

A quick overview of iMovie for those looking to learn the basics

Huge disclaimer: I’m no iMovie or video expert. Everything here is what I picked up on my own doing. If I’ve gotten something wrong, please let me know in the comments, and I’ll correct it.

With a bigger push coming for more higher-quality news videos, I’ve compiled a quick presentation on the basic use of iMovie, software many journalists will use to edit video.

While I’ve always been a bigger fan of using Final Cut to edit video, I realize that’s not a possibility for all newsrooms. Most will have iMovie, though, and so I’ve created a presentation for our staff here on the basics of iMovie, including editing clips, adding text and inserting b-roll into clips. If you’re looking for the basics, or have forgotten something, I’ve embedded my presentation below as a refresher.

Tablets are the real thing: Recap from the tablet portion at the SND annual meeting in St. Louis, Mo.

Tablets are the next big thing in journalism.

No trip to St. Louis is complete without a visit to the infamous arch.

At least, that’s why I got out of the sessions hosted by the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Society of News Design annual meeting this week in St. Louis, Mo.

I, along with two other co-workers at other JRC Michigan properties, Chris Laine at The Oakland Press and Rene Cizio at The News-Herald in Southgate, attended several sessions focusing on the mobile strategies for news organizations, which mostly focused on tablets such as the iPad, Galaxy and the newest kid on the block, the Kindle Fire.

Some estimates put 250 million mobile tablets being shipped in 2017, which would be a huge increase in tablet computing. This projected jump is showing news organizations the importance of developing products and content specifically for 7-to-10 inch tablets. This trend is already starting to show, with mobile usage surpassing desktop computer usage for the first time in 2011.

One of the sessions that spoke to me was a presentation by Chris Peck, editor of the Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn., and Guy Tasaka, a publisher who worked on nytimes.com when it first launched in 1995 and who is assisting Peck with the launch of a new digital strategy for the newspaper in Tennessee.

The Commercial Appeal currently requires its readers on its mobile app to register for access. Starting tomorrow, a metered paywall will be in effect on its website, mobile app and iPad app. The plan, Peck said, is to bundle all the content to encourage subscribers to read and interact with all the products the Commercial Appeal produces, including its print product. This, of course, is a strategy the New York Times has employed, and it seems to be working well. Peck and Tasaka said the studies the Commercial Appeal did showed only 4-5 percent of all readers looked at 10 or more stories on its website. Most of the time, it was someone coming for a single story, and then bouncing off the page.

It’s important to note that just because technology is available, it doesn’t mean everything has to be done. This was stressed by Peck and Tasaka, as well as other presenters. In other words, an app for the iPad or other mobile device sometimes isn’t needed. A good mobile site that allows readers to access content can do the trick better than an app.

And just because apps are downloaded doesn’t mean they will be used. In fact, the more apps a user has downloaded, the less likely there are going to use them. Apps should also give a reader something different, something unique. Why would a reader download an app, when they can just visit your mobile site to read news?

A great example given was working with local transportation. The app informed owners of bus times, scheduled departures, etc., so readers could use it to plan a trip around town. This type of integration could work well if Heritage West were to have an app, possibly working with an entity such as the AATA in Ann Arbor.

For a list of mobile links, where many of the articles cited came from, check out Poynter’s Regina McCourt’s list of links here on Delicious.

Storify: There’s a reason it’s garnering a lot of attention

One of the most exciting free online tools out there for journalists right now is Storify, a curation tool that rounds up social media posts, including tweets and Facebook posts, YouTube videos and other media, and allows the user to mesh them together to tell a story.

It’s a fantastic service, and very easy to learn. I did my first one on my own outdoors blog regarding a chain of fires happening in the Grayling area. I was amazed at how detailed the search could be, limiting the tweet range to as few as 10 kilometers and as much as 100 kilometers. The ability to pull so many different networks and content is a huge plus. Sometimes, a single medium doesn’t do the trick, and Storify does its best to pull from many sources.

A new exciting feature comes from Storify realizing its forte is in breaking news coverage. It’s a go-to tool for news happening on the fly, both nationally and internationally. So it recently launched a partnership with BreakingNews.com, an aggregate service that collects and distributes breaking news from around the globe. It’s a nice addition to any big, breaking story.

I’ve found it to be a useful tool with localizing big stories people are talking about, as well as big local stories and events. I compiled a localization of the reaction of people near Ann Arbor during the Casey Anthony murder verdict, where she was found not guilty. It was interesting to see how resident in our area built up to the drama of the case, and their reaction once the verdict came back in. It showed an interesting dynamic, and one that didn’t take very long to compile.

Storify is attracting much attention. Earlier this year, it won the Knight-Batten award for Innovations in Journalism, along with an additional $10,000 in funding. It’s a great alternative to the traditional story, allowing your readers and others the ability to become the story, without being intrusive. It gives the opportunity for the story creator to add text for context throughout, but it’s still very user-driven, a plus in today’s communications society.

What have you used Storify for? Let me know in the comments below. Hopefully we can share some ideas.

UMapper: A more advanced way to map trends, weather and other events

I was first introduced to UMapper in college, when a friend of mine mentioned it in my advanced online journalism class. I found the mapping capabilities extremely fascinating, and began playing around it.

Fast forward a year later: For my online skill, I chose to teach UMapper to the fine staffers at the Heritage West office. I created a slideshow, going over the basics in how to use UMapper, which I’ve embedded below:

The basic concept of UMapper can be to mark where events are happening, or to map a series of events. It could be used to mark special locations in a story, such as mapping locations of break-ins to show trends, or could be used to pinpoint where all the summer festivals are happening around your coverage area.

It also allows map creators to create a “Geo-dart” game, which can be used to quiz viewers on specific knowledge on the map. Here’s a link to one I created for demonstration purposes that asks where everyone at Heritage West works.

It also allows you to create weather maps (a function I’m not the greatest fan of, I would prefer this method when using weather maps. I haven’t tried it yet, but it sure beats UMapper’s function).

One of the cooler applications was the Twitter map. During our training in Saline, we used the term “Ian Jenkins” to search for on Twitter, the name of the hockey prospect who died earlier this week. When we set the radius over Milan, the town he died in, we could see tweets announcing the time and date of his funeral, as well as the memorial hockey game being played in his honor. It’s a great way to keep up on the buzz over certain terms in your community.

UMapper is a great tool to use for reporting. I constructed a map for area Census data for Washtenaw County, and published that on a Heritage blog. It can be used for all sorts of data aggregation, especially for a company like Heritage that has such a wide geographic base for regional stories.