BERKELEY COMMUNICATIONS CONFERENCE | June 13, 2013
Using Social Media for Event Coverage
Adelyn Baxter ’13The Daily CalifornianSocial Media Manager
BERKELEY COMMUNICATIONS CONFERENCE | June 13, 2013
Our social media approach
• Established the social media manager position last fall in order to regulate our approach– Over 8,000 Facebook likes, 11,600 Twitter followers
• Social media allows us to increase readership, encourages online mentality– Applications like bit.ly, Google and Facebook
Analytics allow tracking + feedback for what works• Knowing audience’s social media habits is key
– Helps that we’re the same generation as our readers, but still trial & error process
BERKELEY COMMUNICATIONS CONFERENCE | June 13, 2013
Experimentation with Social Media • Constantly experimenting w/ ways
to engage• Other methods of engaging
readers: – Instagram contests– Crowdsourcing via Twitter
and Facebook• Do our best to live blog, tweet and
sometimes Storify major events– Nov. 9th, Election 2012, Cal
Football games and recently
ASUC Divestment
BERKELEY COMMUNICATIONS CONFERENCE | June 13, 2013
Election Night 2012
•Live blog saw nearly 5,000 pageviews throughout the night• About 300 viewers at its
peak
•Crowd sourced on Twitter• #berkvote to incorporate
readers
•Awarded 2013 CCMA for Best Use of Social Media
BERKELEY COMMUNICATIONS CONFERENCE | June 13, 2013
Lessons learned from election night
• Have plan, but be flexible– Should have been prepared to fill, large gaps
in election results
• Maintaining focus Facebook and Twitter is great, but there’s so much more we could do– Instagram, SoundCloud, even Tumblr
• Crowd sourcing– Something we really should explore more,
excellent way to engage– Don’t overuse hashtags, keep it simple