Several stations made a call to action on “National Puppy Day” for users to submit pictures of their pooch, and the response was huge.  Thousands of images were submitted across our platform of stations.

There are several days every month that, if used creatively, can create UGC traffic. Incredible kid day, Earth day, best friend’s day and grandparent’s day are just a few that could work.

This is a great way to generate interest in your Cell Journalist sites when breaking news or severe weather isn’t striking.

Tips:

• Promote on air and online in the days before
• Use a widget to showcase that content on your homepage
• Pick days with wide appeal to your market

Links:

• List of holidays: theultimateholidaysite.com
• The value of purpose driven UGC: http://www.celljournalist.com/blog/purpose-driven-ugc-2/

This week’s ‘tip of the week’ comes from KENS-TV in San Antonio, TX. The station, like many stations across the country, makes it a priority to use UGC on the air, for a wide range of stories. From breaking news, big national stories, lighthearted pacers and even birthdays and beauty shots, the station uses the Cell Journalist on-air application to show content in many of their newscasts.

This helps reinforce the station’s email address to their viewers and is also a way to get fresh content on air, quickly and professionally. So when the big story does happen, viewers know where to turn and newsrooms know how to get their content on-air.

Tips:

• Teach all producers and assignment desk editors how to build on air playlists. Every scheduled newscast should have one or two people trained in case a big story breaks.
• Promote the station email address. Have it built into the on-air graphic and use it as an anchor tag to breaking news and weather coverage.
• Create an email just for birthdays that will filter into your Cell Journalist account and go to a specific channel.

Links:

Signing up: http://support.celljournalist.com/entries/20966268-on-air-app-signup

Other examples: http://support.celljournalist.com/entries/20944866-on-air-theme-examples

This week’s tip of the week comes from WTVF in Nashville. With the recent timeline format change for Facebook pages, WTVF decided to launch a cover photo contest. The station asked its users to email in their best “cover photos” to the station’s Cell Journalist site. So far the station has received dozens of photos and has published a few as the cover photo to its page.

Tips:

• Remember to specify photo guidelines to your audience so photo will work as your cover photo - http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=251882344850421#What-if-the-image…?
• Setup a channel on your Cell Journalist site to accept these photos. You can either link from your Facebook page to that channel or instruct users to upload via email. Have them specify “cover” in the subject line and then setup a keyword on your Cell Journalist site to map that content into the appropriate channel - http://support.celljournalist.com/entries/20965523-channels-keywords

Links:

• Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/newschannel5
• Cover Photo Gallery: http://my5.newschannel5.com/ChannelGallery.aspx?c=7428

 TruVu Max and WeatherActive Suite

Cell Journalist Tool Enables Quick, Easy Upload of Viewer Generated Pictures and Videos to Station from Mobile Applications

Andover, MA, April 4, 2012 – WSI (Weather Services International) today announced that it had integrated Cell Journalist’s mobile application into WSI TruVu Max and WSI WeatherActive Mobile suite of applications (for iPad2, iPhone and Android).  The Cell Journalist program provides a fast and simple way to share user-generated content (UGC) from mobile devices to station web sites and digital systems.

WSI will be demonstrating the application at the WSI Booth #SL6313, Hall S1, at the 2012 NAB Show, Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, April 16-19.

To view how the application works go to http://wsi.wistia.com/m/Pj3WLo   (2:58).

As the leading provider of superior weather data and graphics systems for the majority of US broadcast and cable networks, WSI now also makes it very easy for viewers to contribute pictures and videos  to their local stations in seconds.  The new capability within TruVu Max also provides a rapid, organized means for broadcast meteorologists to incorporate new, local content and breaking weather news onto station web sites and into weather broadcasts without having to exit the TruVu application.

“The Cell Journalist implementation enables us to air new photos from viewers every day, increasing our station-viewer engagement,” said Debbie Bush, VP and GM, KOLD-TV Tucson.  “It also provides us with easy access to more content flowing into the station and the ability to get breaking weather pictures and videos on the air very quickly. “

How It Works

Using Cell Journalist, viewers can upload new or archived photos and videos to a station in seconds.  From their iPad2, IPhone or Android devices, viewers can access their local station’s weather application, scroll to the submit section, open a short fill-in window and hit “submit”.  Within seconds, their data is uploaded to a file within the WSI TruVu Max application.  Broadcasters can then access the uploaded picture or video file from within TruVu Max and move the content to the station’s viewer gallery and/or drag it into the queue for on-air use.

“The Cell Journalist tool offers an effortless and immediate solution for both viewers and broadcasters.  When a viewer wants to share a weather-related picture or video, it’s a quick select and submit process from his or her mobile device.  There’s no need to use a home computer for a station submission,” said Bill Dow Vice President and General Manger of WSI’s Media Division.  “For TruVu Max broadcasters, Cell Journalist provides easy access to a greater number of potentially compelling photos/videos for broadcast and an additional monetization tool.  The Cell Journalist program workflow makes it easy to get viewer-generated, urgent weather photos and videos on air, even under the tightest of deadlines.”

“Combining Cell Journalist capabilities with WSI’s world-class weather applications will help stations add more local content to their web sites and be more competitive by telling a better, timelier, weather story on air,” said Parker Polidor, Cell Journalist CEO.  “The Cell Journalist-WSI partnership is truly a winning solution for broadcasters.  We, at Cell Journalist, are thrilled to be working with WSI.”

To learn more about the new WSI- Cell Journalist partnership, contact Steve Ward, WSI Vice President, Global Media Sales & Business Development, at sward@wsi.com and 203-767-2285. Or, during the NAB Show, contact Parker Polidor, Cell Journalist CEO, at 802-345-4046 and at the Cell Journalist Hospitality Suite Encore Hotel, Las Vegas.

About WSI Corporation

WSI is the most trusted source of weather information across the globe.  WSI is recognized as the world’s leading source of professional on-air weather systems and forecasting tools for television.  More of America’s leading broadcasting and cable companies choose WSI than any other weather provider.  WSI is a member of The Weather Channel Companies and is headquartered in Andover, Massachusetts with offices in Birmingham, England.  The Weather Channel Companies are owned by a consortium made up of NBC Universal and the private equity firms The Blackstone Group and Bain Capital.  For more information, please visit www.wsi.com

About Cell Journalist

Cell Journalist, LLC is based in Nashville, Tenn.  It is the leading application of its kind for media outlets seeking images and videos of breaking news, weather and community events.  Clients include:  Cox, Scripps, Raycom, Belo, Barrington, ABC, Fox and others.  For more information about Cell Journalist, visit http://www.celljournalist.com

Contacts:

Linda Maynard

Weather Services International

1-978-983-6715

lmaynard@wsi.com

Parker Polidor

Cell Journalist

615.469.4411

info@celljournalist.com

Editorial Contact:

Barbara Rudolph

Rudolph Communications, LLC

1-781-229-1811

bjr@rudolphcommunications.com

More than 10,000 submissions were sent to Cell Journalist as a result of the storms. Those submissions, which were turned into online slideshows, widgets, social media shares and on air content, were viewed millions of times across the country and around the world. Stations who have enabled our on air application were able to get new photos and videos on the air during their 5-10 hour live weather coverage to help show their viewers what’s happening across their viewing area.

Newsrooms with the most success bringing in user generated content made clear, concise calls to viewers for their images and video. Those stations, in turn, will gain the most viewer loyalty when it comes to content submissions and storm coverage.

Brand recognition of your email address is made when the big story isn’t happening.  One of the most successful ways of doing this is with segment bumps.  Simple bumps with beauty shots or contest entries used with a banner that advertises your email address or an anchor call-to-action is a great way to reinforce that web address.  With that constantly being reinforced, the viewer will think of your station before the others when the ‘big story’ strikes.  In fact, more than 60% of our content is emailed in and the number is even higher during breaking news and severe weather.

We challenge news outlets to come up with new, innovative ways to promote the Cell Journalist platform on air and online.

Here is a list of a few we’ve seen successfully work:

• On air call to action during severe weather or breaking news
• Weathercast pictures of sunset / storm damage / other weather pictures
• Visible link on homepage to UGC photos and video of the day.
• Promoting the email address and having a strong call to action on social media outlets

The station that has the best brand marketing when the big event isn’t happening will win the big event when it does.

We’re excited to see how we can help the audience share their story as we continue to integrate into the station’s online, on air, and mobile products.

Stay up to date with Cell Journalist news by following us on Twitter – twitter.com/celljournalist

Thanks to all our customers for there support and business. We hope that the soon to be released features and integrations will provide even more value to you and your audience. As you plan for 2012, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

Colin Polidor – Product Integration
colin@celljournalistinc.com

Steve Sabato – Sales/Newsroom Integration
steve@celljournalistinc.com

Parker Polidor – Sales/Newsroom Integration
parker@celljournalistinc.com

Thursday October 20, 2011.

So I turned on the tube about 7:30am CST, and there it was…not exactly the Mo’s most flattering close up….but the one he’ll be remembered for.
My first reaction, this is good….one less bad guy to deal with…my second…UGC gets the scoop again….the images and videos leading all the cable news channels that morning were captured on cell phones, not by professional journalists.

Watching MSM’s dependence on UGC to visualize this historic moment provided a graphic validation of the fact that Breaking News coverage, especially in the minutes and hours after a big story breaks, has becoming increasingly dependent on the timely Acquisition, Management and Display of Social Media.

As the day went on, the amount of content coming into the news networks increased. Video as well as pictures were being broadcast and a second editorial storyline began to emerge.
Some of this stuff is really, really graphic. Where’s the line?

By mid afternoon the challenge was no longer getting stuff…Acquisition, the challenge had become the ability to moderate what was appropriate for mass audiences as opposed to the disturbing unedited clips that looked more like scenes from a snuff flick than a newscast.
One would like to think that somebody…say perhaps a professional journalist, actually approves this stuff before it goes on the air. Depending on which station you’re watching, you might be surprised to know how few people see UGC before it goes to air and how little time is spent evaluating content.

When dramatic spikes in content acquisition occur, having fast, easy to use content management tools is critical. This includes moderation, curation, and display features that save producers valuable time which allows them to spend more time on editorial decisions like what content is appropriate for air and strategic decisions about multi platform distribution to the Internet, mobile and digital sub-channels.

We’ve got plenty of stuff; now let’s make sure we use it intelligently.

It was nice to see so many old friends attending RTDNA in what will hopefully be the beginning of a viable return to conference independence from NAB.

Truth be told, the event was a mere shadow of the glory days of yore when the entire Convention Center was filled, Affiliate Relation’s swag flowed, and the budget for the CNN bash was only slightly less than a Hollywood Studio premier after-party.

That was then… the good news now; they put the D in RTNA. Digital technology, Social Media, Mobile…that was the buzz. on the floor.

For the first time in several years, layoffs, budget cuts and “I can’t wait to retire” were not the whispered headlines I heard. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t call it a chorus crescendo of glee, but it was nice to hear lots of positive ideas and see a level of confidence that TV News is well positioned for the future in the rapidly evolving Digital Communications world.

I doubt RTDNA will ever fill the Convention Center again, but heck, who needs it? Sat-trucks are being replaced with WiFi, you can edit on a laptop, and camera-phone carrying Vox Populi shooting UGC are your new freelancers.