Scott Horvath from USGS came to talk to our class about social media and making a brand for yourself

Here are some of the social media tips he lectured our online journalism class about:

• What you do on social media is creating your own brand. You must manage your reputation so that employers find you to be a good “brand” to choose. Social media and getting a job is all about selling yourself.
• Some ways USGS tries to connect to their audience is through contests, brand management, good customer service, science education, etc.
• Some sites he mentioned were Flickr, Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, Google Plus, and Reddit (and other online forums).
• Everything on your social media website will add up. Employers will look at these sites to generate a picture of you to see if you fit their criteria.
• The lifetime of a tweet is about 6-8 hours before it starts to drop off the front page. Keep retweeting information so your followers get your messages!
• “The Internet isn’t written in pencil.. it’s written in ink.” You can never undo something you have put online, so make sure you are careful with what you put up!

In a nutshell, be careful what you put up online. It will be lost in cyberspace and is no longer in your control once you put information out there.

• With iPhones and other music devices coming out, the radio is becoming less and less popular.
• The audience for digital media is at its peak during work hours.
• You can listen to the radio online, on your phone and through many other media outlets. People can listen to what they want, when they want it, and do not have to wait and listen to so many commercials. Listening to the radio has become more convenient.
• Each successful company has different things that make them unique and stand out from their competitors.
• The iPad is the one place for news media where weekend traffic is higher than weekday traffic and night traffic is higher than morning traffic. This is because the iPad is made for leisure and people generally use it for entertainment.
• Now that National Public Radio is online, they have to take photos to supplement their content. They also now do videos and animation for their website.
• Immediacy is an important aspect of the radio and other media.
• Admit your mistake if you make one in social media.
• Social media is a very personal medium. Connecting with the audience is a very important thing and this is a great tool to help facilitate that.
• Media companies make mistakes every day because they are run by people and people are not perfect. Some mistakes can be a violation of trust from their audiences, however, so companies have to be careful to be correct as much as possible. Make sure you know your sources to ensure accuracy.

Joel talked about blogging and other forms of news. Some of his tips and ideas presented include:

• The web rewards niche. Make your blog about something in specific, rather than generalizing.
• If people search for specific things, they may come across your website and use it regularly for news.
• The Argo Mission was intended to strengthen local journalism, build an online audience, develop common technology platform, find models for repeatability and sustainability, and broaden digital skills and interest in multi-platform reporting.
• Smart aggregation is to follow a certain group of people on Twitter and find your audience.
• Community is very important in blogging. People can give you their opinions as well as share valuable information to you and your other readers. They can also converse with one another and the curator of the blog, which makes it a more personal experience.