3 Ways Social Media Command Centers Improve Newsrooms 3 Uses for Social Media Command Centers to Improve Newsrooms

How Newsrooms Should Be “Information is power, and Leveraging Social Media when that information is at your fingertips, it From now until the next big thing, social media will empowers the individuals in crisis. But just because social networks are full your organization to make of information and data, doesn’t mean the public the right decisions and act is informed. What’s important is how newsrooms leverage the millions of extra eyes and ears on on them” their stories. Michael Brito, Senior VP of Social Business Planning at Edelman on social media With effective listening, newsrooms can track real- command centers. time, trending conversations on social channels and know exactly what excites a global audience. Once all of the organized, related data and conversations As the world turns digital, many local and global are laid out clearly, they can then add opinion and provide engaging content in the form of a story. competitive, fast-paced social media environment. Media companies lack the resources for extensive teams and they no longer control distribution Social Media Command channels. Not only are they up against themselves, but they now face hordes of socially savvy citizens in Centers for Real-Time a blog eats blog world. Listening and Engagement

But news is real-time, relevant, fast paced, engaging, Realizing the importance of real-time listening and sentimental and hopefully reliable - just like social engagement, newsrooms, media centers, broadcast media. So why are newsrooms and media companies stations, etc. are deploying social media command struggling as we go digital; what’s the solution? centers across organizations. They provide actionable data to support informed decision-making This White Paper will explore the uses of social media and optimize the performance of content. Think of command centers for newsrooms with the a command center as a space where organizations following potential use case scenarios: events, coordinate to listen and engage in social channels elections and crises. to source information and improve engagement, customer service, risk management and operational

2 3 Uses for Social Media Command Centers to Improve Newsrooms

During global political conferences like G20 Summits, major deals are struck and ideas are formed between countries and released to the public. For conferences, protests and riots alike, catching the action on the ground from social images and Tweets helps display the public opinion. Social media command centers bring this necessary real-time data and social information to the forefront. How do social media and their command centers affect the newsroom? Social Media and Sporting Events Social media is a game-changer for major sporting Using Social Media Command events like the Olympics, World Cup Soccer, The Centers to Monitor Events Super Bowl and NBA Finals. Individually drawing millions of social messages, these events encourage fans to follow every move of their favorite players Every event is a story with multiple perspectives. and teams, while connecting with others over event- News coverage for these global events often produces highly controversial stories with clashing now build, monitor and contribute to conversations opinions and high stakes. Recognizing what’s hot is about them and the event. This enhances the foremost, but then adding a fresh perspective that experience and encourages fans to take part in the will resonate with the audience can make or break social media action. a global story. Social media command centers help gather all of the necessary information to visualize It is essential for newsrooms to capture fan dialogue, the larger picture and all possible outcomes of a see what type of content resonates best with them global event. and take part in the action. Making editorial decisions about what is doing well on social means requires Social Media and Protests, Riots and understanding what fans want. Using command Conferences and sentiment in real-time to ensure that their story is Social media has become an essential generational relevant, timely, fact-driven and hot. What better way communication tool - especially for many politically to tap into the vitality of a story than by listening to unstable countries. Giving citizens a voice when what excites people across the globe? they may not otherwise speak out, social media controversial discussions and updates. The public can share their unbiased experiences and extend the value and extent of protests, riots and political debates around the globe.

3 3 Uses for Social Media Command Centers to Improve Newsrooms

Using Social Media Command For example, London’s 2012 Olympics saw more than 150 million tweets. According Centers to Monitor Elections to Twitter, Bolt’s gold medal-winning run drew a tweets per minute record of more With the speed of communication and number of than 80,000 for any competition. Likewise, people involved, social media has changed political Spice Girls reached a tweet per minute elections and campaigning forever. During national record of more than 116,000 for the closing elections, social plays a fundamental role in the ceremony performance. With command political dialogue leading up to elections, ongoing centers, newsrooms can monitor those 150M tweets and visualize the entire event, discussions and analysis of parties and their leaders. play by play. Tracking party performance, monitoring public sentiment around party issues, especially before and after debates, monitoring campaigns and predicting

With social media command centers, each individual module offers a snippet of valuable data related to the election. All together, this visualized data provides a comprehensive indication of any voter shifts, controversy and political success or failure as it is discussed on social.

2013 Super Bowl XLVII Command Center According to Twitter, 31.7 million Tweets For the 2013 Super Bowl XLVII, HootSuite launched went out during the 2012 U.S. Elections. As the results of the election were announced, a command center to monitor the social media battle Twitter conversations hit a peak of 327,452 between the #49ers and #ravens. We monitored the Tweets per minute. But before addressing overall fan sentiment toward each team, player and the nation on stage, President Obama coach and watched each change with every bad shared his win in a now infamous Tweet play or touchdown. Interestingly, we’ve seen direct captioned: “Four more years.” correlations between vocal fans rooting for their team on social media and winning teams. Perhaps social media represents a new era of the “home team advantage,” where the most dedicated fans give their team an extra boost when it really matters.

4 3 Uses for Social Media Command Centers to Improve Newsrooms

Political Social Campaign Given its fast-paced connective nature, social media Creating an effective social media strategy for tool. It supports millions around the world in raising political campaigns has become an essential part survivors, while supplementing new sources and supplying information. political candidates put more emphasis on social, the The American Red Cross Digital Operations Center public relies more on these channels for party and is used to monitor and respond to over 70,000 campaign information and updates. disasters every year. During Hurricane Sandy, their team of 23 volunteers and staffers effectively listened Predicting Elections and Tracking Public to 2.5M Sandy related mentions, tagging about Sentiment around Issues 45,000 of them for on the ground follow up. Gone are the days when emergency systems and news During several national elections, like the U.S. 2012 Election and Australia’s 2013 Election, HootSuite launched social media command centers to monitor When Hurricane Sandy trended on the East conversations. Tracking candidate and party Coast, a 7.7M earthquake sent tsunami warnings performance with trending hashtags, analytics of along the West Coast of North America. However, mentions, Facebook like-comparisons and ever- Emergency Info BC’s Twitter handle did not changing sentiment charts, provided an interesting Tweet out warnings for 39 minutes - long after indicator of the campaign results. Likewise, American authorities. Although no one was visualizing how many mentions one party leader hurt, Canadian emergency authorities have had over the other and how positive or negative the Twitter sentiment has helped us predict leading response times in a crisis. party candidates. During disasters and crises, news now spreads Monitoring voter sentiment provides an important as follows: glimpse into the opinions and feelings of voters. During campaigning, if a candidate is caught in Citizen journalists, news outlets and authorities a scandal or a controversial debate, newsrooms share the news on social channels. can monitor real-time public sentiment changes as shock-waves ripple across the Twittersphere. and other major social channels. Using Social Media Command the affected areas. Centers in a Crisis

Humans are no strangers to disasters and crises. Yet, some news and disaster response teams are slow to realize social media’s potential to save lives and distribute widespread information quickly.

5 3 Uses for Social Media Command Centers to Improve Newsrooms

Visualize Social Trends for Broadcast 24% use social media to let loved ones know they are save. Whether regional or global, as a crisis unfolds, information needs to be relevant, timely, pointed, Every step from preparation to aid and support can informative, sensitive and trustworthy. For these be followed along on social channels. reasons, it is important for newsrooms to track the associated keywords, mentions and hashtags and stay one-step-ahead of the latest updates. To best Track Issues by Region organize these hashtags etc., news sources and Zoom-in and listen to Tweets on the ground of emergency response teams can use social media a crisis; zoom-out to hear how the world reacts command centers to effectively visualize the both and reaches out for support. By visualizing greater scope and local breakdown of the crisis. regional hashtags or keywords, such as #Japan or #Fukushima, newsrooms can track Twitter mentions Between January 12th and 14th 2010, 2.3 million Tweets were sent containing the words “Haiti” or source and other important real-time information. Or “Red Cross.” Of those, 189,024 Tweets contained track how many people are talking about and liking a the number “90999” to encourage people to text Red Facebook Page, for example Red Cross Oklahoma’s Cross and donate $10 to disaster relief. Since then, Facebook Page after Moore, Oklahoma’s recent we see “90999” trend during every disaster. Staying hurricane. on top of those trending keywords is important for updates, plus it shows the growing power and Conclusion

As thousands of people turn to social media for Pulse-Check Subject-Specific Sentiment information and to discuss trending events, elections As people prepare for the worst, endure the disaster, and crises, local and global newsrooms must be reach out for aid or support and send hope to those constantly switched on. Social media command centers provide a window into every conversation, Before, during and after a crisis like Hurricane Sandy, sentiment change and trend as it occurs. They Haiti’s earthquake or Japan’s tsunami, emotions ebb improve newsrooms by providing the tools to visualize the greater scope of every event, while keywords and hashtags, the ever-changing sentiment zooming in on public sentiment and measurable is clear. social data. HootSuite Command Center. Out of a group of crisis survivors in the United States:

37% use information on social media to buy 25% download disaster-related apps in preparation and for support. 76% use social media to contact friends and family to make sure they are safe. 6 3 Uses for Social Media Command Centers to Improve Newsrooms

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