It’s so fascinating how I continue to help coordinate and expand the roles of journalists in my newsroom. It’s also led me to expand my attentions. I no longer have one central place (like this site) where I share all of my knowledge. I have Twitter (which I’ve used since October 2006), Facebook (since March 2005), LinkedIn (since April 2006), my Google+ page (which is new), Facebook journalism and blogging groups, my course Facebook page, my course Tumblr, my course blog, and my advocacy site and its many social outlets. (Oh, and I love Instagram.) I juggle all of these resources while encouraging my students to focus on one work brand (KOMU or KBIA) and one personal brand (on a portfolio to help them get a job).

It’s no wonder my brain feels busy all of the time.

With my experimentation of so many different tools, I wouldn’t recommend this mode of sharing. Keep it centralized as you build your identity online. Leave comments and share links of information that come from smart people you want to know and talk to. Write strong blog posts and find others who will be interested in what you have to say. You can’t assume they’ll come to you and learn. If you snag a job that lets you experiment… that’s when things can start to get messy. The important thing is to find ways to report back the lessons you’ve learned. I’m lucky to have a class and a newsroom where I can do that. I also get to share my knowledge in spaces like #wjchat and at local meetings for hacks/hackersIRE.

Of course, there’s this space as well. And it feels good to get back to sharing my knowledge here again.

(Photo courtesy of Aramil Liadon/Flickr)

U_News is proof that taking the web to broadcast is challenging when you are still following the traditional sales model of a newscast. I’m hoping the show will live on long enough for us to experiment not only with different ways to deliver news but to find different ways to help traditional broadcasters take the power of social and remain profitable.

For now, the show is a 30 minute program at 11am. We’re adding “passwords” during the show to encourage viewers to drop the word on an assigned type of social media to win tickets or something cool. People sit in a Google+ hangout to discuss topics that matter to the local market and sometimes important topics from around the world. The show includes viral video, fun photos and serious news from the day. Hopefully we’ll also continue to grow and change just like a social program can… organically.

I’m headed into a new semester with new students and new ideas. It will be interesting to see what kind of ideas they find for the show and for the industry.

In the last six months, I’ve had a chance to speak at a number of really fascinating events, speak personally with incredibly smart people and participated in communities and experiences that are mind blowing. I will do the best I can to try to document these experiences more on this site. I’m also blogging at Born Just Right, my #jenclass blog (along with its new #jenclass tumblr), weekly at Support for Special Needs

We have two different tracts of discussion… Content producers and content managers. You can also pitch in using the #realworldlunch hashtag.

CONTENT PRODUCERS:

CONTENT MANAGERS:

We have a team of students who are helping cover today’s events and they even put together a blog: http://realworldlunch.wordpress.com

That’s why I loved have a chance to talk about how to take your mid-career life into a more multimedia experience. I talked about how you have to change your mindset, play and connect to promote your work. I realize that sounds easier than you think… but guess what? It really is that easy. If you play, you learn. That’s exactly how I got to where I am in my career.

Beyond what I had to say, I want to share a list of links of tools that I think are really helpful:
delicious.com – save all of those links you don’t want to lose and tag them with searchable terms
bit.ly – make a shorter link for something you want to share and get instant analytics that show who clicked on it
Mobile Reporting Tools: RJI 2010-11 fellow Will Sullivan and a team of students analyzed all kinds of mobile tools and listed them based on the type of phone. I HIGHLY recommend you play with all of the available tools you can with the phone you own.
Also, check out A New Guide: A team of my students recently interviewed journalists across the country to come up with some best practices for journalists using social media.

Some journalists in New Orleans asked me to share some tutorials about Twitter. I really like the guide Twitter put together for journalists. I also like Mashable’s Twitter guide and its Facebook guide to help you think about the potential of those tools. I’m also writing a series of tips on Google+ for the MediaShift blog. You can see my first post here.

Here’s a look at my presentation… I hope our conversation from the presentation can continue here and on Twitter (using the #jentalk, #eij11career and #sndstlcareer hashtag).

By the way – if you’re curious about what I’m teaching in my class, here’s what this week’s focus is on: Building your name brand online.

I’m still talking about it… and not everyone believes me. Unfortunately, the more mainstream Twitter gets, the bigger mistakes people make when they take Twitter information and twist it around without even knowing they missed the point.

Here’s the perfect example… and it’s pretty terrible because New York Times journalist (who really knows her stuff around social media) Jennifer Preston was slammed by a conservative writer who claimed she was biased by retweeting a person running social media for the White House. Preston created a really helpful Storify that explains what happens:

It’s funny how I started writing about this topic when I stumbled into a thorough discussion about why newspaper editors must be on Twitter by Steve Buttry. He openly criticizes leadership at the New York Times and I think he has incredibly valid reasons. I also think he brings up even more reasons why anyone involved in news collection and management should be inside social media to understand the conversation, the engagement and the community information that is actually delivered incredibly well inside Twitter.

A couple of months ago, I had a chance to present to my fellow faculty and staff at the Missouri School of Journalism to talk about how I use social media inside and outside the classroom. Here’s a look at my slides:

I’ve found great success in using my classroom as a social experimental space. I also use it as a way to stay in contact with my current and former students. In the classroom, I encourage tweeting with the #jenclass hashtag. It gives my students a chance to share live notes with each other. Yes, there are times where the note taking turns into a completely off topic side conversation, but I follow the hashtag and can call the students out if they lose focus. I also use CoverItLive sometimes to let students practice the skill of live blogging. It’s a skill that is only done well if you practice. It’s tough to practice if you don’t have reasons to live blog!

I also make it clear to my students that it’s easier to reach me via social networks than leaving a voicemail. My class hashtag extends beyond class discussion. Current and former students share links and ideas throughout each week. (Right now the stream is quiet since I’m not teaching a class, just managing the newsroom at KOMU.)

I recommended experimenting with your comfort zone to the faculty and staff who attended my session. One person commented how I’m much braver than he is as a teacher. I said I’m lucky to have flexible students who are hungry to learn in this space. Each semester is different for me. I never teach my class the same way, so every semester I learn something that worked and something that didn’t work. Luckily, I ask for input throughout the semester and most of the time my students feel comfortable telling me when they feel they understand what’s going on and when they feel lost!

I loved having a chance to share some of my higher ed ideas to my peers. It’s something I don’t get to do often enough. It’s funny how so many of us are doing really great things, but we’re so busy working hard we don’t take enough time to share.

Thanks to +Lauren Stenzel for sharing this with me!

As of this afternoon, it looks like all brands are gone. But here’s the interesting thing. My KOMU News account may be down… but the link continues to work and when I’m logged in, I can see people continue to circle our newsroom. Also, I can continue to add people into circles and read our stream. I know some newsrooms chose to leave Google+ including the NBC News account. I am not sure if the managers of those brands did that on a recommendation from Google or not.

I’ve had a lot of people ask me if I’m mad or disappointed. How can I be mad when I’m having so much fun in this new space? KOMU’s account started on July 1st and ended 19 days later. Google didn’t tell brands to get out and stay out until July 6th. Google’s Christian Oestlien posted this message on Google+ asking for brands to stay out.

I won’t complain about the fact Google made this announcement five days after I had my newsroom up and running inside Google+ because this is being considered a “field test” until it opens to the public on July 31st.

I am glad Google offered a form we can use to alert them to our brand. You can fill it out by going to this link. But what I wonder is even if I’ve had the opportunity to experiment and help spread the word about the uses of Google+, how long will it take a little newsroom like mine to get the chance to test a business page? Also, will a business page be a part of Google Apps? How much will we have to pay?

In the meantime, interactive anchor Sarah Hill and I will continue to experiment, learn and find new ways to reach out to our market and beyond. If you want to keep up with us, follow Sarah and my Google+ accounts to see what we can think up.

UPDATE: Apparently Mashable and The Next Web pages remain alive on Google+. I’d love to know why.

Another UPDATE: Christian Oestlien posted an update a few hours after I wrote this. Take a look at what he says is in the future of business accounts on Google+.