Saturday, January 31, 2015

Gaby's Twitter Assignment

Breaking News

Developing News

Standard News

Upworthy

Commentary/Analysis

Atomic Sharing

Question

I thought this exercise was really helpful in making me realize how you can use tweets to highlight something specific or just the article itself. I usually tweet at least once a day, but sometimes I don't share articles, or if I do I tweet them with a standard news tweet. Although I have recently been trying to add commentary to my tweets, sometimes I still don't feel comfortable with it.

Personally, I found that I like atomic sharing a lot because by picking a phrase that really struck me from the article, I can tell people that was the detail that most interested me. I also like the commentary/analysis style tweets yet struggle with them I little more than with atomic sharing. I really hated the Upworthy style tweet. It just felt faked, forced and sort of misleading.It also felt really exciting to tweet a breaking news tweet.

Overall, I liked the assignment and getting to test out different sorts of tweets.

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Austin Vitelli Twitter Assignment

Breaking news
Developing news

Standard news




Upworthy

Commentary/Analysis


Atomic sharing


 Question


I thought this was a very good exercise to determine which types of tweets I prefer to use and which ones I dislike. I have been on Twitter for a little over a year and a half now and have taken about that long to truly find my "Twitter voice." I noticed that my pitches in the 2 tweets/day that I was doing were often a mix of question/commentary, but not one in particular. While this isn't one of the specific categories for the assignment, I feel like that was my favorite type.

Therefore, I was most comfortable doing both the commentary and question tweets for the assignment. These seemed to come quite naturally considering I usually inject my opinion into my regular tweets. I also like to ask questions to my followers to either see what they think or to help me better understand something.

The ones I was least comfortable with were the upworthy and atomic sharing. I think I got used to the atomic sharing ones by the end, but I had never really used that tactic before. The upworthy tweet was by far my least favorite because it clearly is misleading and appears as clickbait, something I'm very against. I almost felt wrong doing it once.

Overall though, I enjoyed the assignment as it gave me better insight into what types of pitches I prefer. 
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Kelley Gaston Twitter Assignment

Breaking News:




Developing News:




Standard News:













Upworthy:




Commentary/Analysis:







Atomic Sharing:







Question:





Although I've never been a big tweeter, it's nice to learn the different types of "tweets." I think one of the easiest is the breaking news type because there are so many breaking news stories on twitter, on the internet, on Facebook, so finding an interesting story isn't too difficult. I also really enjoy the commentary and analysis tweets because it gives you the freedom to say what you want. Although there is a specific format it's much more personal.

I would say one of the most challenging types of tweets is the unworthy type. I personally don't like the "you'll never believe what happens next" kind of tweets. Although they are suppose to hook the reader some of them end up being a huge disappointment.

Overall I had fun with this assignment and I really hope I become better at tweeting, because I've never been good at tweeting!


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Emilie's Twitter Assignment

Breaking news tweet:

Developing news tweet:
Standard news tweets:



Upworthy style tweet:
Commentary/analysis tweets:

Atomic sharing tweets:

Question tweet:

I just stared getting used to tweeting regularly when I was an editorial web intern last semester and I quickly learned that having a presence on twitter was not only vital, but necessary to be part of the conversation in our online world. However, I’m used to tweeting once or twice a day, and I think the thing I struggled with the most in this assignment was remembering to tweet more frequently. 

Other than getting out of my comfort zone and majorly increasing my number of tweets per day, I felt pretty comfortable trying out each of the styles, and many of my tweets are usually a range of styles. I like using the conmmentary style the most because it brings the news article to public while mixing in some of my own voice/opinions. 

I also tend to use a good amount of emojis in my tweets, and that could be just because I recently interned at Cosmo and they use emojis a lot to define their brand’s style on social media. The only style of tweet that I don’t like nor use as much is the question tweets. Usually when I link to a news article it’s a commentary or regular news report.
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Ali's Twitter Assignment

Breaking News Developing News Commentary Upworthy Atomic Question This was an interesting assignment for me. I'm mostly used to News or Commentary style, so learning about some new ones was helpful in broadening the variety of my tweets. I wasn't very comfortable with the breaking news tweet because I'm not really the one breaking the story, if that makes sense. The Upworthy made me feel a little lame, but I guess with science there's a few occasions where it would be less painful to use than others. Atomic was a little more difficult than I thought it would be, mostly because many stories about science contain technical terms and things that make taking a single fact or point of the story out difficult. This is because many laypeople won’t understand its significance without the background provided in the story. The question tweet is one I'll be trying to use more often, since there is so much uncertainty in science it would be good to get a little more interactive and get people sharing thoughts.
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Kelsey's 12 Tweets

Breaking News:

_________________________________________________________________________________

Developing News:

_________________________________________________________________________________

News Tweet 1:

_________________________________________________________________________________

News Tweet 2:

_________________________________________________________________________________

News Tweet 3:

_________________________________________________________________________________

News Tweet 4:

_________________________________________________________________________________

Upworthy Style Tweet:

_________________________________________________________________________________

Commentary/Analysis Tweet 1:

_________________________________________________________________________________

Commentary/Analysis Tweet 2:

_________________________________________________________________________________

Atomic Sharing Tweet 1:

_________________________________________________________________________________

Atomic Sharing Tweet 2:

_________________________________________________________________________________

Question Tweet:

_________________________________________________________________________________

My comments: 
-->
This assignment was definitely a challenge! It took me a while to adapt to the different styles and find good articles to share. I think that the style that I'm most comfortable with is either the commentary/analysis or the news tweet. These are typically the types of tweets that I use, so they were the easiest to write. I usually have an opinion on an article or its subject after reading it, so it was easy to identify what I wanted to say in a relatively short amount of time. On the other hand, the atomic sharing tweet probably took me the longest. I read so many articles to find the two that had interesting buried facts to include in my tweets, so that took a lot of time. But once I had found that interesting detail, it was fun to actually write the tweet. The one style that I struggled with a little was the breaking news and developing news tweet.  Those tweets were strange to write as a regular person not covering the event in a professional capacity, because I chose a gas explosion of a Mexican maternity hospital.

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Friday, January 30, 2015

Danielle's Twitter Assignment


Breaking news tweet:
Developing tweet:

Standard news tweets:



Upworthy style tweet:

Commentary/analysis tweets:

 Atomic sharing tweets:
Question Tweet:


In general, I liked experimenting with different tweets. Because of my work with The Brown and White, I'm pretty comfortable with writing standard news tweets.

Again, as an editor for The Brown and White, I'm used to breaking news tweets, but felt kind of awkward using that style in this format because I'm not the news organization that actually broke the news. I like best the commentary/analysis tweets, because I best know my Twitter followers and what they would be most likely to read based on my commentary.

Atomic sharing tweets and question tweets are a quick and easy way to tweet something interesting, but in a less formal way.

I didn't exactly like writing the Upworthy style tweet. I mainly disliked it because I had a hard time finding an article for which I could justify using that style. Plus, it just appears gossipy and I didn't want that on my Twitter feed.
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Sam's Tweets

Breaking News
Developing News
News
Upworthy
Commentary/Analysis
Atomic Sharing
Question

I like the commentary tweets the best, I feel as though they're the most valuable. If people are going to retweet something from me, I have to add my own value to it. Otherwise they should just retweet it from the primary source like the New York Times or Washington Post. Adding my own spin or pulling out a tidbit relevant to me makes it more likely for someone to share my link. It's also easy to add your own quick 140 character thoughts on a topic instead of being lazy and just summarizing the article.

Upworthy tweets felt silly – there's really nothing that amazing happening out there that is going to elicit such an extreme reaction. It felt like lying.

The breaking news tweets are fine for when things are happening at Lehigh, but posting a breaking tweet for a national issue – as I did – felt unimportant because I'm not truly the one breaking the news. I'm sure people are following enough accounts that I'm not going to be the one sharing that kind of big news with them. I guess it's a way to participate in larger issues on Twitter, but that's why I think commentary makes the most sense because it's my unique take.
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Sunday, January 25, 2015

Week 2 Assignments

Old Assignments

Due by the start of class on Feb. 2

You should still be working on CodeAcademy assignment, detailed in Week 1.

Curation (ongoing all semester)


Your curation assignment, worth 25% of your grade, starts today and continues all semester.
First, by Jan. 28 I'd like you to fill out this form to detail your topic and what online community you'll be joining.

The syllabus has specific expectations that I expect you to follow. Below is the highlight-version of those expectations:
  • Community: Join and participate in an online community of your choosing. You should be contributing to this every day.
  • Blogging: Two posts a week, separated by at least two days. One should be something you write on a topic of your choosing. The other should be a listicle, giving a link and recap of interesting posts readers might like. Remember the link sharing requirement too!
  • Curation: Two tweets a day on links or stories in your topic area. These links can come from your online community, Twitter people you're following in your topic area, or blogs in your regular reading area. (TIP: one good way to do this would be to build Twitter lists of people in your topic area, that way you've got a nice feed of things people are writing and sharing). Use hashtags and social media optimized (SMO) tweets as you share links.
So, two specific things for this week in addition to the regular curation work:

1. By Jan. 28 I want you to fill out the form above.

2. In addition, I want you to let your classmates know what you're doing. Reply to this post in the comments by Jan. 30 summarizing your topic for the semester and what community you've chosen. About 100 words should do it. This will serve as the January evaluation noted in the final paragraph of the assignment page in the syllabus.

Twitter assignment

Due by the end of the day on Jan. 31

In class this week, we are going to talk about Twitter and the business of sharing online. During Wednesday's class we will cover social media optimization (SMO) and practice different types of tweet pitches for lab. This material will serve you well, because you're going to be tweeting a lot of links this semester as part of your curation assignment. More importantly, you'll be learning how to use Twitter in professional ways and incorporating some of the style and best practices used in the industry. I want you to get LOTS of practice at this during the semester, to the point that when you're sharing links the style you pick comes naturally to you; when this happens, you've found your Twitter voice.

Once you've done it in lab, you'll do it again for more practice. Between the end of that class and the end of Saturday night, you'll create and post 12 more tweets. These don't need to be done all at once. In fact, it's probably better that you pick moments when you see something that's an obvious tweet candidate and fits with one of the styles.

  • 1 Breaking news style (you'll need to be in tune with the news on Twitter; don't post BREAKING several hours after the event broke!)
  • 1 Developing news style to go with the breaking news tweet; should be posted within an hour of your breaking news tweet.
  • 4 Standard news tweets
  • 1 Upworthy style tweet - make sure to cleanse yourself afterward :)
  • 2 Commentary/Analysis tweets
  • 2 Atomic Sharing tweets
  • 1 Question tweet


How do you turn these in? You'll create a post on this blog and embed your 10 tweets. Make sure to put headers between the different styles so your classmates and I can tell what style you're using (just in case it isn't obvious). So something like this:

-------------------

Commentary/Analysis
Atomic Sharing
-------------------

At the bottom of your post, write a 150-word recap of the experience. How comfortable are you with the different styles? Which comes most naturally to you, and which ones do you like best/worst?

So to sum up, by the end of the day Jan. 31 you'll create a post on this blog that has your 12 tweets and a recap summary.

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Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Week 1 assignments

CodeAcademy

Due by the start of class on Feb. 2

 We did a brief overview of CodeAcademy and how it works. In the HTML & CSS section, I want you to do both parts of all six modules (Introduction to HTML, both HTML structure modules, all three on CSS). Note that each module has two sections, and you must complete both. Completing these should take about 90 minutes per module, maybe more if you're struggling with it, so leave yourself enough time to get this done.

Blog Setup

Due by the end of the day January 24

First things first, fill out this form to detail the URL for your blog and your Twitter handle you'll be using for this class.

From there I want you to work on branding your blog:

  • Give your blog a title and subtitle that reflect your blog topic
  • Choose and install a theme that fits well with your topic. Take into account imagery, colors, fonts, etc. that create moods. Do these fit your topic?
  • Create an About page that tells newcomers what your blog is about.
  • Install the Link Manager plugin on your WordPress site. Create a blogroll with links to at least five other blogs in your area. Blogging doesn't happen in a vacuum. It's done in concert with other people writing, and certainly because you're curating as part of this assignment you'll want to let readers know what else you're reading. These must be blogs.
  • Create a list of links to other interesting places you'll be reading this semester, sites relevant to your topic. You need at least five. These cannot be blogs.
  • Finally, write a welcome post. Tell people to what to expect from your blog, what the focus is. Think about your audience. Why would they want to come back? What do you have to offer that is unique?

Curation assignment starts January 25

A week for your blogging assignment runs from Sunday to Saturday, so starting this coming Sunday you'll enter your first week of blogging. As the syllabus notes, you're required to do two posts a week (you can do more if you like). I would like these posts to be on different days and spaced out with at least a couple days between them. You are free to write in advance, of course, and just schedule the posts to go up automatically when they're live, but you'll need to remember to tweet them too.

All curation assignment work starts on January 25. That means community participation, link tweeting, and blogging.

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