One of the first stories I wrote for Poynter.org was about Twitter. At the time — September 2007 — The New York Times had about 400 followers. Now it has nearly 5 million. After I wrote the story, I got emails and Facebook messages from journalists who said I was promoting a tool that would never have journalistic implications.
A lot has changed since then.
As managing director of the media nonprofit Images & Voices of Hope and an affiliate at The Poynter Institute, I use Twitter every day and follow the media’s use of it. As time allows, I also teach about it.
I’ve taught sessions on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Storify, Tumblr and Cover it Live to journalists from around the world who come to the institute for more training. My sessions typically focus on how journalists can use these social media tools to improve their reporting and expand their reach.
The skills I teach could easily apply to people in other professions who are looking to start a social media presence — or build an already robust one. (When teaching social media to large groups of people, you have to learn how to accommodate everyone’s wide-ranging skill sets!)
I’ve taught sessions for various schools and organizations, including:
- The Poynter Institute
- Yale University
- Kent State University
- Case Western University
- Automotive News
- Crain’s Detroit Business
- The Freedom Forum — for the Chips Quinn Scholarship program
- The Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists
I regularly do social media consulting. If you’d like to contact me for consulting purposes, please email me at mjtenore@gmail.com.
Word on the Street 