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If you’ve been reading the headlines, you already know that KCFreePress is going through a lot of changes.  We’ve lost four amazing staffers and are currently in the process of trying to figure out what our next steps are. I’ve been answering a lot of questions from friends and industry contacts about what some of these changes mean for me.

Answer: More than I can explain in one blog post.

As one of two full-time staffers on board at KCFreePress, I’m doing more than I ever expected and learning lots.  One of the big areas where I’ve been filling in is with defining the site’s social media strategy.  KCFreePress has been on Twitter for quite some time and has a Facebook page that boasts nearly 2,000 fans.

But numbers aren’t enough.  If you want to make an impact on the Web, you have to do more, work smarter (not harder), build relationships and make your brand meaningful for everyone you come into contact with.

I’ve been behind the helm of our social media operations for just a few weeks, and I’m already making big changes with how we are building a robust community through social media. Here are a few tips I’ve learned while using Twitter, both on my personal account, and now as the voice behind @KCFreePress.  Follow us and say hi.

Define what you want to get out of your social media strategy

You can’t track your results without a goal in sight, so treat your social media strategy the same way.  This section is largely for those who are managing social media for news organizations, but could also be applied to a personal account.

Do a little soul-searching. What do you want to get out of social media?

• Is it more trust in your brand?
• Do you want to drive more page hits to your site?
• Are you looking to find more sources in the community?
• Do you want to keep an eye on the competition?

No matter what your stated goal is, make sure your key objective is in mind.

My biggest goal for KCFreePress’s social media strategy is to start a conversation. So if you’re following us, you’ll see some links to the content on our site. But mostly, you’ll be able to watch us engage with the nearly 2,000 people in the Kansas City area who have chosen to follow us.  I also frequently announce on Twitter when one of our staffers will be at an event.  Last week, I attended a local Social Media Day meetups and met several people I’d connected with through our site’s Twitter account.  (Remember, conversations don’t have to stay on the Web.)

Don’t be shy, speak up

Increased social media by news organizations means newsrooms are more like fishbowls.  That’s right. You’re being watched.

If you’re a reporter on Twitter or Facebook, expect that at least one source you’ll encounter this month is following your activity or has Googled you.  That means they see when you’re whining about not wanting to go to that early-morning interview or meeting, they read your apathy loud and clear.

If you’re just getting into the social media game, your first instinct is probably to protect your Twitter account, meticulously comb through Facebook friend requests and sterilize your online identity as much as possible.

Find out who’s following you and why they’ve chosen you.  Did they like an article you recently posted? Are you funny, sarcastic or informational? Are they in your six degrees of separation?

After you know who’s following you and why, cultivate that relationship. Ask questions.  Retweet relevant content.  Start conversations. Answer questions.  No one wants to read a Twitter feed full of links to your recent stories and nothing else.

Don’t be afraid to have a personality. Some of my favorite accounts to follow are memorable because they’re not generic.  Take the Austin American-Statesman as an example. The Statesman’s social media editor Rob Quigley definitely gets the news across, but he does it in an engaging, conversational way that keeps me interested.  I interned at the Statesman in 2009 and am still following their main account because I can usually count on a good laugh or a news story that’s relevant to me, even though I’m now living in Kansas City.

People are more likely to interact with you if they know you’re out there, that you care what they have to say and you’re not afraid to respond to them.

Don’t overload your followers

A few of the news organizations I follow are way too predictable in their social media use.  I can pinpoint a certain hour (usually 8 a.m., noon or midnight) and expect a host of posts. They’re usually top headlines or a collection of blog posts from the day.  It’s also one of the quickest ways to convince me to unfollow your organization, no matter how big of a fan I might be.

Studies and some informal crowd-sourcing suggest that Twitter users don’t like to be overwhelmed and don’t respond well to mass delivery of content on Twitter.  Think about it. If you’re a mom and you’ve got five kids screaming all at once, there’s no way to pay a lot of attention to all of them at the same time.

The same goes for social media.  Spread your content out during the day.  If you’re a social media manager or in charge of your site’s strategy, encourage reporters to use Twitter as they’re posting content to the Web.  Don’t save it for later; chances are, someone else at a competing news organization’s already on the story.

Link, link link

Part of operating a news organization (print, broadcast, online) in a new media mindset means you have to get over the concept that links are bad. Sure, it’s great to link to your own content to keep page views within the site, but there’s no shame in acknowledging related stories, data or information on other sites.

Mashable recently quoted Reuters blogger Felix Salmon, who makes a great point about the great link debate:

“[W]hat’s more depressing still is that even the bloggers at the [New York Times] and [Wall Street Journal] are link-phobic, often preferring to re-report stories found elsewhere, giving no credit to the people who found and reported them first. It’s almost as though they think that linking to a story elsewhere is an admission of defeat, rather than a prime reason why people visit blogs in the first place.

It’s dishonest and a little archaic to not give credit where credit’s due, given the heightened level of transparency in today’s newsrooms. There’s this idea that linking means “giving traffic away”.  While I get that hesitation, I’m more inclined to believe that links give audiences a fuller picture and add to their understanding of your story, and that should really be the end goal.

Acknowledge your mistakes

As KCFreePress has been going through some growing pains, we’re also learning from a couple mistakes we’ve made along the way.

I edited an opinion piece last week by columnist Matt Henry.  Since it was an opinion piece, and I don’t believe in heavily editing op-ed content, I stuck to the basics – cleaning up the spelling and grammar and adding hyperlinks to other relevant stories.  We missed a big error in the subhead of the story, where the author incorrectly identified Texas Rep. Joe Barton as Indiana Rep. Dan Burton.  Someone called us out on the error in the comments, and we immediately published it.

In the age of Web publishing, it’s all too easy to sweep a mistake like that under the rug and fail to acknowledge when you do something wrong. After all, the average reader isn’t going to pull up the cached version of your site or look for a deleted tweet. That said, the Web means transparency is more important than ever before.

What did we do when we got it wrong? We acknowledged it.  Matt graciously owned up to the error in the comments field of the piece, and I individually chatted with several readers who contacted me via my personal Twitter account or email.

No one likes to get it wrong. But when you do, try to make sure you make it right.

Don’t spread yourself too thin

This tip is specifically for journalists working at startups who, like me, are probably juggling any number of unrelated tasks.  You can’t do it all, so do one or two things extremely well.

There’s no need to jump into every social media platform you see. By attempting to cast a wide net with no depth, you’ll likely lose parts of your audience.  Pick a starting point that makes sense for your community.  If people in your area aren’t on Twitter yet, perhaps that’s not the way to go.  Before you jump into social media, take a good look at who you want to reach and where they’re already engaging on the Web.  Your answers are already out there.

At KCFreePress, we haven’t really gotten into location-based social media like Gowalla and Foursquare, though it could be in the pipeline later. What we do know is that Kansas City is home to a lot of news-hungry Twitter users and that our lifestyle content seems to resonate more with Facebook users.  With these things in mind, we’ve been able to tailor our strategy so we have the most meaningful engagement possible.

Throughout the day, I tweet news updates, even if we’re not planning to cover a story extensively and I monitor independent news blogs throughout the metro area for things that local media might be missing. Meanwhile, on Facebook, I plug our events calendar, arts and music content more and work with our other staffers to make our page a hub for arts-seekers and people looking for weekend plans to engage with us.