Bleacher Report’s new Social Media Guidelines

Social media is an important tool. We talk a lot on this blog about the different ways you can use social media for discovery, curation, reporting, brand-building and to enhance your stories.

We also talk about best practices to avoid running into various kinds of trouble. As with any tool that can be used for good, social media can also be a source of pain.

Bleacher Report has posted new Social Media Guidelines, a guide for writers to get the most out of social media without running into trouble. The introduction puts it well: “Given the razor-thin margin between success and failure in the sportswriting business, you can’t afford to forgo the upside dividends any more than you can afford to pay the downside price.”

The guidelines take the form of laying out “4 Habits of Highly Effective Social Operators.” Here they are:

1. Anticipate Every Risk
2. Explore Every Opportunity
3. Follow Every Rule
4. Earn Every Follower

I don’t want to get into the details here because I’m hoping you’ll take the few minutes required to go read the guidelines.

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Note: The B/R Blog will be on hiatus until Nov. 10.