The 7 Social Media Habits of Highly Effective Health Reporters - Laura McClure

8/7/2019 The 7 Social Media Habits of Highly Effective Health Reporters - Laura McClure

1/9

The 7 Social Media Habits ofHighly Effective Health

Reporters

Road-tested tools and strategies to

make must-read health reportingeasier to doand more fun.

Laura McClure 1.22.2011


2/9

Laura McClure, New Media EditorMother Jones magazine, San Franciscophone: (415) 321-1741 | email: [email protected]: @motherjones , @lauramccluremj

Laura McClure is Mother Jones' new media editor, where she guides daily digital content.In addition to editing front page politics, youth, and culture-related stories on tightdeadlines, she works closely with MoJo's tech director and editors-in-chief to successfullyestablish the award-winning magazine in new media territories. Since her hire in2008, Motherjones.com has created Twitter and Tumblr magazine alter egos, broken allprevious website traffic records, been redesigned and relaunched, forged groundbreakingdigital journalistic collaborations, created online forums, slideshows, video, and podcasts,and been lauded for its website content by the Online News Association, the AmericanSociety of Magazine Editors

, the Society of Professional Journalists

, the Webby Awards

,and more.

When not blogging, editing, or pioneering on the new media frontier, Laura writesmagazine features like this onepart of a National Magazine Award-winning print issueofMother Jonesand occasionally reports on post-war health and human rights issues inAfrica, most recently from Liberia as a 2010 International Reporting Project Editor.

A returned Peace Corps Volunteer (West Africa), two-time USC Annenberg Health

Journalism Fellow, and alumna of Carnegie Mellon University, Laura is a web-nativemagazine editor who learned to love code while working at Salon.com as an award-
http://www.treehugger.com/best-of-green/business-politics/index.phphttp://www.treehugger.com/best-of-green/business-politics/index.phphttp://www.magazine.org/ASME/ABOUT_ASME/ASME_PRESS_RELEASES/nma-digital-2010-finalists-press-release.aspxhttp://www.spjnorcal.org/blog/2010/10/16/2010-excellence-in-journalism-award-winners-announced/http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current_honorees.php?category_id=41&media_id=96&season=14http://journalists.org/news/51780/MSNBC.com-NPR-Pro-Publica-and-CNN.com-take-top-honors-at-2010-Online-Journalism-Awards.htmhttp://www.magazine.org/ASME/ABOUT_ASME/ASME_PRESS_RELEASES/nma-digital-2010-finalists-press-release.aspxhttp://motherjones.com/media/2009/07/landmark-42-hours-500-65-breakdownshttp://www.treehugger.com/best-of-green/business-politics/index.phphttp://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current_honorees.php?category_id=41&media_id=96&season=14http://www.spjnorcal.org/blog/2010/10/16/2010-excellence-in-journalism-award-winners-announced/http://www.magazine.org/ASME/ABOUT_ASME/ASME_PRESS_RELEASES/nma-digital-2010-finalists-press-release.aspxhttp://www.magazine.org/ASME/ABOUT_ASME/ASME_PRESS_RELEASES/nma-digital-2010-finalists-press-release.aspxhttp://journalists.org/news/51780/MSNBC.com-NPR-Pro-Publica-and-CNN.com-take-top-honors-at-2010-Online-Journalism-Awards.htm


3/9

1) Social media is like flossing. You don't have tolike it, you just have to do it. Every day.


4/9

2) It's easier to fit social media into your day if youwork toward a goal and team up with a buddy.


5/9

3) Two platforms you can now ignore.


6/9

4) Explore these platforms instead.ReportingonHealth, AHCJ, WebMD,other health communities: Naturally.

Twitter: Aphorism generator; iterativereporting tool, water cooler for influentialjournalists. Stats, quotes.Facebook: Evil, but helpful for storypromotion and keeping tabs onyoungsters, tea partiers, and memes.Huffington Post: All hail Arianna, the

fairy godmother of page views toimportant stories.Stumbleupon: Good web trafficgenerator. Make sure to "disco" eachphoto in your slideshows.Linked In: Professionals, experts. Good

for finding contact and bio info for storysources.You Tube & Vimeo: Useful for findingonline images or researching stories.MetaFilter: "Ask MeFi," Big, smart,online community.

Tumblr: Skews young. Good homefor images, quotes, or research

odds and ends that didn't make itinto your piece.BoingBoing, Neatorama:Techies/artists.Etsy.com, Threadless: Indieartists/toy/shirt creators. Good fortrend research, sources.

Fark, Reddit: Great for audience.Foursquare, GoWalla: Geo-location based. Look for the mayor,tips, business trends.Care2, Change.org: Communitycommitted to causes.Amazon.com health community,

GroupOn: Explore in 2011.Townhall.com, Drudge Report,Fox News, or any comment threadof a site you personally disagreewith: Useful for reporting, quotes.Spanish, community media,

hyperlocal online sites.


7/9

5) If you have to pick only one social mediaplatform to focus on, make it Twitter. Why?

A) Because it's a great way to make friends, influencepeople, and impress future bosses/editors/sources.B) Because it's the easiest way to get your writing into theLibrary of Congress.C) Because it's the fastest way to amplify and extend thereach of a story or topic you care about.D) Because influential people or sources who ignore your

emails will sometimes respond to you on Twitter.E) Because 10 minutes on Twitter can improve your moodand make you feel more alert.F) All of the above.


8/9

6) Don't be this guy:Dear @lauramccluremj, I have a lengthy story pitch for you

[Story pitch follows in 144 character increments]Dear colleagues, I no longer communicate in Meat Space.My hashtags lack skill and I promote only@my_own_stories on Twitter.

My tweets use all 144 characters, making it impossible foryou to retweet me without extra effort on your part.I now use phrases like: "I'll Skype you after I disco thatstory on Stumble and tweet the su.pr link, cubicle mate."I'm not careful when tweeting in "iterative reporting mode."

BE THESE GUYS:@charlesornstein@MacMcClelland @kate_sheppard @susanorlean @motherjo

nes @mariancw@SuzyKhimm @DavidCornDC @kanyewest


9/9

Documents

The 7 Social Media Habits of Highly Effective Health Reporters - Laura McClure