Photo illustration by ©2013/Rion Rizzo/Creative Sources Photography, Inc.

The Center for Sustainable Journalism (CSJ) dedicated its new office space Wednesday in a special ceremony attended by Georgia first lady Sandra Deal. Also taking part in the ribbon-cutting ceremony, which was covered by local media, were Kennesaw State University (KSU) President Daniel Papp and CSJ Executive Director Leonard Witt.The state-of-the-art, 2,700 square foot facility is located in a renovated warehouse just west of the KSU campus.

The post, which has since been deleted, included the caption “Subway pls respond” and prompted a slew of similar posts from people around the world, and garnered national press. A spokesperson for company said they didn’t remove the post. 

If this sounds familiar, we’re glad you’ve been paying attention. Back in October a similar thing happened after Wynter Farmer voiced her opinion about the nuances of a new data plan on AT&T’s Facebook page. The post went viral. 

As the Associated Press noted in its Subway article, and as most folks working in the social, PR, and media fields already know, social media has reshaped and continues to reshape the relationship between companies and consumers – and can have impacts far beyond our own social spheres.

The skimpy Subway picture even prompted a mini-investigation by the New York Post, who took a tape measure to seven allegedly foot-long sandwiches and found that only three actually measured up. Okay, maybe that’s not the best example of in-depth investigative journalism, but it does prove the point. 

Both AT&T and Subway didn’t remove the controversial posts, and while they may have bumbled their responses in other ways, at least they got that one right. Luckily, there are plenty of opportunities to brush up on social media tactics and best practices this year at SoCon13, and learn how the evolution of digital media has effected everything from the way companies respond to criticism, to how college students stay up to date on happenings at their universities.

Chad Bryant (top) and Drew Hawkins.

A good place to start is the beginning. Chad Bryant, Social Engagement Coordinator at Engauge, and Drew Hawkins, Director of Digital and Social Media at the DeMoss Group ask the question “why are we on social media, again” as a reminder that diving in head-first to every available platform isn’t the same as having a robust and meaningful social footprint.

“The easy trap is to jump into the social space without asking ‘why’ we are out there in the first place,” the duo says. “Quality social strategy isn’t just about winning the popularity contest and garnering more fans than the next guy.”

That’s good advice. Having 100 engaged and excited fans online can be exponentially more valuable than 1,000 followers, especially if you’re connected  with the right people. The next logical step, after you figure out the why and identify what you want out of your social efforts is to figure out how things fit together. What level of resources should you devote to achieving these goals, and will the investment be worth the return?

This year’s SoCon13 lineup offers a variety of options to put you and your company on the path to social success. The annual unconference offers the flexibility to attend a variety of breakout sessions and pick up tactics that have proven successful for your specific industry, and learn from the playbook of many others.

• For non-profits, social media should be a no brainer, especially if you’re looking to rally volunteers or wide spread support around a specific issue. Join April Phillips, Communications Director with the American Red Cross Southeast Blood Services Division, for a look at the tactics that have proven successful for one of the world’s most trusted non-profits, and how you can apply the same formula to create advocates for your brand and mission. SoCon13 has a variety of breakout sessions geared specifically toward non-profits.
  
• Author and independent publisher J. Steve Miller looks at social engagement through the lens of a boot-strapped entrepreneur and self-made writer. His laid-back approach to social proves you don’t have to invest in a full-time assistant to have an impact, but identifying your goals and how you’re going to accomplish them can be key. Small business owner Jim Hodgson takes a slightly different tact (cat photos, anyone?), but each strategy accomplishes goals they’ve set to grow their businesses.
  
• For photographer Matthew Druin, social media has proven an invaluable asset for establishing and growing his small business. By focusing his efforts and doing a little online ‘detective work,’ Druin has managed to expand exponentially in the past year and has developed a proven strategy for turning digital connections into real-life clients. The thing is, you don’t have to make stunning photos to make that happen for your business. 

That’s just a slice of the full SoCon13 lineup. Check out all the thought-provoking breakout sessions along with the award-winning lineup of speakers, not to mention the interactive keynote panel with influential professionals from across big business, small business, non-profit, and journalism industries.

As a super special treat for reading all 700+ words of this blog post, feel free to use the promotional “friend10” when registering to save 10 percent off the already low price of $69. Register now.

Photo credit: Nachoman-au/Wikimedia Commons

As if you really need another lecture on the power of social media. There are a ton of social media blunder recaps, round-ups, and “bewares” around the web, but every once and a while it doesn’t hurt to have a timely reminder.

Last week, a long-time AT&T customer took to the company’s Facebook page to share her thoughts on a recent “upgrade” available on the iPhone 5 – the ability to use FaceTime (AT&T’s video call feature) without being connected to wifi. The catch? …

One of the Southeast’s premiere and longest-running social media conferences, the SoCon series returns to metro Atlanta for the seventh year, Feb. 9, 2013 at Kennesaw State University.

From left: Leonard Witt, William Harnisch, Ruth Ann Harnisch, Dr. Daniel Papp

Kennesaw State University awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters to Ruth Ann Harnisch, a philanthropist whose foundation has supported cutting-edge approaches to gathering and disseminating news.

The honorary doctorate ─ the 14th awarded in Kennesaw State’s 49-year history ─ was bestowed today during the university’s commencement ceremony for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Harnisch, a former journalist with more than 30 years of experience in print and broadcasting, is president of the New York-based Harnisch Foundation, which in 2009 awarded $1.5 million to establish the Center for Sustainable Journalism at Kennesaw State.

“Kennesaw State University is pleased to award this honorary doctorate to Ms. Harnisch,” said Kennesaw State President Daniel S. Papp.  “In so doing, we are recognizing the outstanding accomplishments of an exceptional person, known nationally as a philanthropist who truly has made a difference, as well as a ground-breaking journalist.”

A self-described “recovering journalist” and “donor activist,” Harnisch is a proponent of creative philanthropy that produces sustainable social change.  She founded The Harnisch Foundation in 1998.

Harnisch said she was drawn to the idea of funding the Center for Sustainable Journalism after reading blogs by Leonard Witt, Kennesaw State’s Robert D. Fowler Distinguished Chair in Communication and the center’s executive director. The center is designed to research and develop ethical and sustainable new ways to produce and distribute news.  It is home to the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, the only national news website covering juvenile justice. In March, the center announced that it will begin publishing Youth Today, a nationally distributed print and online newspaper targeted to professionals in the youth services field.

“The honor of working with Len Witt and his team is reward enough,” said Harnisch, whose foundation supports other experiments in producing and distributing news and information, as well as collegiate journalism programs. “While I am pleased to receive the honorary doctorate, Kennesaw State’s innovative, cutting-edge experiments in new ways of delivering high-quality information are what is important and what I hope everyone will notice. The Center for Sustainable Journalism is making strides as a leader in a thoughtful conversation that is important for our nation to have about juvenile justice.”

Witt attributes the Center for Sustainable Journalism’s important work to Harnisch’s “intellectual, inspirational and financial support.”

“Thanks to her visionary work, the center can have a lasting impact on the way journalism is practiced and also on the way our most disadvantaged children are perceived,” Witt said.  “She is truly deserving of this special honor.”

Harnisch started her career at the Buffalo (NY) Courier-Express and worked 17 years as a columnist for the Nashville (Tenn.) Banner.  She hosted a radio talk show on WLAC-AM and worked 15 years as a television news reporter and anchor for Nashville’s CBS affiliate.

Harnisch’s career expanded to include her interests in philanthropy and professional coaching.  A certified master coach, Harnisch was a founding funder of The Institute of Coaching at Harvard Medical School’s McLean Hospital. The institute is an outgrowth of the grant-making Foundation of Coaching, which Harnisch created with David Goldsmith in 2006 to support academic research in the coaching field.

In addition, Harnisch supports the “Ideas Worth Spreading” mission of the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) community. She is a founding funder of the TED Fellows program, which brings together world-changing achievers, and a co-founder of SupporTED, an independent program offering pro bono coaching and mentoring to the TED Fellows.

Harnisch is a member of Women Moving Millions, a philanthropic initiative of women who give at least $1 million dollars to non-profits benefiting women and girls. She also holds a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Baruch College in New York.

The Center for Sustainable Journalism is looking for a highly-skilled, qualified employee to lead online production, web development and digital strategy for YouthToday.org and the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (JJIE.org) – national publications covering various aspects of youth issues, policy and industry news. The successful applicant will be a self-starter with strong time-management and organizational skills, possess a working knowledge of journalism processes and applicable ethics, and must be proficient in related technologies. He/she will be responsible for preparing Center for Sustainable Journalism and related projects’ content for web distribution in a timely manner, maintaining web operations for all CSJ and JJIE online real-estate, and coordinating SEO and other digital strategies to drive readership in conjunction with print products and various departments. The successful candidate will demonstrate an understanding of design, usability, innovative content delivery and online community management as they pertain to a digital-first newsroom. This role will coordinate with the JJIE.org Editor and the CSJ’s Marketing and Logistics Manager to support the respective objectives of each strategy, department and mission.

Responsibilities:

• Maintain CSJ and JJIE web properties, including the delivery of all online and multimedia content, in conjunction with print and other deadlines.
• Work with the editorial and development team to ensure the community platform (ex. forums, blogs, moderation tools) influences the roadmap to monetizing the project.
• Implement digital marketing and online community strategy, coordinating with key team members across the organization to ensure effectiveness.
• Leverage existing and emerging social media channels and properties for newsgathering and fact-checking purposes. Train editorial staff as necessary.
• Act as an advocate of the Center in the brand’s community and as the advocate of the community within the organization, engaging in dialogues and answering questions where appropriate.
• Supporting graphic design work for the CSJ and projects as needed.
• SEO, keyword and other digital research to ensure effectiveness of digital strategy, as needed.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree and two years experience in news or PR organization with a digital-first model, or equal combination of education and experience.
• Creative, diplomatic, cool under pressure and fantastic interpersonal skills.
• Strong time management and organizational skills.
• Basic understanding and execution of design principles.
• Advanced knowledge of the field of journalism, specifically surrounding issues related to juvenile justice and youth.
• Ability to effectively communicate information and ideas in written, verbal and visual formats.
• Good technical understanding and can pick up new tools quickly.
• The ability to work nights and weekends as needed.
• Working knowledge of:
  • HTML and CSS. Javascript, Actionscript, ColdFusion markup language a plus
  • Adobe Creative Suite
  • Adobe Lightroom
  • WordPress CMS and Headway theme
  • Final Cut Studio video editing software
  • MAC and Windows OS
  • Digital research and newsgathering practices
  • Social media platforms and application

Send cover letter, resume and applicable work samples to info@youthtoday.org by May 1, 2012. PLEASE include “Online Producer” as the subject line.

KENNESAW, Ga. — The Center for Sustainable Journalism at Kennesaw State University will begin publishing Youth Today immediately.

“Having Youth Today housed at Kennesaw State University is a perfect fit,” said Ken Harmon, KSU provost. “We have undergraduate and advanced degree programs in compatible areas, including journalism, social work, criminology, conflict management, educational leadership and other health and human sciences, all of which can provide best practice training and research to advance the Youth Today mission.”

Leonard Witt, executive director of the Center for Sustainable Journalism, said the addition of Youth Today to the center’s publishing portfolio is an excellent extension of the work it does.

“We now publish the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, JJIE.org, the only entity to cover juvenile justice every day with professional journalists, so this is a natural addition to the work we do,” Witt said. “We will be able to get Youth Today back to its full potential, while expanding the JJIE.org reach at the same time.”

Financial challenges almost led to the demise of the subscription-based newspaper Youth Today, which was founded in 1984, but Witt says it is now posed to be better than ever at Kennesaw State University.

“The board has been working hard to deal with the organization’s financial challenges and to ensure the survival of Youth Today,” said Brant Houston, board chair of the American Youth Work Center, which is Youth Today’s umbrella organization. “We are pleased that Leonard Witt and Kennesaw State have agreed to produce Youth Today and we are confident that under their stewardship the publication will be a success.”

John Fleming, JJIE.org editor, who now will provide editorial leadership for both publications, said, “Our children are our country’s most treasured resource. The people who serve them must have a trusted source of high quality information, which has been the hallmark of Youth Today. Now that legacy will go forward into the future with an added dose of investigative reporting.”  

Additional updates coming soon.

Twitter has been great because it adds a value to my life I just can’t get from other services. Where else can you just poof have a conversation with a major CEO, or managing editor, or a long-revered photojournalist? Professionally it’s been great. Heck, I even landed my job at the Center for Sustainable Journalism on Twitter.

But, I’ll admit, with all the junk floating around I find it laborious to sign on, check someone’s feed and do a through evaluation of their personality traits every time I get a “new follower” update in my inbox.

Honestly, I’ve gotten to the point that I can tell pretty much everything I need to know about you from the graphic in my e-mail.

My primary use of Twitter is for professional development and staying connected with others in my field. I have a few friends, but I’m just not the ‘let’s live tweet the season premiere of XYZ’ kind of guy.

With that said, the little graphic that ends up in my e-mail is basically your cover letter. You are tasked with convincing me (and everyone/anyone else) that you’re actually worth following. Here’s how to do it:

1. Make the link between your profile name and you obvious.
   Sorry FernGuyz87, but after a while I WILL forget your name was George from that conversation we had 10 months ago. Make the connection between who you are and/or what you do with your name. If you get a good, widely-known name that may be worth keeping (I’m facebook.com/multimediajournalist, for example), but otherwise go with your real name or an easy to understand – and short – abbreviation. Not doing this can show a lack of attention to detail.
2. Tell me what you do and offer some insight into your personality or life, quickly.
   Bio box time. Give your title, or perspective title, who you are, and (indirectly) why you’d be interesting to follow. The point, I think, is to have fun with it a bit. Twitter is more informal to platforms like LinkedIn, allowing users to have normal, day-to-day type communications and get to know some interesting people that may not have otherwise met.
3. Are you a follower or leader?
   I hate to sound like a marketer, but your ratio of the number of people you follow compared to the number of people who follow you does matter a bit. Don’t go follow 800 people when only 60 people follow you. It says much more if you have 60 followers and only follow 20 people. Big numbers aren’t the most important things.
4. You’ve only sent four tweets… ever?!
   Seriously? You’ve only sent four tweets? Well, if you are a real person, you should use it more. Honestly, following you probably wouldn’t add any value to my day. The main thing is, though, that is a quick indicator that you’re looking at a junk, spam or bot account. If you’re new to the game play around and talk to some random people before you try and get a follow back from your idol. You may only get one shot. On that note, the best way to get followers is to, well, tweet a lot. Go figure.
5. How many mutual friends do we have?
   If you do everything else right then I don’t put much weight on our mutual friends. Twitter is great for meeting new people. But if I’m still a little weary I’ll check this box out. Obviously, the more friends we mutually follow (and that follow each of us) shows you’re a cool cat and we can be friends.

So, that’s my advice for optimizing you profile to get more follow-backs. What’s yours? Oh, if you want feel free to follow me on Twitter