Two quick social media anecdotes

There was a bomb threat at a Pennsylvania high school recently:

Sydney Fuhrman, managing editor of the online edition of The Prowler, said students were confused when an announcement was made that the building would be evacuated because of a bomb threat and to follow the fire drill routine.

“…We had never experienced this before,” she said.

Students turn to social media when something happens (emphasis –ed), and Fuhrman and Kristen Shipley, editor-in-chief of On the Prowl, the school’s entertainment magazine, began tweeting the news through @CYHSProwler.

They reported as the students moved from the football stadium to the baseball field and finally to the soccer field. They reminded everyone to remain calm. They informed students about when they could return to the school building to retrieve their belongings.

The student journalists also tweeted pictures from the scene and interacted with those on Twitter. They responded to questions, saying they would seek answers if they didn’t know.

That bolded part … does that sound like something you would do? Your friends? Now thinking of that same scenario as a student-journalist, where does your community go in a time like that? Shouldn’t you be reporting to your audience at that place (wherever it is) too?

Newspapers are Instagrammers:

Newspapers haven’t flocked to Instagram the way they have to Facebook and Twitter. Which makes sense. Instagram, unlike the other platforms, can’t drive people back to the site because the photo-sharing platform doesn’t embed live links. Also, they can forget about monetizing.

Still, some papers that do real journalism (and are looking to attract real readers) are on the photo sharing site, if only to have another venue to showcase their occasionally stellar photography – or, at the very least, remind the digital kids that they still exist.

What’s the best way for you to use Instagram? Twitter? Vine? Facebook?

Are your answers different? They should be.