Posts Tagged ‘News’

Do you follow over 100 news sources? Are you the first to retweet earthquake tweets? Do you send late night DM’s to major new sources then see them show up on the news a few minutes later? If so, then you’re definitely a news hound.

Here are five tips to keep you at the top of the news food chain.

1) Follow a lot of news sources via Twitter.

News agencies are changing the way they present news information online. Before they used to only post full news stories. Now many are employing the “first to break” strategy. In that strategy, news agencies will start with a tweet on Twitter then move on to a very brief post on their site. If you follow a lot of news sites then you can use some of the other techniques below to stay ahead of the story.

Actress and activist Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) is great at posting hot news. If you look at who she’s following on Twitter, you’ll see a ton of news sources. By finding then retweeting news items, Alyssa is able to provide a valuable resource to her followers. Hot news also makes for great retweet material.

2) Follow a lot of people on Twitter.

If you are really on the hunt for news, you need to follow a lot of people. Breaking news happens all the time, in all parts of the world. Reading tweets from many followers helps build a picture of what’s going on without having to cobble information based on Trending Topics.

Rich Sanchez from CNN (@ricksanchezcnn) follows over 47,000 people and feeds on Twitter. This helps him track stories and connect with potential news sources.

If following many people puts a crimp in your social media plan, then rely on method number one and follow top breaking news sources.

3) Use Twitter’s advanced search.

With Twitter’s advanced search you can track down stories based on 18 different filters. One of the most powerful measures is searching by Place. For example, if you know there is a strong earthquake in a particular location, you can enter that location in the “near this location” textbox then set the distance from that location. This will show tweets from people that are actually in the area.

Also, if you enter “Twitpic” in the Words section, you can retrieve tweets with links to pictures.

4) User Twitter lists.

My process for tracking natural disaster news is to spot the news items from my timeline then do an advanced Twitter search and identify people who are in the region. The next step is to add those Twitterers to a new Twitter List. I used that news tracking process during the Fort Hood shootings.

Tracking people near the news site during an emergency or natural disaster helps give a three-dimensional view of what’s happening. The tweets are also likely to be less “filtered” then that coming from official news sources.

5) Search emergency live feeds.

When you are on the news hunt for information on an emergency or natural disaster, do a Web search over [cityname] + “fire department live feeds.” Fire trucks are often the first on the scene of an emergency and you can usually find a live feed online. I used fire department scanners to track the plane crash in Denver in 2008.

6) BONUS: Search Web Cams.

You’ve been very patient up to now so I’m throwing in a 6th Hot Tip. If you do a Web search over [cityname] + “live cam” or “web cam” you will usually be able to get video of the area. I used this technique during the last tsunami watch in Hawaii and off the California coast.

Assignment

The next time emergency news breaks, use techniques 3-6 above and get a rich 3D view of the news story.

Do you have any other resources or techniques that you use for tracking breaking news? I’d love to hear about them.

2009 was full of twists and turns. Big deals, big plays, and big hearts, on all fronts. These are my predictions for 2010.

1) Users learn to own their stuff
As we continue to see companies like Twitter and Facebook grow like crazy and start monetizing at every step, we’re going to realize that they are growing because of OUR content. Are you leveraging your own content, whether for business use, charity, or for you own personal purposes?

2) Twitter will become the number one news service
Users will organize to be the first to cover global news and be able to bubble that information up so that emergency, government, and traditional news outlets can jump on the news faster.

3) Augmented Reality marketing is going to be HUGE
Augmented Reality is a relatively new technology for displaying image content and tools in a live context. For example, Yelp, a restaurant/hotel rating site, allows you to use your smart phone to look through its camera and see an overlay of ratings information tied to your current location. The video below has an example of me using Yelp in my small town of Santa Paula, CA.

4) CEO’s from Fortune 500 companies will start to get fired for not having a strong social media strategy.
We saw this in 1997 when some slow executives decided to “wait out” this whole Internet thing.

5) Spiritual networks will become prominent and widespread
There are many folks who don’t prescribe to a particular religion but are extremely spiritual. These networks will do things like support the ill, be activist for social causes, and push for legislation (whether progressive or conservative). Take a look at spiritjump.org (@spiritjump on Twitter) as an example of it’s potential.

6) In the boxing world, Manny Pacquiao will beat Floyd Mayweather in a close split decision.

7) In politics, Immigration Reform takes center stage and the associated hoopla makes health care reform look like a cake walk. By the end of it, tens of thousands of awesome and deserving students will be on the road to conditional permanent residency.

8) The top 5 “TV” shows will be primarily seen via computer screens.

9) Video bloggers from different disciplines are going to crush it in 2010 and people will be talking about movie deals, instead of book deals.

10) One or more of my videos will hit one million views on YouTube and I’ll get a cameo role on someone’s rock video.

I just started registration for my upcoming online blog class. It is an intro to blogging class using WordPress.com. Registration is open now and the class begins on Saturday, November 14, 2009.

I LOVE promoting other people and organizations that are doing good and interesting things. Whether it’s a cause, a new community service, or a new business, I’m there and ready to help. Well today I’m doing something different for me and asking for your help in promoting this new online class.

You’re supporting me just by reading this blog post, so Thank You! Also big thanks to those who have already registered and Retweeted.

Here are 14 ways to help support my blog class:

1. Register and take the course if you are looking to get started with blogging.

2. Tell a friend who may want to get into blogging about the class.

3. Tell your community about it. Whether this is your online or IRL community.

4. Use the #niceblog tag in related tweets.

5. Tweet the Registration page or this page on Twitter.

6. Follow @niceblog on Twitter.

7. Blog about it or post info to your Twitwall account.

8. Interview me and find out why I started this class.

9. Wear a Twibbon on your avatar. They are available at twibbon.com or contact me and I can make you one.

10. Do a video in support of the class. This could just be a 12Seconds.tv video or even a video response on this blog post.

11. Add a link or button to your blog. Contact me if you need a button and I’ll make one for you if you like.

12. Post the link to the Registration page to your Facebook account. You can use the Share feature at the bottom of the registration page. Or just add the page as a Link on your Facebook status.

13. Are you using Twitter Lists? Add @jesseluna and @niceblog to your “WordPress” or “Blogging” list and any others that are relevant.

14. Mention this class to your PR and blogger friends. Who knows, they may be interested in writing about a bootstrap venture.

Thanks for your attention and support!

The main story on November 5, 2009 was about the shooting spree at Fort Hood in Texas. Twelve people were killed and 31 wounded, according to CNN. My thoughts and prayers go out to the injured and their families.

A secondary story is the way people used Twitter’s new Lists feature to follow the news. This is how I did it. Shortly after I saw the first tweets from @heykim, who was also tracking the developing story, I started my search for secondary sources via Twitter’s search feature. I searched for mentions of “Fort Hood” and “lockdown,” since the second term was more likely to be used by people who were actually near the scene.

After finding a few people tweeting from Fort Hood, I saw Marilyn Maciel’s (@MarilynM) tweet with a location-based search over the Fort Hood area. That helped filter out people, like myself, who were tweeting about Fort Hood from outside the area.

My next news step was to find local news stations, which are usually first on the scene because of location and connections to inside sources. I spotted KCEN News (@KCENNews) which was tweeting and working on posting updates to its site.

I retweeted @KCENNews and then noticed that its Follower count went up and so did its List count. Several other local news stations had already created “FortHoodShootings” Lists and had added @KCENNews to their Lists.

I tweeted:

**News stations are braiding sources together using Twitter Lists. http://bit.ly/1DGX4x #forthood

I though I’d get at least one Retweet or Reply on that, but realized that I didn’t spell things out enough in the tweet. I continued to dig around for other people and news sources tweeting about Fort Hood who lived near the base. I decided to create my own Twitter List, which included people who had family at the base, then tweeted out the link. As chance would have it, mega blogger Robert Scoble (@scobleizer) forwarded my List to his 100K+ followers.

@Scobleizer – And there’s already a list of sources covering Fort Hood Shootings: @jesseluna/fort-hood-shootings are you getting why lists are important?

Retweets poured in as a result of Scoble’s influence super powers and I continued seeking sources to help the list tell a fuller story. Shortly thereafter, the name of the shooting suspect was revealed and chatter started about it because it was a “Muslim sounding” name. I ran into tweets from Naveed Ali Shah (@aCitizenSoldier) who is a soldier and milblogger serving in Iraq. According to his profile and tweets, he has family at Fort Hood and is Muslim. I added him to the List because I could see the larger story shifting in a political direction. Naveed would have some interesting perspectives.

Twitter is a global community. The more we tune in to what’s going on in the world, the better informed we’ll be and the more likely we’ll be to act in our own communities. I like tracking stories to direct friends and followers to breaking information, especially if it’s an emergency and it might provide information to help them or their loved ones. In a tragic situation such as the Fort Hood shootings, the Twitter Lists feature was extremely powerful as it created an ad-hoc news feed that shared valuable information.

Related Links:

* @jesseluna – Fort Hood Shootings List on Listorious.com
* Mashable: Fort Hood Shootings: News Orgs Put Twitter Lists to the Test