Tools to Help You Tap Into Your Inner JournoGeek

By Benét J. Wilson, immediate past chair, NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force & social media/eNewsletters editor, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association

Earlier today, DJTF Co-Chair Kiratiana Freelon and I did a presentation – Tools to Help You Tap Into Your Inner JournoGeek   – at the NABJ Region 1 conference. We went pretty fast, so below are some of the tools I highlighted.

1. Storify – a storytelling tool that uses Tweets, Instagram/Flickr, YouTube, Facebook and links to tell a story. You can see the stories done by NABJDigital here.
2. HootSuite – I use this tool to handle my myriad Twitter accounts. I love that I can use HootSuite on my laptop or as an app on my iPhone and iPad. I can shorten links, schedule tweets and keep up with up to five accounts for free.
3. SoundNote ($4.99) – this iPad app allows you to take notes and record at the same time. And if you need to check on something that was said, just tap a word and the recording goes right to that section.
4. RebelMouse – this curation tool calls itself “your social front page.”  It allows you to connect your social media accounts, including  Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram and show it off on a beautiful page. The feed can be embedded int websites. Check out my RebelMouse page here. And see how Al Jazeera America used it for a series on fast-food workers here.
5. Timeline JS – this is a simple to use, yet striking timeline creator. You can use media including Twitter, Flickr, Google Maps, YouTube, Vimeo, Vine, Dailymotion, Wikipedia, SoundCloud and other things to power your timeline. The Denver Post used Timeline JS as part of their coverage of the Aurora movie theater shootings.
6.  Flipboard/Pocket – If you are a news junkie and have an iPad or iPhone, you need to have Flipboard. This app allows you to create a customized digital magazine of your favorite publications and blogs. Mine is a mix of journalism, tech and aviation/airline stuff. If you want to save a story to read later offline, save it on the Pocket app.
7. iTalk (free or $1.99 for Premium) – we all know the built-in iPhone recorder is crap. iTalk allows you to record at good, better and best levels, with no time limits. With the free version, you can email smaller files, but need to download a program on your laptop to upload larger files. With the paid version, you can send the file to Dropbox or share it on SoundCloud.
8. iPrompt Pro – this is a great app for multimedia journalists because it turns your iPad or iPhone into a teleprompter (although I don’t recommend it for the iPhone).
9. Clear Watermark ($1.99)/Text on Photo – Both of these apps allow you to apply a watermark on your photos or video while out in the field.
10. Apps Gone Free – every day, this app offers for free between 4 and 10 apps. Be warned – you will see a lot of crap (photo editing productivity, games, to-do lists, etc.), but there will be some gems. I found SoundNotes, iPromptPro and Clear Watermark wth this app.