SOCIAL-FIRST REPORTING

HOW TO CRAFT A
SOCIAL FIRST NEWS
STRATEGY
SWN & HOW TO CRAFT A SOCIAL-FIRST VERSION 1.0
IWPR NEWS STRATEGY
MAR 2015

This work is published under Creative Commons (CC)

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

You are free:

to Share copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
to Remix remix, transform, and build upon the material
The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license
terms.
Under the following conditions:
Attribution You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and
indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in
any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
NonCommercial You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
Share Alike If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.
No additional restrictions You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Notices:
You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public
domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or
moral rights may limit how you use the material.
For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this
work. The best way to do this is with a link to this web page:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Legal Code can be found here:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode

SWN & HOW TO CRAFT A SOCIAL-FIRST VERSION 1.0

IWPR NEWS STRATEGY
MAR 2015

Introduction
Social platforms today enable news organizations to reach an international audience of unprecedented scale. significant stories often appear
first on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube and then on television outlets
such as Al Jazeera, CNN or the BBC. The one-two punch of a viral story
online followed by television coverage can quickly give an issue worldwide attention.
Small World News recommends news organizations, especially start-up
organizations, adapt to this changing landscape by implementing a
social-first news strategy. Deliver the news where the audience already
is. Recognize social platforms can help drive the news cycle. Tap the
audience to contribute research, fact-checking, and sourcing. Each of
these are requirements for the newsrooms of the future.
A social-first strategy will enable a small staff to leverage a large audience and the no-cost content it creates. In addition, this model allows
you to quickly and affordably produce content for distribution to larger
outlets such as CNN or Al Jazeera. Small organizations that cover large
or remote geographic regions can use a social-first approach to quickly
source material from previously unreachable areas.
A news story is never truly complete. Though coverage often begins
as real-time breaking news, the most important stories are often only
understood over time. Comprehensive coverage of important issues
over the long haul is a process, a cycle, that news organizations need to
understand and control. The real-time, social web makes this more true
than ever before.
This guide will help you tell great stories that are meant to be shared by
walking you through the process to create a social-first strategy.

SWN & HOW TO CRAFT A SOCIAL-FIRST VERSION 1.0

IWPR NEWS STRATEGY
MAR 2015

Step 1
Establish a clear
editorial proposition
Every great news strategy is built on engaging the public and building
an audience by offering something inspiring, something they cant get
anywhere else. A social-first news strategy leverages evolving platforms
and technology to maximize your reach and engage your audience as
primary and secondary sources.
What kind of stories will your organization tell? This is the crux of
your editorial proposition. Before you can determine the size of your
target audience, you must decide what stories you want to tell. Will your
organization focus on a specific topic niche, such as politics, economics,
or sports? Or, will you produce a more general product, covering a broad
overview of daily or weekly events? You may decide to take a general
approach to stories, but focus on appealing to a specific demographic.

SWN & HOW TO CRAFT A SOCIAL-FIRST VERSION 1.0

IWPR NEWS STRATEGY
MAR 2015

You want to create social-first stories. Engagement should be a core feature

of storytelling and reporting. Engaging your audience and leverage new social platforms should define your editorial strategy. You want to craft your
voice and your individual social strategy. In order to ensure you are leading
the strategy, and not chasing after it, you must establish an editorial focus.
To do this, make a clear decision about your intended audience.
The audience should provide to your content.
Stories must move the audience to inspire action.
Initial Stories entice and engage the audience, to
prepare them to wait for upcoming longer features.
In a social environment you often begin your coverage as a simple headline
and short dispatch as news breaks. Push it out quickly on social platforms
such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and others that have traction with your
audience. Invite the audience to contribute while you develop your own
reporting. Combine staff reporting with primary and secondary source
material provided by your audience.

SWN & HOW TO CRAFT A SOCIAL-FIRST VERSION 1.0

IWPR NEWS STRATEGY
MAR 2015

Step 2

Determine your target

audience

Understanding your audience is essential to defining a successful

editorial focus. Whether the audience is national, international, or
regional can dramatically change your focus. Include your audience
when researching / planning the story calendar. Reach out to your
audience via Facebook and Twitter can provide essential insight and
improve ` increasing your total audience.
The interests of your audience should drive your strategy. If your
publication is focused on general news, you have a broader potential
audience but must also take a more general approach to content
production and news gathering. If your publication is primarily about a
specific ethnic group or a narrow topic, such as a specific type of
agriculture or business, your strategy is easier to define, but it may be
more difficult to reach sustainability.

SWN & HOW TO CRAFT A SOCIAL-FIRST VERSION 1.0

IWPR NEWS STRATEGY
MAR 2015

The latest demographics reveal the rapidly increasing potential of social-first news strategies in the Middle East and North Africa. As of 2013,
more than 125 million citizens in MENA access the Internet and 53 million
actively participate on social media. 80 percent of Internet users in MENA
spend more than an hour updating social networks. This indicates a population with a high likelihood of being receptive to a social-first approach.
Converse and engage on Twitter, dont simply broadcast.
Direct the conversation by creating clear hashtags but be
flexible. Adapt others hashtags if they are trending higher.
A photo plus a caption is doable by anyone with a mobile phone.
Ask questions, poll your audience, experts are everywhere.
An easy way to begin a conversation with your audience by attaching a
hashtag to your question, title, or status update. In 2009, in an effort to
coordinate reporting on the Presidential election via Twitter, Small World
News co-founder Brian Conley(@Baghdadbrian) made a concerted effort
to push the #afghan09 tag. According to the WebEcology research project,
Out of the 483 different hashtags used at least three times, #Afghan09
was most prominent, first adopted by @aliveinafghan, @smallworldnews,
and @BaghdadBrian. #Afghanistan (a non-unique hashtag) had the next
highest frequency, followed by #AfghanElection, originally adopted by
@pajhwok.

SWN & HOW TO CRAFT A SOCIAL-FIRST VERSION 1.0

IWPR NEWS STRATEGY
MAR 2015

Step 3

Understand What Makes

Social-First Stories
Engaging with your audience and involving them in the reporting
process is key to success in a social-first news strategy. Verification is an
important part of the process. Your social media editor and reporters
should verify material as it arrives. It helps to have some core contributors among you audience. The track record of new contributors should
be cross checked against their social profile and the contributions of
others. While youre doing this, you should be looking for news content
you never know what contributors will dig up.
In 2011, as part of the Alive in Libya project, Small World News started a
hashtag #AskaLibyan to promote engagement between the international
community and Libyan citizens. At the time internet connectivity was
virtually nonexistent in Libya. Livestreaming would have been prohibitively expensive if not impossible. However Twitter worked well, and
provided a low bandwidth opportunity to create a relationship between
individuals inside Libya and those abroad.

SWN & HOW TO CRAFT A SOCIAL-FIRST VERSION 1.0

IWPR NEWS STRATEGY
MAR 2015

CHARACTERISTICS OF A SOCIAL STORY

Engages audience in research/development of primary material.
Evolves as new information becomes available over time.
Encourages collaboration, discussion.
Inspires action.
Visuals are essential. Publish raw short video clips or photos with captions
as soon as you can. Sharing additional content to deepen the narrative
keeps the audience involved and coming back. Your headlines will only go
so far without compelling visual content. Invite your audience to share and
tag similar material, to help you craft an accurate narrative. Retweet and
republish authentic, relevant content, as verified.
As the story cycle progresses build on real-time work as background to
build an in-depth, well rounded feature. Remember to engage your most
active and reliable audience to seek out new stories. Follow-up on breaking
news stories over time. Rinse, and repeat.

SUCCEEDING ON FACEBOOK
Use a short, intriguing title.
Include an eye catching image with every post.
Provide a short intro to the piece, rather than posting the entire item.
Add a text summary even if the content being shared is a video.

SWN & HOW TO CRAFT A SOCIAL-FIRST VERSION 1.0

IWPR NEWS STRATEGY
MAR 2015

Whether covering breaking news or planning a feature, remember the

social-first model of reporting:
1. Announce upcoming stories early and often, excite your audience
to assist in reporting.
2. Publish raw short video clips or photos -- with captions -- as soon as
available.
3. Share additional content over the life of the story, to deepen the
narrative, and keep the audience involved and coming back.
Your headlines will only go so far without the support of multimedia
content. Invite your audience to share and tag similar material, to help
you craft an accurate narrative. Retweet and republish authentic, relevant
content as it is verified. Use this real-time work to build an in-depth, well
rounded feature. Remember to engage your most active and reliable audience to seek out new stories.
In the end, the discipline of
verification is what separates
journalism from entertainment,
propaganda, fiction, or art
Journalism alone is focused
first on getting what happened
down right.
- The Elements of Journalism
As you refine your reporting process, reporters must build relationships
with key contributors from the audience. Enabling your audience to create
a track record that proves their reliability and credibility will increase the
speed and efficiency of reporting over time. Remember that engaging your
audience in the process does not mean providing all sources or audience
content equal weight. Seek out subject matter experts and contributors
with a keen eye for effective, efficient research.

SWN & HOW TO CRAFT A SOCIAL-FIRST VERSION 1.0

IWPR NEWS STRATEGY
MAR 2015

10

Step 4
Staff a Social-First Newsroom

Now that you have defined an editorial focus, your audience, and
learned to engage them effectively, its time to staff for a social-first strategy. If you are adapting from a traditional newsroom, you may need to
make structural changes for a social first plan to work. Remember that
as the platform changes, the content, workflow and even job descriptions within your news organization must change too.

EDITOR IN CHIEF
DEFINES AGENDA

Daily Story Meetings

REPORTER REPORTER REPORTER

DAILY ENGAGEMENT | Research, Discuss, Publish, Review.

SOCIAL MEDIA
MANAGER

Social Media

AUDIENCE

SWN & HOW TO CRAFT A SOCIAL-FIRST VERSION 1.0

IWPR NEWS STRATEGY
MAR 2015

11

Your staff plan must be designed to produce content in a multimedia,

social-first environment. Assemble a team familiar with the tools and
audience. This team will need to understand how to shoot video and take
photos with an assortment of mobile devices as well as report. It is likely
that your team will have specialists the reporter who is especially good at
video or who is interested in childrens issues. That is fine. A good team has
a mix of skills that complement each other. In the social-first newsroom
the denominator is an understanding of the social environment and a love
for reporting in this space.
Your staff needs will most certainly change over time. You should gear up
slowly; staff to produce only slightly more material than your current level
of demand. Do not fall into the old newsroom trap of too many employees
and bloat. At all levels rely on your audience for content.
To ensure youre staying on top of good news stories you need a clear
newsroom structures with defined responsibilities. Specific job titles and
the total number of employees will depend on the scope of your editorial
plan and the size and interests of your audience. In addition to traditional
newsroom job titles, one staff requirement in a social-first newsroom is
sure: the Social Editor.
Newsroom Job Descriptions
Editor-In-Chief
The editor-in-chief is ultimately responsible for overseeing the direction
and editorial values of the organization. However, the editor-in-chief must
trust editors and staff reporters to make good decisions. Initially the EiC
will be in charge of the managing staff and business, but eventually the
organization should grow and hire individuals in each of these positions.
Managing Editor
Initially the managing editor may be the EiCs right hand or star reporter.
As your organization grows, establish a Managing Editor to run the newsroom. While the EiC must manage the business and direct the values of the
company, the Managing Editor sets the daily news agenda.

SWN & HOW TO CRAFT A SOCIAL-FIRST VERSION 1.0

IWPR NEWS STRATEGY
MAR 2015

12

Social Editor
Someone must take primary responsibility for defining the social strategy and assessing its success. The Social Editor reviews the activity of
individual reporters and defines an overall strategy for social media. The
Social Editor is responsible for tracking trends, evaluating new tools and
innovating on your social-first strategy.
Business and Marketing Director
Working closely with the EiC, this individual oversees budgetary and
marketing decisions. Its important to keep this individuals department
separate from the newsroom to protect the independence and credibility of
the newsroom.

Social media engagement does not stop with the social editors. Reporters
must be engaged constantly with their social networks too. Not only to stay
ahead of stories but to constantly groom sources, enlist contributors and
fact-check in the social sphere. Social must be integrated into the fundamental workflow of your news organization at every level.

SWN & HOW TO CRAFT A SOCIAL-FIRST VERSION 1.0

IWPR NEWS STRATEGY
MAR 2015

13

Step 5
Plan your Social-First Strategy
A smart strategy for daily coverage is as important as staffing. Every day
should start with an editorial meeting. The Editor-in-Chief leads story
meetings to define your organizations content priorities. It is then up
to the social editor and reporters to take these priorities to the social
web, research via Twitter, Facebook, etc. the reporter's primary job is to
fact-check rumors and updates from the social web, creating accurate,
fact-based updates.
The meeting should be quick and cover the stories of the day. Sometimes
a bit of pre-planning for upcoming events should be included. Daily
meetings and a clear coverage plan are essential to a clear staff focus on
the news as it happens. Daily meeting are also essential to identifying
and following the most interesting stories as they develop into in-depth
features.

SWN & HOW TO CRAFT A SOCIAL-FIRST VERSION 1.0

IWPR NEWS STRATEGY
MAR 2015

14

BREAKING
NEWS

GATHER KNOWN FACTS

HEADLINE

QUICKLY PUBLISH
TO SOCIAL MEDIA

RESEARCH & INVESTIGATE STORY

PUBLISH IMPORTANT
DETAILS TO SOCIAL MEDIA
AS THEY ARE VERIFIED

FOLLOW UP & CONTINUE COVERAGE

ADD UNIQUE COVERAGE

AND PHOTOS / VIDEOS
WHERE POSSIBLE.

PUBLISH FINAL STORY

PUBLISHED DECEMBER 12th, 2013

PUBLISH TO
SOCIAL MEDIA

Not all stories are planned. Some news breaks during the day. Consider a
multi-step publication process:
1. When news breaks, staff must first send a text message or call
their editor.
2. Once approved, publish an initial headline-style update.
3. Follow breaking news and headlines with more detailed text stories
and a photo or short video clip as soon as possible.
4. Add more carefully edited videos, additional photos and follow-up
coverage as new information -- and connectivity -- permit.
5. Once youve provided breaking coverage, you can delay adding additional information until you are at a location with good connectivity.
For more on this topic, see the Planning your Coverage module.

SWN & HOW TO CRAFT A SOCIAL-FIRST VERSION 1.0

IWPR NEWS STRATEGY
MAR 2015

15

Step 6

Understand Your Technology

To run an effective social-first news agency, you need a solid understanding of your technology and available connectivity. Your staff
should have mobile connection whenever possible, the lowest bandwidth
social story still needs a voice or SMS connection. If data connectivity is
too weak to publish multimedia immediately, take this as an opportunity and not a limitation.
Engage your audience in the process, provide them updates as you have
them. Smart devices, and digital cameras are capable of recording all
elements of multimedia in one device. When connectivity permits, youll
be able to publish content as soon as you have it.

SWN & HOW TO CRAFT A SOCIAL-FIRST VERSION 1.0

IWPR NEWS STRATEGY
MAR 2015

16

The production power of smart devices is the key promise of mobile technology. They offer not just connectivity, but multimedia production power
in a small package. Smart devices enable your team to create, assemble,
and publish from the field. You may not want your staff to publish complete
features without editorial oversight, but the ability to publish the story
over time will engage your audience and increase your value. Release
initial clips as soon as possible, updating as the story evolves and further
contextualizing the story as more information becomes available.
Multimedia is not an ends in itself. Social stories are crafted to have a
narrative. The manner of publishing and releasing the material should
complement the story. A brief tweet or text-only status update sets the
stage and lets the audience know what news is coming. Publishing a single
photo or video clip with a caption ahead of a more in-depth story piques
interest and intrigues the audience. As you report your story, think
through how this narrative will develop. It will help you present better
material and avoid producing content you will never use.

SWN & HOW TO CRAFT A SOCIAL-FIRST VERSION 1.0

IWPR NEWS STRATEGY
MAR 2015

17

Step 7
Be Competitive in the Market

Your social-first news strategy must be built with an understanding of

the market in which your agency operates. Refer back to your target
audience and ask yourselves some questions about the market and the
broader media and regulatory environment with your audience in mind.

How will I attract and build audience?

What is the role advertisements or sponsorships play currently?
Who is selling to my audience already?
Which advertising/sponsorship packages do I want to sell?
Which other related services do I want to sell (competitor surveillance,
content, production)?

There are no one-size-fits-all answers to these questions because each

are affected by local regulations, market standards, technical skills and
your own editorial focus.

SWN & HOW TO CRAFT A SOCIAL-FIRST VERSION 1.0

IWPR NEWS STRATEGY
MAR 2015

18

When starting a media business you likely will lack the data -- often
called metrics -- needed to identify your audience and its interests and
behaviors. Social networking tools have the idea of metrics at their core,
its what their business is built on. Analytics tools examine the path of
your users while consuming content, as well as the contents path on the
internet. What is being shared, by whom, and how often?
Tracking and examining this analytics will enable you to create a pool of
audience data. When audience data start coming in, you will begin to see
the actual profile of your audience. Based on this, you can decide whether
it is possible to broaden the commercial target group or, perhaps, start
selling packages for more than one target group. Whatever your ultimate
strategy for creating revenue, having a clear pool of audience data is the
first step.
Be sure to evaluate your competitors and current market, as well as
potential audience.

SWN & HOW TO CRAFT A SOCIAL-FIRST VERSION 1.0

IWPR NEWS STRATEGY
MAR 2015

19

Step 8

Understand the additional

challenges to your success
Be sure you know the regulatory landscape and the laws governing
journalists and the media in the country or region you work. Just because
laws to protect journalists exist does not mean that government, local
leadership and security forces will obey the law, but understanding the law
can be a first step toward improving it.
Assess the telecommunications infrastructure your organization will
depend on. Contracting with the wrong mobile or internet service provider
will put a serious restriction on your potential for success. Understanding
the limitations of available providers can help you plan your publishing
cycle. It is also important to understand the connectivity available to your
audience. If your reporters rely on high-speed connections not available to
much of your audience, its important to ensure they dont produce content
equally inaccessible.
Often in emerging media environments or repressive states, the media law
is not well established or changes frequently. It is important to be aware of
these issues and work to protect your staff when possible.
Ensure your staff adhere to professional codes of conduct. Even in
countries where media laws are very restrictive, observing the principles
outlined may help you avoid accusations of libel or treason.

SWN & HOW TO CRAFT A SOCIAL-FIRST VERSION 1.0

IWPR NEWS STRATEGY
MAR 2015

20

 What does the competition look like?

Who else serves your audience?
What are you offering that is different and will attract viewers?
Whether your audience is national, international, or regional will make a
big difference. If your organization intends to generate revenue by reselling content to news buyers, this must be represented in your planning.
Include your intended audience when researching and planning your story
calendar. Outreach to the audience via Facebook and Twitter can provide
essential insight and improve coverage as well as increasing the total
audience.
Stories must have broad appeal to consumers and differentiate the agency
from content offered by competitors. Without this you will be unable to
compete for limited ad dollars and sponsors. Engage the audience and harness their collective power to research and report the news. This will grow
your audience and deepen your understanding of individual audience
groups, improving your value to advertisers.
Understand who your audience is and what they want. If your publication
is focused on general news, you have a broader potential audience but
must also take a more general approach to content production and news
gathering.
If your publication is primarily about a specific ethnic group or a narrow
topic, such as a specific type of agriculture or business, your strategy is
easier to define, but it may be more difficult to reach sustainability. What
are the additional challenges to your success?

SWN & HOW TO CRAFT A SOCIAL-FIRST VERSION 1.0

IWPR NEWS STRATEGY
MAR 2015

21

Step 9
Make Social-First News

If youve read through all the steps above, youre ready to get started. Gather
your staff together, consider each of the steps and develop a roadmap for
implementation. You may not adapt every step outlined, but each step has
something to offer. Each step is also an ingredient necessary for most
organizations to craft a successful Social-First Strategy.
Review this list of the elements present in a Social-First strategy, and
check that your plan provides each of them the proper weight needed by your
specific organization.
Editorial Focus
Target Audience
Social-First Stories
Social-First Staffing
Social-First Editorial Plan
Familiarity with Technology
Competitive Marketing Plan
Understand Additional Challenges

SWN & HOW TO CRAFT A SOCIAL-FIRST VERSION 1.0

IWPR NEWS STRATEGY
MAR 2015

22

It is up to you to decide how to implement each element of your plan.

Tell great social-first stories and your organizations future will be bright.
Increasing numbers of news consumers are getting their news from mobile,
more than 75% of mobile news consumers access the news several times per
day. In 2013, Reuters Digital News Report found those who use smartphones
and tablets are more likely to go straight to a known news brand. You need to
become that known brand for your target audience
The social-first news strategy will enable you to tell stories faster and with
greater depth. Enlisting your audience to not only fact-check, but act as
primary and secondary sources will encourage loyalty and word-of-mouth
marketing. Publishing your content in social-first formats will place you
where the audience already is, keeping you at the front of their mind each
time they return to social media. News consumers between 18-34 all prefer
social media as a gateway to news consumption. This demographic is leading
the trend. Follow the social-first strategy to get your news organization out
ahead of the curve.

SWN & HOW TO CRAFT A SOCIAL-FIRST VERSION 1.0

IWPR NEWS STRATEGY
MAR 2015

23