Oct. 22 11:00 am: Web 2.0 in the Real World

Web 2.0 in the real world – Sheila Scarborough, Every Dot Connects; Kim Haynes, Bulldog Solutions and Omar Galaga, Austin American Statesman; OM 320
(Blogging live from OM 320)

“What many of you consider to be play (MySpace, Facebook, Twitter), it is very much work related for us.”-Sheila Scarborough

Omar Galaga: Journalism in Web 2.0

Omar has been working for the Statesman for 11 years. Part of his job as a writer is blogging, researching, shooting video, presentations, etc. The Statesman started using Twitter over the summer to cover things such as Hurricane Ike and ACL. The people who follow the Statesman’s Twitter are highly engaged with what’s going on. Omar is showing us Twitter pages on line and explaining how it all works.

“The more people I follow, the more I get a window into people’s lives.”
(he is omarg on Twitter….follow him!)

The Statesman is on Twitter to help people be easily engaged with what they are reporting. The Statesman also has a Facebook and MySpace page. Breaking news from events can be posted quickly (faster than blogging or reporting), which Omar says helps a lot when getting a story out there. Another thing that is up and coming in journalism is video. Omar says that sometimes instead of writing out a long story about an event, it is easier, faster and more fun to shoot it all on video.

Question from audience: “What would you say to the older readers that say these technologies are useless?”
Answer: “It takes a lot of effort to show people this is useful, but it opens my eyes a lot. To be honest, I don’t think we need those readers. We need the younger people to invest in the media because you are our readers of the future.”

LinkedIn is another social network used in journalism (it’s kind of like a business version of Facebook). It has become a very powerful site for businesses and it is good to be familiar with it.

Why would journalists want/need to use MySpace and Facebook?
Sources can be found FAST on these networks. Omar has used MySpace to source an entire story because he found people who were talking about it.

Other useful tools: Google Docs, Google Calendar, YouTube, Flickr

Mobile Broadcasting is something new that may hugely impact the media world…some technologies are now allowing you to stream live video to the internet via cell phone. HUGE advancement for the media, and also really cool.

Kim Haynes: Getting a Job in a Web 2.0 world

“I want to empower you guys to learn things in Web 2.0 in order to get jobs.”

The Evolution of the Job Hunt:
Kim is talking about how the normal job-hunting processes (applications, job boards, faxing, etc.) are becoming outdated. Craigslist is a way to search resumes and post resumes, but you need to be careful about that and not give away too much information or you may have a stalker on your hands.

Referrals are a good way to get candidates for jobs. Kim says she looks for peole who know people. She is also an advocate for LinkIn, and suggests that you get your profile out there.

“If you are not out on a social network, you need to be!”

Some social networks you may not know about: plaxo, XING, Ning

“Web 2.0 is all about the connections between people.”

A good way to get a job in the media is to network….go to company parties, Social Media Breakfasts, mixers, etc. Kim says that she and Sheila have had “Tweet-Ups” where they started tweeting, asking people if they wanted to meet up. Kim has met up with a lot of important media people through these Tweet-Ups. There is a Texas State Alumi Ning, and Kim encourages us students to join to keep up with everyone and what people are doing after college.

Sheila Scarborough: Creating a good web persona

“Social media presence shows how people are in real life. It’s difficult to maintain a false persona online.”

Sheila thinks it is important to Google your name frequently (and search Google images too) to see what kind of things are out there about you. You need to work on your web-based image. Sheila says you don’t need to sabotage yourself online because it’s already so difficult to get a job in this time of a bad economy.

Sheila is a big fan of blogging. Her blog has become a large part of her job as a travel writer. She also pitched herself to an editor as someone who may not know much about drag-racing, but she knew how to blog about it, so she got hired and ended up loving the sport. When creating blogs, you need to be careful about it and be of sound mind before you spill your guts to the entire world.

Twitter has brought Sheila two “gigs” directly. She suggests that you learn Twitter and make sure you “write good stuff. “

Audience Question: “What advice do you have for students graduating soon, and going out into the media and web world?”
Answer: “Get on LinkedIn, learn how to take good photos and video, and the most important is learn how to write.”

Great speeches! Photos By Brian Cummings