#studentjournalists

📷 November 3, 2015 || 7:12 PM

Baclayon Heritage Cafe. 🍹

SOC1AL MED1A COMMANDMENTS

1. THE '3 P’S'

The three p’s stand for Personal, Professional, and Passion and these are three things that should be qualities of any of your social media sites. You need your sites to be personal so that they stand out. Be professional; stick to your craft. Post content you are passionate about: entertainment, sports, or even politics. Make your social media presence say something about you. It will also help your followers feel a sense of connectivity to you as well.

2. IF YOU WOULDN’T SAY IT OUT LOUD, DON’T POST IT

Self-explanatory. If you wouldn’t speak it, don’t tweet it. Don’t be that person who hides behind a keyboard.

I’m sure Justine Sacco didn’t mean harm by this, but her name is now forever associated with this post.

3. VERIFY BEFORE RETWEETING

There are many cases where news outlets don’t fact check. Make sure you do! You don’t want to be the journalist who’s named is tarnished because you gave your followers wrong information. Being first isn’t more important than being right.

Many news outlets got backlash after reporting the wrong person of a controversial shooting

4. KEEP IT SFW

Safe for Work! Keep it PG or PG-13. Nobody likes vulgar material.

5. CATER TO YOUR AUDIENCE BUT REMEMBER ANYONE CAN SEE WHAT YOU POST

Keep in mind that the people who follow you are not the only ones who view your work. Anytime someone comes to your page, they are deciding whether or not to follow you and trust you as a source for information. Fight for those followers. Make their decision to follow worth their while.

6. BEWARE OF CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Sometimes you may run into a situation where you will be asked to write something on someone you know or something close to your heart. Try to avoid talking about people you know personally.

7. BE TRANSPARENT

Don’t lock your pages. What do you have to hide?

8. DON’T STEAL TWEETS

Credit other’s work. Don’t say you wrote something or found something when you didn’t. A lot of trouble (such as plagiarism accusations) can come your way.

9. HAVE A VOICE THAT ISN’T OFFENSIVE

Don’t be scared to say how you feel about something, at the end of the day it’s your page. But be “politically correct”.

10. POST RESPONSIBLY

Anything you wouldn’t want your mom or boss to see, don’t let your social media followers see.

Here are 10 people who learned how social media can get you fired

11. DON’T DELETE TWEETS/POSTS

Michael Koretzky, a freelance content director, gave some insight Friday at Excellence In Journalism 2014 on how students should learn to freelance while still in school. Koretzky also works at financial news and education website, Debt.com, for which he is always hiring freelancers.

“Even as a starter, getting paid 25 bucks a story, you will make more money than most internships,” Koretzky said.

Here are some of his tips:

Freelancer over intern. 

When hiring, Koretzky noted that on a resume, he and other editors place higher value on a student who has experience freelancing than someone who has had a high number of internships. Why? One, students who freelance know how to work with an editor. Two, they know how to make deadlines. And three, they understand how a professional working relationship operates.

No titles.  

When freelancing, titles such as associate editor, news editor, and managing editor are thrown out the window. The focus is more on what work you churn out than who you are. It’s all about  making the deadlines, working with the editor, and earning the pay you deserve.

Do what you really know. 

These days, specializing in one particular medium may put you on the backburner when competing for jobs in the media world. Those who know how to shoot, edit, and write well are placed at the top when editors or news directors are hiring.

However, the problem with knowing how to do a little bit of everything means what you actually produce can come out mediocre, pointed out Koretzky.

“I’d rather hire one good writer and someone who does video,” Koretzky said. “However, if I get someone to do both, I will work with someone for a really long time.”

Start local. 

Freelance for the smallest publication in your area and build relationships from there, advised Koretzky. Starting out locally allows students to use their time wisely and learn from mistakes. It also gives students a base to jump from when in search for their next opportunity.

In short, Koretzky’s stance on freelancing versus interning is: “Unless it’s for The New York Times, don’t do unpaid internships.”