Beyond ‘Breaking’: How To Maximize Current Events For Social Media

 Jun 25, 2008 by Greg Finn | Social Media Marketing

Fresh news is a fundamental element of social media and can be used in a variety of different ways to one’s advantage.

Across virtually every social network site, users scramble to be the first to break a news story. Inevitably, this leads to hundreds of duplicate story submissions and ends with one winner amongst hundreds of losers. But even if you weren’t the Woodward & Bernstein who successfully broke the story, there’s still hope. Remember, the story isn’t over once the news breaks; indeed, in many cases, it’s just beginning.

Taking a step back, a story that is ‘breaking news’ material is news for many different reasons. Every popular news event has multiple angles and subplots that make the story newsworthy for different individuals. For instance, the Boston Celtics recently beat the L.A. Lakers in the 2008 NBA Finals. Why is this news?

This event is newsworthy for the following reasons:

1. A professional title was awarded making the Celtics the best team in the NBA

2. The Celtics went from terrible to tremendous in one season

3. Kevin Garnett, a good guy, finally won a championship

4. Paul Pierce won his first championship on a team that he has played for his entire career

5. The Lakers vs. Celtics rivalry is one of the more storied rivalries in sports

6. Boston sports have been phenomenal over the past few years

7. Kobe Bryant was MVP but his team lost the series

8. The Lakers were favored to win the series

9. The final game was a total blowout

Each of these different aspects contributes to the newsworthiness of the event, but as evidenced in the above screenshots, most of these slants are not highlighted. Hence, the same ‘breaking news’ headline is repeated – an ineffective tactic in generating social media attention. A more successful approach is to look for (or create) articles that highlight different elements of a popular story; use the story’s momentum to your benefit.

Reworking the above elements to improve social media traction might look like (in order):

1. Breaking: Celtics Win Championship

2. Tremendous Turnaround: How the Celtics Went From Worst to First

3. 12 Good Guys That Won Championships Before They Retired

4. 24 Loyal Athletes that Stuck With Their Team To Win A Title

5. Where Does The 2008 Finals Rank Among The Lakers-Celtics Rivalry?

6. Boston Sports: The Hottest Sports Streak for a City Ever?

7. MVPs That Couldn’t Finish: 36 Players That Had Great Seasons But Lost At The End

8. Underdogs That Overwhelmed: A Look at Recent Championships The Favored Team Lost

9. ExciteLESS: The Least Competitive Championship Winning Games In History

Of all of the proposed stories, only one of them is hedged solely on being the first to report it, the rest simply use the momentum and popularity of the event to their advantage.

Every news article has an angle that can be exploited.

The Iphone was released – What apps need to be made in order for it to work for businesses? Why Should GPS makers be scared?

Tiger Woods won’t play this year – Who are the best of the rest? How long will he take to fully recover from the surgery and what is the general success rate of this type of surgery?

Someone famous died – Why were they famous and what were the highlights of their life? How did they die, could it have been prevented?

Regardless of your industry or focus, there is almost always an opportunity to find a way to spin relevant breaking news into a story that relates to your niche. And if you view every breaking news story through this perspective, you’re already ahead of the crowd.

It seems so simple, but these incredibly effective tactics may be the most underutilized in Social Media. It is a beautiful thing when you realize that you aren’t working hard to break the story, you are letting the ‘broken’ story work hard for you.

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Twitter: Ultimate Time Waster or Great Tool?

 Jun 18, 2008 by Chris Winfield | Social Media Marketing, Social Networks


Yesterday I presented at SES Toronto along with Lee Odden and Dave Snyder on a panel called ‘Twitter: Ultimate Time Waster, or Great Tool?’ I figured that in order to show how Twitter actually works – it would be best to use Twitter to do it. Here’s the results of the experiment and an extended version of my presentation. Also if you’re on Twitter and would like to follow me – here’s my profile: http://twitter.com/chriswinfield
The Best Way to Learn about Twitter is to Have Twitter Do My Presentation

  • Started at 4:45pm EST
  • No pre-planning or promotion around it at all
  • Final question was asked at 6:04pm EST
  • Over 275 answers in less than 90 minutes

http://twitter.com/chriswinfield/statuses/833326682
http://twitter.com/chriswinfield/statuses/833328402 Finding Folks to Follow Information Overload Drama Distracting (or addicting) Getting ‘Too’ Involved
It is What You Make It
http://twitter.com/chriswinfield/statuses/833332723 Relationships
Staying Connected Promotion Communication Entertainment / Perspective
Information http://twitter.com/chriswinfield/statuses/833338892 Get Personal Discovery Influencers Traffic Link Building http://twitter.com/chriswinfield/statuses/833343043 JetBlue: http://twitter.com/jetblue Zappos http://twitter.com/zappos Comcast http://twitter.com/comcastcares Skimbaco http://twitter.com/skimbaco BB Geeks http://twitter.com/bbgeeks Paw Luxury http://twitter.com/PawLuxury/ Woot http://twitter.com/woot/ http://twitter.com/chriswinfield/statuses/833348230 It’s About Who I Follow It’s About Who Follows Me http://twitter.com/BarackObama http://tinyurl.com/3nbnh7 It’s Both! http://twitter.com/chriswinfield/statuses/833352885 Leaders Learning Discovery Help Interesting Active Sharers Publications or Company You Use
http://twitter.com/chriswinfield/statuses/833356652 No response All noise – no signal Too much self promotion Lack of activity Too much (useless) activity
SPAM Ask too many questions… http://twitter.com/chriswinfield/statuses/833368296 Treat it Like Real Life Participate Jump In! Conversate (smartly) Add Value Be Careful – Twitter can be HIGHLY ADDICTIVE
http://twitter.com/chriswinfield/statuses/833372977 Twhirl Summize TwitterMail FireFox TwitterFox TwitBin Mobile TwitterBerry PocketTweets http://twitter.com/chriswinfield/statuses/833376365 Twitterati Fun Learning Connections Conversation What You Can Find Keeps Your Finger on the Pulse
Community What Twitter Gives Back

Thanks to all of the following people (in order of appearance) for making this all come together: graywolf, JenniferLaycock, LLCobb, jenstar, oilman, rabeidoh, tonyadam, stuntdubl, zaknicola, lyndseo, jonkelly, jdevalk, eddings, meshugavi, DavidWallace, martinbowling, JeremyLuebke, audrajackson, joegerstandt, zaknicola, seanmaguire, chiropractic, doshdosh, longhornkate, TheMadHat, benrabicoff, SexySEO, ciaranj, lynnterry, Marifer, toddmintz, StuartL, LaurenV, dotrage, kid_disco, aviw, adriansoare, wilreynolds, BrentCsutoras, Frozen2Late, gar8, pratt, AmberCadabra, mwilton13, stephenparker, genemccubbin, khawe, footinmouth, DesireeSanchez, ColinCochrane, TheOtherJeff, gsicotte, averre, audette, Blakovitch, talespinner, tamera, kelly_gaia, MichelleRobbins, SearchBuzz, jonathanfields, markus941, SearchBuzz, travishines, saadkamal, dhudiburg, SearchStudent, yojspew, portentint, lisarokusek, TwisterMc, baldeagle, charlyjl, onstartups, kimbercook. If you’re looking for folks to follow on Twitter this would be a good starting point as each of these people are what make Twitter should an effective (and fun) tool.

Now – to keep the conversation going. What do YOU think: is Twitter the ultimate time waster or a great tool? Feel free to respond here or to me on Twitter @chriswinfield

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Researching for Linkbait Pieces

 Jun 12, 2008 by Patrick Winfield | Social Media Marketing

OK, so you have a great topic ready to write about and now you need to research it out throughly. Creating an effective linkbait piece, one that actually makes people want to link to it, requires some decent researching skills. There is a ridiculous amount of information online just waiting for you, but some of that information may be just that…ridiculous.

The task then becomes figuring out which is the best to use and which needs to be ignored, when to look somewhere else and where that somewhere else is. Here are some ideas and techniques that can help facilitate your research both on and off the screen.



Subscribing to Google Alerts is similar to using a search engine, this alert system allows you to receive information on a search query of your choice as-it-happens, daily or weekly. If you are doing research that lasts more than a few days, this service will surely be an effective addition to your research. It is basically doing the work for you, all you have to do is delete it or look into it further. I use it for a number of different things and now Yahoo offers something as well.

Have a bunch of blogs or news feeds that update frequently? Don’t want to get your inbox slammed with alerts and headlines? Organize those subscriptions within a stand alone feed reader like Bloglines or Google Reader and check in once or twice a day to see what’s new. You may never get an idea from any of the feeds you subscribe to, but thats not a bad thing. Originality can be found by seeing what has already been done. Keep it Simple. Real simple…



When I discover an article, how-to or something of interest, I will always check out the comment section (if it has one). This is a valuable area that can hold lots of opinions and ideas, but like the actual articles themselves: some are helpful while others can be terribly unhelpful.

If the linkbait was a top ten whatever and several of the comments said so and so should have been on the list, then I am going to look deeper into that: so and so. Looking at comments can be a huge step in keeping current and listening to the voice of a number of people.

Books are always good sources to find information or to reference ideas from. Take a trip to the library. Pick up a magazine. Not only is it a good way to break up the online research by getting your brain thinking differently, but it also allows you to hold something and process it in a new light.

So your article is about the 72 best karate moves in the movies. Why not see if this has been done, do a search on Digg for it. This will show you how successful this was, if it was even done, and what is similar. This is a quick simple way to make sure you are keeping things fresh.

But what if it is out there? Throw a new spin on it. Think of how this information was presented and ask yourself how you would have changed it our made it better. What did they miss? Also, check those comments… you never know if the next comment down will spark and idea.

The trick with using Wikipedia is to not take it as the truth but to use it to narrow in on your research by using links, references and keywords. At the bottom of every article you can find references, these are the pages that were used to create the article. Often these links are from respected authorities so check them out. It is a starting point, not a finishing point.

Finally, I would suggest calling or emailing some people you know and asking them what they think about the topic. Sometimes you can get some valuable information or leads that can take you that much closer to where you want the piece to be. People, especially family and friends, usually like to help. Think even further than your circle of friends and family, is the piece about Hawaii? Call a travel agent that specializes in it. Or even the local chamber of commerce or visitor’s center. It is good to push things further than your comfort zone of researching.

What do you do when you are researching a linkbait or viral piece?

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Speaking Schedule for June: Millennial Financial, DM Days & SES Toronto

 Jun 6, 2008 by Chris Winfield | Conferences and Events

I just got back from the excellent SMX Advanced show in Seattle. Danny and the whole Third Door Media team did another excellent job of putting on a first-rate conference.

Over the next two weeks, I will speaking at three different conferences. The nice thing is that each of the conferences will have a completely different audience to reach. Here’s a quick rundown:

Millennial Financial Services Forum [June 9th] — I will be speaking alone on a panel called Authenticity is the Key to Providing Value/Social Media Marketing:

The importance of an authentic marketing campaign is dire to attracting these Millennials. This session will guide you through the advantages of social marketing networks and social news sites and how to truly reach to reach GenY (or social media/news digg.com). This is your one opportunity to gain a client for life, regardless of their account balances right now. Don’t miss it!


DMA Days ‘08 [June 10th] – I will be speaking with Steven Brita, Laura Gehringer, Mickey Alam Khan on a panel put together by Mark Kolier called Integrating Old & New Media Opportunities:

Industry leaders in list management (email and direct mail), blogging, mobile marketing, search marketing, insert media and direct marketing discuss developments and trends across the marketing landscape. Integration and measurement of new media will be focused upon. Learn how to better understand how to leverage new marketing channels. Learn information on what’s working in new and old media.


SES Toronto [June 17th] — I will be speaking with Lee Odden & Dave Snyder on a panel called Twitter: Ultimate Time Waster, or Great Tool?:

How many followers do you have? How many do you want? Bloggers are dropping like flies and micro-blogging is taking the world by storm. How should you be incorporating the ultimate time waster? Is it worth it? Hear from experts in the field on the who, what, where, and when of the latest in social connecting and marketing.

I hope to see [you] at one of these shows. If you are planning on attending please get in touch so we can connect! If you’re interested in having me speak at an upcoming event, please feel free to contact me here.

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