Social: 10 of the most shared stories of the week from the Regional Press

Sometimes, looking at what gets shared most frequently on social media gives you an insight into life you perhaps weren’t expecting. For all the rolling of eyes you get from ex-journalists, academics and keyboard warriors about using audience data, that data is often very revealing. Take Kodi boxes. Kodi what? A set-top streaming box which,

Social: The local news stories which got people talking

Every week, millions – yes, millions – of people get news and information from the local Press via social media. And that makes the local Press every bit as important to local life as it ever was. But what were the stories that really got people talking? Using various data tools, this list looks at

2016: Some of the people who helped shape regional journalism

If there’s one thing journalism doesn’t need going into 2017, it’s another clutch of gongs. For an industry which is constantly facing negative headlines (often understandable, of course), we still do a great job of celebrating our achievements. And if you cut beyond the headlines and the punditry, there is a lot to celebrate despite

Maybe the solution to fake news lives on our sports desks

Many millions of words have been written about the scourge of fake news, and I’ve some bad news: I’m about to offer a few hundred more. But hopefully they will convey a point which hasn’t been discussed up until now. Fake News isn’t new. The impact Fake News has had (if it can be proven)

The currency of endorsement (or why Facebook likes matter)

Every month, brands within the company I work for, Trinity Mirror, publish the number of followers they have on Facebook and Twitter, along with unique browser data. Every month, the data is picked up by the trade press, including sites such as Hold the Front Page, and reported in a straight-down-the-middle sort of way. And

Digital Journalism Trends in 2016: Why audience engagement holds the key to a thriving future

Audience engagement is one of those phrases which makes a lot of eyes roll. ‘Just let us get on with the journalism’ is one response I’ve heard a few times. It’s an understandable response, but if there is one thing which is going to determine the winners from the losers in the brand race to

Digital journalism trends in 2016: From social newsgathering to social journalism

This is the first in a series of posts between now and the end of the year looking at key themes I think will emerge during the course of 2016. It takes a foolhardy journalist not to be familiar with Twitter or Facebook these days. There are probably very few journalists who haven’t written a

For all the wisdom of how to do ‘social media’, surely only 4 rules are needed to keep out of trouble

This post popped up in my Facebook feed this morning, shared by a friend: As social media posts go on behalf of an organisation, it probably deserves a place in presentations about how to get it right. It makes a serious point, is written in a friendly, engaging manner and achieves the right balance of

Try it Tuesday: Loci

The aim of Try It Tuesday – if it can be as bold as an aim – is to share a tool a week which might be useful to journalists. It might be new, it might be old but forgotten, or it might be somewhere inbetween. It’ll be something I’ve found useful though and one

No, the 2015 general election was not the social media election

One of the many predications given ahead of the 2015 general election was that it was going to be ‘the social media election.’ Similar predictions were made in 2010, but in hindsight it really wasn’t. But what about 2015? I suppose it depends how you define what it would it would take to remember a general