Google Adds Social Analytics & Makes Hangouts on Air Public

Google recently rolled out a couple of exciting innovations to its platform that will improve both your social media measurement and overall experience with Google+.

The first has to do with Google Analytics, which on May 1 introduced Social Measurement, Content Tracking, Attribution, & New Sharing Tools. This was exciting for us at Nevada Magazine, because it offers a practical way to measure our social media efforts, which have been going strong now for three-plus years.

As the social media manager at Nevada Magazine, I always assumed that Facebook was the number-one generator of traffic to our website, but I had no idea just how much until I looked at the new information available in Google Analytics (the rest of this blog assumes you’re fairly familiar with and have a Google Analytics account. If you don’t, and you own a business and have a website, I highly recommend you start an account — it’s free!).

I looked at Nevada Magazine’s year-to-date analytics (find the “Social” tab under “Traffic Sources” in Google Analytics). This year alone, Facebook has generated 3,001 visits to NevadaMagazine.com, which trumps the total number of visits for 2 through 10 (see above graphic) — COMBINED! This helps with our social media strategy, because it tells us that people are routinely clicking on our links and sharing them with others on Facebook. We’re noticing this increased attention, too, as people are commenting on our photos and stories more than ever before.

It should be noted, though, that we’ve had a presence on Facebook for much longer than our other social media channels, so it makes sense that this established platform is a great traffic driver to our site. What surprised me is the little amount of traffic that Pinterest has driven. We started a Pinterest profile this year, so the sample size is small, but much of what I’ve heard positive regarding Pinterest is how it’s such a great driver of traffic.

If you dig deeper, however, the average visit duration for Facebook (00:01:39) is far less than our Twitter (00:06:28), Blogger (00:05:23), and Pinterest (00:04:40) profiles. So what that tells me is that, even though we have fewer followers on social sites not called Facebook, we may have more dedicated and passionate fans/readers on those sites.

Perhaps the most interesting Social feature now provided by Google Analytics is the “Social Visitors Flow” chart. This illustrates precisely where users of various social media networks are clicking to your website. Granted, I’ve barely begun to scratch the surface with these new measuring features. That said, how do you use Google Analytics to track your social media success? What neat measuring tactics are you discovering? Have you created any goals?

The second exciting announcement via Google was that on May 7 it launched Hangouts On Air to Google+ users worldwide. Last year, Google introduced this feature to a limited number of broadcasters, enabling them to go live with friends and fans, for all the world to see. Here’s how Google explains the benefits:

• Broadcast publicly. By checking “Enable Hangouts On Air,” you can broadcast your live hangout — from the Google+ stream, your YouTube channel or your website — to the entire world.
• See how many viewers you’ve got. During your broadcast, you can look inside the hangout to see how many people are watching live.
• Record and re-share. Once you’re off the air, we’ll upload a public recording to your YouTube channel, and to your original Google+ post. This way it’s easy to share and discuss your broadcast after it’s over.

Are you using Hangouts for business? I am, and it’s been fun to connect with people around the world, while getting the opportunity to promote Nevada Magazine and tell people about Nevada’s wonderful events. See how I’ve been doing this, in partnership with KRNV Channel 4 in Reno, here and here.

Google Hangouts Come Full Circle

In February, I blogged about how news anchors Melissa Carlson of KRNV (Reno, Nevada) and Sarah Hill of KOMU-TV (Columbia, Missouri) are revolutionizing news by using Google+ Hangouts to get people’s opinions on topics of the day. Hangouts — a feature of Google+ that allows people to “skype” one-on-one or as a group — have allowed Carlson, Hill, and other media outlets to make connections around the world.

I first was introduced to Hangouts through Carlson, which was the impetus for the aforementioned blog, “Google Hangouts Infiltrate the Newsroom.” I asked her if she might want to include a “traveling Nevada” theme into her webcasts, and, to my delight, she agreed. As the editor of Nevada Magazine, I volunteered to make a weekly appearance, in which I tell viewers where in Nevada they can get away for the weekend.

In addition to the webcasts (which are 20 minutes long, roughly, and available on the KRNV website) hosted by Carlson, I’ve also been making a weekly appearance in Carlson’s “Cyberstudio” on the television KRNV News 4 at Noon. Following is my most recent appearance, and fourth overall:

I am elated that the innovative and talented team at KRNV has welcomed Nevada Magazine and me so warmly. It’s why I like to say that connecting with Carlson through Google+ has definitely come “full circle.” (A “Circle” is Google+’s buzz word for a group. When you follow someone, you add them to the Circle of your choice.)

So, how can you use Google+ Hangouts? If you’re an editor, maybe you could organize a Circle of freelance writers and discuss story ideas? Or perhaps you can convince your local or regional news to implement Google+, and they would be open to you discussing tourism in the region. It’s a win-win: you’re providing them with credible content, and that plug for your publication certainly doesn’t hurt, either. I see Google+ being used by a lot more in the future by businesses for conference calls — it’s a convenient way to gather every one on your staff, if you aren’t all in the same location.

Or, maybe you’ve found other practical uses for Google+ Hangouts. What are they? How are you using Google, generally, in your social strategy? Remember, the Google search algorithm has changed immensely to incorporate these “real-time” posts and sharing of content. If nothing else, that is the primary reason you need to create or beef up your personal and business Google profiles.

Lists Add Sanity to Your Twitter Experience

A look at Nevada Magazine's Twitter "Lists" page.

So you started a Twitter account — either for personal or business use — and all of a sudden are wondering: How do I make sense of all these Tweets?! (There were more 12,000 Tweets per second following the 2012 Super Bowl, for instance).

My advice is Lists, a helpful Twitter feature that I haven’t read a lot about in frequently scanning articles about social media. And, to a lesser degree, Saved Searches. No matter the “seriousness” level of your Twitter use, these features can help you sort through the madness of Tweets. If you’re a journalism entity, organizing your Twitter account might also help you come across story ideas, and offer a little something extra to your followers.

I also write this entry because I’ve heard so many people say something along the lines of “I just don’t understand Twitter,” or they’re reluctant to start a profile on it at all — even heavy users of Facebook. It’s surprising, because — in my opinion — it’s features like Lists and Saved Searches on Twitter that are superior even to those offered on Facebook.

1. Lists

As the editor of Nevada Magazine (@Nevada_Magazine), I’ve created a ton of Twitter lists. Most of them align with our regular magazine departments. We have a Cravings department, for instance, so I’ve set up a “Nevada Restaurants” list. We produce two Events & Shows publications, so I’ve set up respective “Nevada Events” and “Nevada Shows” lists. Instead of getting lost in the seemingly endless news feed (found on the Twitter “Home” tab), the lists offer me a more targeted database, if you will, to draw from.

If you’re an editor scanning for food stories, say, then a “Restaurants” list is a strategic way to use Twitter to scan for restaurant openings, reviews … even just to see what eateries people are talking about. After all, social media is a great way to take the pulse of restaurant consumers (and all consumers).

Lists are also great because they provide incentive for your followers — if you make a list public, anyone on Twitter can subscribe to it. We are starting to promote our Twitter lists in our print editions, in fact.

Personally, I am most interested in journalism (particularly fellow editors), social media, and professional baseball and football. Naturally, I have lists for all of these topics on my personal Twitter (@Matthew_B_Brown). If I want to know the latest MLB happenings (especially concerning my beloved San Francisco Giants), I just click on my “MLB” list.

To create a List, go to the upper right of your Twitter screen, and access the pull-down menu from the icon that looks like a person’s head. Click on “Lists,” then “Create List.” You can also click on any Twitter user, and once the info box pops up, simply “Add or remove from lists…” It will also give you the option to “Create List” from there.

2. Saved Searches

Especially if you are a business, I highly recommend doing a Saved Search for your company name (and for other key words, if pertinent). Daily, I click on our “Nevada Magazine” saved search, so I know what people are saying about our product on Twitter. And if you’re counting on people to tag you in their posts … don’t. In my experience, it’s rare that they do.

To save a search, search your favorite subject(s) in the Twitter “Search” box, then click the wheel icon to the right of the Search button, then click “Save Search.”

This handy feature will also help you sift through the clutter, so your Twitter experience can be more efficient and engaging — and you can monitor what is being said about your business or organization, especially if you’re their social media manager. Google+ offers the same sort of structure with “Circles,” but I’ve yet to find the same sort of organizational mechanism on Facebook (am I missing something?).

What other Twitter tips and shortcuts have you discovered? How have you improved your Twitter experience? What are some tips you can share for other social sites, for that matter?

Don’t Underestimate Facebook Groups

About a year ago, I started a Facebook Group called Nevada Photographers. Little did I know how lucrative an investment it would be for me as editor of Nevada Magazine.

My intention was to create a group that would connect us with photographers who are producing quality images of the state we promote in print and online. Not only has it accomplished its primary intent, it has grown into a community of people who offer each other career advice, schedule photography outings together, share tips of the trade, and generally communicate and have fun. More than 260 members and 2,500 photos later, I couldn’t be happier with the results.

Because the images being shared in the group were of such high quality, it even spurred us to create a new department in our magazine called “Visions” — my apologies to National Geographic. Readers are loving it. One of our magazine advisory board members had this to say about the March/April 2012 lead story in Visions, titled Southern Exposure: “Southern Exposure was interesting, and I loved the larger photos that extend to the edge of the page.” When I shared the layout (see below) with the group, one member commented, “We are in danger of a visitor’s reality not living up to the photos!”

Photos by Van Phetsomphou

The group epitomizes the melding of journalism and social media. As a magazine, we’re getting ideas for stories from an almost never-ending flow of images. The photographers get to share their work and bounce ideas off other talented artists (and, when we print their photos, they get paid!). Just today, one photographer posted two images, one in black and white and the other in color, and asked the group which one they like best. In another post, one group member was so impressed by another’s image, he offered to frame it for him.

While I try not to oversell Nevada Magazine in the group, groups can also be a decent traffic driver to your website. For instance, if someone posts a photo of Hoover Dam, I could comment, “You might find this story interesting…,” which of course would be a Nevada Magazine story about Hoover Dam. Or if someone posts a Nevada ghost town photo, I might refer them to our Ghost Towns feature story.

I could go on and on about the benefits to the magazine, but really the joy of the group is seeing how much people like to share their work, and support one another. “I’m a big fan of cheering each other on and ‘meeting’ other photographers in this area,” says Nancy Good, owner of New Light Foto Design. I’m a photographer myself, and agree wholeheartedly with Good. It’s a family mentality. I’m always impressed with how other photographers will welcome new group members after they share their first image.

I know, I know — you’re the social media manager for your business or organization, and taking on another project right now seems impossible and unnecessary. Understandable, but if you find the right niche, and depending on your needs and strategy, creating a Facebook group could be a game-changer.

Have you used Facebook groups to supplement your main Facebook page? How about another social media supplement, such as Twitter Lists or Google+ circles? I’m interested to know.

Google Hangouts Infiltrate the Newsroom

What Melissa Carlson is doing is not only groundbreaking in her region, it’s groundbreaking in her industry. And it speaks just as much to the future of journalism as it does to the course of social media.

If you live in the Reno-Lake Tahoe area, you likely know Carlson as a KRNV Channel 4 news anchor. If you live in Australia, Austria, or the UK, however, chances are you’ve met Carlson on Google+, where she leads daily (Monday through Friday) 20-minute online Hangouts in her “CyberStudio” (watch a webcast here) with people around the globe. She picks four to five topics a day (it could be something serious in nature, such as the disturbing upward trend of shootings in U.S. schools, or something as lighthearted as the Pope starting a Twitter account), posts those topics on her Google+ page to generate interest, and hangs out with five to 10 people about 45 minutes later.

Only a week ago, Channel 4 started incorporating Carlson’s Hangouts into its noon telecast, dedicating about three minutes air time while they get a feel for the public’s reaction.

According to Carlson, KRNV is only the second television news organization in the nation to use Google+ on a continuous basis. The first to do so was Sarah Hill, a news anchor from KOMU-TV in Columbia, Missouri. I recently hung out with Carlson, who explains in the video below how the Reno station came up with the idea of incorporating Google+ Hangouts into its news coverage.

In my opinion, Carlson and Hill are vastly ahead of the news curve and exemplify where news in general is headed: more real-time “man off the street” interaction. As a society, we have become more interested in each other’s input and opinions, which is very much a result of our constant participation in social media. We like dialogue and are moving away from the one-dimensional news model, in which we hear the anchor’s words or read the writer’s story, but are unable to engage in a conversation. This is why the “comment” function is so popular on newspaper websites — the readers have a say in the subjects they’re passionate about.

In the next video I ask Carlson to rate the success, so far, of her Google+ venture. She is enthusiastic about the possibility of increased community participation in the news, particularly breaking stories.

You heard it from Carlson: “I think that this is the way that news will eventually go.” She mentions the Caughlin Fire, which devastated Reno in November 2011, but I also think back to the tragedy that transpired at the 2011 National Championship Air Races and Air Show in Reno. The videos of the plane crash, which killed 11 people and injured 70, were provided by spectators (who had uploaded them on YouTube) and shown continuously on local and national newscasts. So the common person is already participating in news more than ever before, aka “citizen journalism.”

Hill is a lot more matter-of-fact about the paradigm shift in news coverage. “News ‘anchors’ are a dying breed,” she wrote to me in a recent e-mail. “We are news ‘buoys’ now as we float between platforms and serve as a beacon to news content within the stream.” She elaborates on that concept in this blog.

“Google+ Hangouts expand our reach in the world,” Hill continues. “People don’t just want to get the news…they want a forum to talk about it. Facebook and Twitter are text-based engagement. Hangouts are face-to-face interaction in real time during a newscast.”

And, interestingly, this means traditional news sources are letting their guard down and relinquishing some control to an audience that has become accustomed to having a voice. “It is live television, so unscripted material has an uncertain factor to it, but at times that’s the allure of the program as you never know what’s going to happen. …It’s kind of like a coffee shop where news is served on the menu daily,” Hill concludes.

What do you think? Do you want to see the public have a bigger voice in the news? That perhaps begs the larger question: Just how do we define “news” today?

Protecting Photographers’ (P)interests

Among other things, Kentucky Monthly pins its favorite cover images.

Earlier this week, a fellow editor in the International Regional Magazine Association (IRMA) Facebook group posted this Social Times article about Pinterest, specifically how it protects (or some argue doesn’t protect) photographers’ copyrights.

This got me thinking about a couple things: 1. The interest in Pinterest is exploding. 2. It sure would be tough to be a professional photographer in the 21st century, if you’re a stickler about copyrights.

I will soon start a Pinterest for Nevada Magazine, where I have been the editor since 2007. I know if I was to pin a freelancer’s photo, I would credit the photographer and provide their website (or another site that showcases their work), as is customary on our other social sites. But there’s no guarantee that the person who saves a photo off our website or one of our social sites will do the photographer the same favor. And even if a site doesn’t offer a “Save As” option with its images, the savvy Internet user can just do a screen capture to get around that.

It’s almost as if a photographer is a victim of how much he/she puts out on the web — if you post it, they will share it. “The real trick is seeing your image being used illegally in the first place,” says Rachid Dahnoun, who owns Rachid Dahnoun Photography based in South Lake Tahoe. “There is so much content out there that it might as well be a needle in a haystack. It is really tough battle these days.” But Dahnoun also points to a lucrative contract he recently landed via one of his Twitter followers. “If I didn’t have my images up on the web or in social media, that never would have happened,” he says.

I personally have a ton of photos that I’ve taken all over the web, mostly on Flickr (which has recently added a Pinterest opt-out code), but could care less if they’re shared. But then photography is not my profession. If I discovered that one of my stories was used (or plagiarized) on a site without my permission, I can say for a fact that I would be upset. So it’s easy for me to understand how a photographer could be outraged if they stumbled upon one of their photos on the world wide web that wasn’t accompanied by a credit.

So what are the solutions? For the sharer, especially journalism outlets, we should ALWAYS credit photographers. In fact, I rarely post freelancers’ photos on one of our social sites, period, unless it’s a cover image or a “PR” (unpaid) photo. The photographer should protect him or herself with some sort of branding, or watermark, if they’re concerned about people sharing their images. I would also suggest setting up “Google alerts” that would notify the artist if their name and/or business shows up on the web.

One thing’s for sure, Pinterest has found its niche in the social sphere. And just when I thought Nevada Magazine might be able to avoiding joining it, this just in from Kentucky Monthly:

…in less than a month Pinterest has become the fourth-largest driver of traffic to our website, only behind Google, direct traffic, and Facebook.

Are you using Pinterest or another image-dominant site to promote your magazine, newspaper, or other business? If so, how to do you protect photographers and other artists? Conversely, if you’re a photographer, how are you safeguarding your work online these days?

Help Me, Mr. Wizard!

I just turned 30 last October, and even I can remember the days when an editor could fully focus on the words destined for the page. We didn’t even take the Internet all that seriously. It was ALL about print.

How things have drastically changed in less than a decade. I was reminded of this last week as I exchanged e-mails with fellow regional magazine editor Beth Wilson, from The Iowan magazine. Her initial e-mail inquired about YouTube, specifically the embed feature and if we at Nevada Magazine were utilizing it on our website. I told her that we are and finished my response with a sarcastic, “Don’t you miss the days when you could just write a story, print it, and be done with it?”

Mr. Wizard the Lizard and Tooter the Turtle

Don’t get me wrong, I love the various forms of communication available today and embrace them wholeheartedly. But my editor mind does go a little crazy sometimes trying to stay up on it all. Pins, posts, tweets, follows, friends, likes, circles, comments, shares … it seems as if there’s no end. I liked the first line of Beth’s follow-up e-mail: “Help me, Mr. Wizard! I don’t want to be a regional magazine editor in the social media age!“

While I am long in the tooth enough to remember the smell of a fresh newspaper in the morning, I have to admit I had to Google “Mr. Wizard.” Turns out the reference is from an early 1960s NBC cartoon starring Tooter Turtle, who would ask Mr. Wizard the Lizard to use his magic to transport him back in time to somehow change his destiny. Inevitably, things wouldn’t work out so well in the Turtle’s alternate world, and the moral of the story would always be the same: “Be just vhat you is, not vhat you is not.” Watch an episode here.

Unlike Tooter, if you’re a modern-day editor, you can’t afford to be “vhat you is.” We’re faced with figuring out these various platforms and assessing how they can help us reach a new audience, or provide supplemental content for those discovering things outside the print realm. I took this into consideration in creating a promo for Nevada Magazine’s March/April 2012 issue using Prezi and Screenr (you can watch it below).

Have you gone outside your comfort zone lately to promote your business on social media? If so, I’d like to hear about it.