The 7 Social Media Habits of

Highly Effective Health

Reporters

Road-tested tools and strategies to

make must-read health reporting
easier to do—and more fun.

Laura McClure 1.22.2011

Laura McClure, New Media Editor
Mother Jones magazine, San Francisco
phone: (415) 321-1741 | email: lmcclure@motherjones.com
Twitter: @motherjones , @lauramccluremj

Laura McClure is Mother Jones' new media editor, where she guides daily digital content.
In addition to editing front page politics, youth, and culture-related stories on tight
deadlines, she works closely with MoJo's tech director and editors-in-chief to successfully
establish the award-winning magazine in new media territories. Since her hire in
2008, Motherjones.com has created Twitter and Tumblr magazine alter egos, broken all
previous website traffic records, been redesigned and relaunched, forged groundbreaking
digital journalistic collaborations, created online forums, slideshows, video, and podcasts,
and been lauded for its website content by the Online News Association, the American
Society of Magazine Editors, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Webby Awards,
and more.

When not blogging, editing, or pioneering on the new media frontier, Laura writes
magazine features like this one—part of a National Magazine Award-winning print issue
of Mother Jones—and occasionally reports on post-war health and human rights issues in
Africa, most recently from Liberia as a 2010 International Reporting Project Editor.

A returned Peace Corps Volunteer (West Africa), two-time USC Annenberg Health
Journalism Fellow, and alumna of Carnegie Mellon University, Laura is a web-native
magazine editor who learned to love code while working at Salon.com as an award-
1) Social media is like flossing. You don't have to
like it, you just have to do it. Every day.
2) It's easier to fit social media into your day if you
work toward a goal and team up with a buddy.
3) Two platforms you can now ignore.
4) Explore these platforms instead.
ReportingonHealth, AHCJ, WebMD,
other health communities: Naturally.
Twitter: Aphorism generator; iterative
reporting tool, water cooler for influential
journalists. Stats, quotes.
Facebook: Evil, but helpful for story
promotion and keeping tabs on
youngsters, tea partiers, and memes.
Huffington Post: All hail Arianna, the
fairy godmother of page views to
important stories.
Stumbleupon: Good web traffic
generator. Make sure to "disco" each
photo in your slideshows.
Linked In: Professionals, experts. Good
for finding contact and bio info for story
sources.
You Tube & Vimeo: Useful for finding
online images or researching stories.
MetaFilter: "Ask MeFi," Big, smart,
online community.
Tumblr: Skews young. Good home
for images, quotes, or research
odds and ends that didn't make it
into your piece.
BoingBoing, Neatorama:
Techies/artists.
Etsy.com, Threadless: Indie
artists/toy/shirt creators. Good for
trend research, sources.
Fark, Reddit: Great for audience.
Foursquare, GoWalla: Geo-
location based. Look for the mayor,
tips, business trends.
Care2, Change.org: Community
committed to causes.
Amazon.com health community,
GroupOn: Explore in 2011.
Townhall.com, Drudge Report,
Fox News, or any comment thread
of a site you personally disagree
with: Useful for reporting, quotes.
Spanish, community media,
hyperlocal online sites.
5) If you have to pick only one social media
platform to focus on, make it Twitter. Why?

A) Because it's a great way to make friends, influence

people, and impress future bosses/editors/sources.
B) Because it's the easiest way to get your writing into the
Library of Congress.
C) Because it's the fastest way to amplify and extend the
reach of a story or topic you care about.
D) Because influential people or sources who ignore your
emails will sometimes respond to you on Twitter.
E) Because 10 minutes on Twitter can improve your mood
and make you feel more alert.
F) All of the above.
6) Don't be this guy:
Dear @lauramccluremj, I have a lengthy story pitch for you
[Story pitch follows in 144 character increments]
Dear colleagues, I no longer communicate in Meat Space.
My hashtags lack skill and I promote only
@my_own_stories on Twitter.
My tweets use all 144 characters, making it impossible for
you to retweet me without extra effort on your part.
I now use phrases like: "I'll Skype you after I disco that
story on Stumble and tweet the su.pr link, cubicle mate."
I'm not careful when tweeting in "iterative reporting mode."

BE THESE GUYS:
@charlesornstein
@MacMcClelland @kate_sheppard @susanorlean @motherjo
nes @mariancw
@SuzyKhimm @DavidCornDC @kanyewest
7) Practice Laura McClure's Launchpad Method
WEDNESDAY
0) Read the following steps. Prepare for takeoff.
THURSDAY
1. Create a Posterous blog and set it up to automatically send a portion of your newly
published blog posts to your Twitter and Facebook accounts.
2. Create Twitter, Stumbleupon, and LinkedIn accounts using your real name if you
haven't already; adjust your bio.
3. Commit to blogging once a day, 5x/wk, for 3 months.
4. Write and publish your first short Posterous blog post, which will automagically appear
on your Twitter/FB feeds if you set it up. Remember: Photo, link, direct quote, catchy
headline.
5. Set up TweetDeck, Tweetie, Hootsuite, or whatever dashboard you prefer.
FRIDAY
1. Promote a colleague's story on Twitter using direct quotes, topical wit, and/or fewer
than 144 characters. Check Topsy for retweets.
2. Spend 10 minutes on Twitter participating in #followfriday, linking to stories you like,
following people you're genuinely interested in, creating lists, reading what interesting
people are linking to, and engaging (wittily and nicely) with folks on Twitter.
3. Thank people who follow you or retweet your links.
4. Draft three aphorism-like tweets for your next story.
5. Spend 5 minutes gathering string on a story idea through Twitter search, quotes,
source outreach, trending topics, and who you follow.
6. Extra credit: Spend 10 minutes exploring 1 other social media community you're
interested in.