WebProNews

WebPronews anchor Abby Prince-Johnson was present for the "Putting Social Media Into the Newsroom" session at BlogWorld over the weekend. Speakers at this session included Jason Falls, Jeremy Pepper, and Daniel Honigman.

(WebProNews spent the weekend in Vegas at the BlogWorld Expo and chatted up the brightest minds in the blogging business. Stay tuned to WebProNews and WebProNews Video for updates.)

Jason Falls is the director of Social Media for brand-building agency Doe-Anderson. He is also the author of SocialMediaExplorer.com, an AdAge 150 blog. Jeremy Pepper is the manager of global public relations at Boingo Wirless, and is a well-known PR blogger. Daniel Honigman is the social media strategy coordinator for Tribune Interactive.

Falls says the first rule of social media is: Listen!!! Then determine your tools and build your community around the tools.

The 5 Cs of community development were discussed:

- Curiosity

- Connection

- Confidence

- Conversation

- Community

After this, examples of who does social media well were given. Names that came up were Fast Company and I Am Modern magazine. Radio station examples included KPBS (with the San Diego fires) and Vocalo.org. TV examples cited were WCNC in Charlotte and HSGameTime.com for sports. Newspapers mentioned were the Chicago Tribune and NeighborsGo. Also from the session:

What can media outlets do?

- Listen and decide tools

- Approach community building strategically

- Educate your audience

Food for Thought:

- Embrace intelligence of audience

- Protection for citizen journalists

- Separate and elevate paid staff content

- Prove business model

- Change the advertising model

- Learn from each other (journalists and citizen journalists)

"Above all, know your audience and know them cold," says Honigman. That is sound advice. If you're not getting through to your own audience, what is the point?

WebProNews anchor Abby Prince-Johnson contributed to this article.