In the world of presidential politics, Iowa goes first. Which also means the Des Moines Register goes first – first to test out latest digital tools in its caucus coverage.

I asked Register Digital Editor Julia Thompson to reflect on how some of those tools worked out on caucus night.

1. Storify

Storify is a curation/aggregation tool that lets you bring together content from various social networks and websites into one edited feed – and then embed it on your website (the photo shows the Register’s Storify on its Caucus site).

The Register used storify to aggregate mostly tweets from voters and reporters throughout the night. Here’s the result.

My take: I guess it just never dawned on my that you could create a storify and keep updating it through the day and night. The tool just keeps impressing me.

Julia’s take: We had nearly 4,000 views on our Storify. We haven’t used Storify a ton to know if that’s a decent number, but I do know that some other Gannett properties embedded the story, so that helped its reach.

2. Twitter feed

The Register pulled in a feed of Iowa caucus related tweets on the right side of the home page. At any given time, you’d see 3-4 tweets on the home page.

This is nothing hugely new, but certainly not something we were seeing last caucus cycle.

My take: Not a lot of value here to me. The Register just pulled in every tweet that mentioned the caucus, so the odds of getting one that actually had meaning were slim (see the first and third tweet in the photo – what value does that bring to the home page?). An improvement might be to just show tweets from a pre-selected list of reporters and citizens.

Julia’s take: With the Twitter feed incorporated with the rest of our home-page coverage, I think that gave the topper a feeling of constantly being updated and also that our coverage was more participatory. However, it was one more moving piece to keep an eye on that, in hindsight, might not have been worth it. The curated approach of Storify, in general, seems to be a more valuable addition to coverage for our readers.

Mobile app

The Register created an iPhone app that included articles, event listings, candidate info and live results on caucus night.

My take: I used the app while out and about on caucus night, and I used it to read about candidates and decide which I would vote for. It did seem like the app stopped getting new article updates on caucus night (Update: The Register’s Matt Heeren tells me this was due to some server issues on Caucus night). And I do wish they would have made some money from the app – either by charging for it or through sponsorship.

Julia’s take: We got great reviews of the app and doubled our downloads on caucus day. With live results enabled and push notifications, we were able to get news and results out to people quickly, which in this late-called race was imperative.

Partnerships

In this day of smaller staffs, it only makes sense to partner where you can. The Register pulled in live video from a local TV station as results were coming in.

My take: Smart. My only wish was that the video feed did not auto-play on the home page. Or at least didn’t play the sound automatically.

Julia’s take: We partnered where it made sense. We looked to WHO-HD for live video of candidate speeches, which were incorporated in the TV station’s live broadcast. Since we didn’t duplicate efforts there, it allowed us to focus on better photos and edited video elsewhere.

I know several “print” designers who have yet to take the leap into web design. Heck, I doubt some of them ever will.

Even if they never decide to learn HTML and CSS, there is an easy way for print designers to make their company’s better: Infographics.

Yes, those same beautiful infographics you create for print can work online. They don’t have to be interactive to share valuable information in a visual format.

I’ve noticed an increase in print-style infographics on websites for the past year (I now even teach this in my print design class). Here are some examples (click for the full graphic):

There you have it. No more excuse for print designers to avoid adding content to the website.

Want to gain more Facebook Likes? Strike a deal with one of your rivals.

That’s what the University of Iowa and the University of Nebraska did in connection with their Nov. 25 football game (the schools’ first meeting since Nebraska joined the Big Ten Conference).

On Aug. 18, the University of Iowa challenged Nebraska to see who could get more Facebook Likes before kickoff of their game.

Iowa won the contest, but both schools clearly won big. Iowa increased from 15,052 Facebook Likes to 51,833. Nebraska climbed from 18,718 to 51,250.

You can see from the chart that each school saw a huge change in from their normal growth on Facebook (and has continued to see growth after the contest ended).

And because of the nature of the contest (you’re probably only going to Like a school if you really want to help it win), it’s realistic that the majority of the Likes are from people who actually want to get updates from the school.

I noticed a couple instances today where reporters did a great job using social media, and I felt it was worth pointing them out.

The first one was from Tony Leys of the Des Moines Register. Leys wrote a story about a cemetery that is still in need of work after the 2009 floods:

A concrete burial vault still protrudes from the bank near the top of the ravine. A 5-inch-high hole in the dirt shows where animals have been digging. A few yards down the steep slope, bits of rusty hardware, possibly from an old coffin, sit next to what appears to be the end of a human leg bone. A couple of pieces of other bones peek out from under fallen leaves.

What impressed me was this post from Leys in the comment area of the story:

He obviously saw the reaction the story was getting, did some more reporting, and gave readers an update right there on the original story. That’s the kind of smart use of the comments area that we don’t see enough.

• • •

The second example was WHO-HD’s Keith Murphy reacting to a post on Facebook. This one is pretty self-explanatory, but it was impressive how Murphy stood up for himself and actually got an apology from the original poster.

This is one of those cases where you are actually happy someone posted their thoughts in a public forum, so that you have a chance to respond. Part of the reason social media is such a great tool.

I was looking for a session called “The breakout technologies of the next four years – and how media companies should use them” at last week’s South By Southwest interactive conference in Austin. But apparently it was nowhere to be found.

Fair enough. I was going to have to work harder to find the next big thing in technology. After attending sessions, watching hashtags from other sessions on Twitter and simply listening to people outside of sessions, I think I walked away from Austin with a good understanding of some new and still growing technologies.

Here are my main takeaways from my very first SXSW. And what media companies should do with those technologies right now.

Group texting

This felt like the biggest emerging technology of the week, with several companies launching or competing in the group texting space.

The concept is rather simple. Create a group. Add people to the group. Communicate with the whole group at once. Users can access the info via push messages or text messages (and even group phone calls). It works with a smartphone app or via text message. So any phone will do.

The players:

• Grouped{in}
• GroupMe
• Beluga
• Fast Society
• Mogwee
• Kik
• TextPlus
• PingChat
• HurricaneParty

Early leaders: Grouped{in} seemed to have biggest presence at SXSW, but so far I’m finding GroupMe the best. Beluga was recently bought by Facebook, so that might be the one to jump on.

How media companies can use this: Create groups so you can easily send messages to your reporting teams. Also a great way for an overworked online department to quickly find the person nearest a computer when news breaks.

Location chat apps

These apps let you open a dialogue with people nearby at any given moment.

The players:

• Ask Around
• Yobongo
• Localmind
• Domo

Early leader: Ask Around is currently available everywhere. Yobongo is only is three cities (San Fran, NY and Austin).

How media companies can use this: A good place for social listening. Find out what people are really talking about during big events and breaking news situations.

Social media analytics

Any session on social media analytics or ROI was packed at SXSW. But there are clearly more questions than answers at this point.

The best advice I heard was to figure out what you are trying to accomplish with social media and then find a way to track that. The number of followers and likes you have only begins to tell the story. As with web analytics, you need to look at multiple metrics to truly tell the story of how well you are growing.

Some good tools are emerging to help you track social media. Some have been around for awhile and some are new, but there are some options.

The players (at least a few of them that came up at SXSW):

• Chartbeat
• Socialflow
• Google analytics
• Viralheat
• bit.ly – Running links through this gives you a sense of where clicks are coming from for each page you share.
• Topsy
• Swix
• Tweetreach
• Postrank
• Radian6
• Social mention

Early leader: I have no idea. But I promise to do some more research in this space.

How media companies can use this: Start playing with these tools. See which ones give you some value. Some are free and some are paid, but even the paid ones generally give you a free trial.

Location-based services

This was the emerging technology a couple years ago, but it’s still one to watch. We’re starting to see how these apps can create value for advertisers and users. These are no longer novelty sites. There is actual opportunity to create and grow brand loyalty with your customers.

Foursquare appears to be leading the pack, but others had a large presence at SXSW.

The players:

• Foursquare
• Gowalla
• Whrrl
• SCVNGR
• Loopt

How media companies can use this: Leave tips for users. Help your advertisers claim their locations on these networks. Create tours of your city using these services.

QR codes

They were everywhere, from business cards to every single ad in the program book. I can’t say I saw anyone scan one or heard anyone talk about one.

How media companies can use this: If you’re not in this space yet, jump in. Use one to promote your mobile sites and apps. And get your advertisers using them.

Other things to watch

Gamification of news: How can news sites offer rewards for users? Social games are purposely made to fill in the gaps of your day. Do news sites (especially mobile sites) need to be built to accomplish the same thing?

Brands are now publishers: Companies used to need media sites to get the word out. But now every brand has its own blog, Facebook page, Twitter account, Tumblr and YouTube page.

This means they don’t need that newspaper article anymore. It also means these companies need people with new skills: writers, videographers and social media editors. AKA journalists.

This is part of an occasional series dedicated to the ideas that pop into my head:

When a sports team wins the SuperBowl/World Series/state bowling title, it’s fairly common practice for the newspaper that covers said team to put out a book. Next time your team wins it all, why not take your photos, videos and stories from the season and create an iPad app instead.

It may not look as good on your coffee table, but the overhead cost is much lower.

This is part of an occasional series dedicated to the ideas that pop into my head:

If you run a website where readers have to create their own accounts, why not sell your default avatar as an advertisement (Tastefully done, of course). Obviously people can upload their own avatar to make the ad go away.

Have you heard of anyone doing this already?

Fox 8 News in Cleveland is approaching 150,000 Facebook fans. Meanwhile, The Cleveland Pain Dealer newspaper’s cleveland.com Facebook page has a whopping 7,143 fans.

That means the TV station has the potential to reach 21 times as many people on Facebook anytime it posts news or information. And has 21 times the potential to draw readers to its website or convince them to watch its newscast.

It shouldn’t be this way. A check of compete.com shows that cleveland.com reaches 1,443,538 monthly unique visitors compared to fox8.com’s 480,594. Yet Fox 8 has tipped the social media landscape in its favor.

This is not unique to Cleveland. Here in Des Moines, the Des Moines Register Facebook page has 10,766 fans (the 16th most of any newspaper on Facebook). Meanwhile, TV station KCCI has 38,454 fans and TV station WHODT has 11,442.

Why does this happen?

• TV stations are more likely to include a Facebook like box on their home page. For some reason, newspapers mostly ignore these, even though they prove to be a successful way to add Facebook fans.
• TV stations are the kings of promotion. You’ll rarely watch an episode of any show on any local network without hearing some sort of promotion for the upcoming newscast. A TV station can promote becoming a fan of their Facebook page during an episode of The Office. Newspapers can’t compete with that.
• In the case of Fox 8, they pick a Facebook fan of the day and show that person’s photo on TV. Nothing complicated there, but it appears to be working. And they have even sold an ad to go along with it. So they are making money while they grow their reach.
• Fox 8 also posts very frequently to Facebook. So far this morning, they have posted 24 updates to Facebook. Cleveland.com has posted two.
• WHODT’s morning show (which I watch every morning) mentions conversation happening on its Facebook page throughout the newscast – keeping its page top of mind while people are tuning in for their morning weather and news.
• I’ve also noticed that TV stations seem to run more contests on Facebook. Contests are a good way to grow fans.

It’s clear that newspapers are losing this battle. It’s time for newspapers across the country to step up their efforts to grow Facebook fans.

My suggestion is to find a way to reward people for being a fan of your page on Facebook. Ask readers to submit photos to your fan page and consistently run those photos in print. Ask for reaction to a story and then run some of those reactions in print. Run a box with a popular story telling readers that they can discuss the story at your Facebook fan page (and avoid the trolls commenting on your news site).

Facebook is big and getting bigger. It’s a missed opportunity not to take full advantage.

Any other suggestions on how newspapers can grow their Facebook fans?

College football season kicks off this weekend and pro football the next. Which means your football coverage plans are likely in full swing.

So here’s a checklist to make sure you’re ready for the opening kick.

The basics

• Schedule page
• Roster page
• Historic results, statistics page
• Desktop wallpaper (could be schedule or just photos of players)
• Printable schedule posters
• Depth chart
• Entertainment guide – what else to do while in town for the game
• E-mail newsletter
• RSS feed

Blog ideas

• Challenge readers to predict the score  (makes a good Friday blog post)
• View from the opponent (could be a guest post from a reporter who covers the other team)
• “Where are they now” profiles (football fans love history)
• Polls (using PollDaddy.com)

Photos

• Create “ultimate photo galleries” for best players on the team
• Create historic photo galleries – especially for rivalry games
• Create historic photo galleries of former players and coaches

Video

• Produce a weekly talk show (example: two reporter interview each other and discuss previous/upcoming games)
• Video from the coach’s weekly press conference

Live chats/blogs

• Live blog during weekly coaches press conference
• Live chat to answer fan questions during the week (use CoverItLive for live chats)
• Live chat or live blog during the game (or at least during pregame)

Gameday coverage

• Live game chat or live game blog
• Pre-game text alerts with any recent news
• Twitter updates for news, scoring updates, etc.
• Post any gameday news to Facebook fan page
• Pre-game photo gallery right when the game starts
• Live scoring updates
• Create first-half photo gallery at halftime
• Send out text alerts with scoring updates
• Photo gallery from the game
• Video highlights from the game
• Quick-hit halftime analysis column
• Interactive graphic of the key play
• Consider an alternative homepage display (and sports page display) for gameday

Mobile

• Mobile site specific to your team
• Mobile app
• Mobile live scoring
• Text alerts

Social media

• Facebook fan page
• Twitter account for site and for individual reporters/columnists
• Forums
• Foursquare widget to see who has checked in at the stadium

Want some more ideas. Here’s what some media companies have created for the upcoming season:

• The Dallas Morning News wants your Super Bowl predictions.
• Here’s a game from the Indy Star.
• The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has a Rams iPhone app.
• The Des Moines Register has desktop wallpaper schedules for high school football teams.
• The Green Bay Press-Gazette has a Packers mobile site.
• And speaking of the Packers, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a guide to Packers bars around the world.

The New York Times ran an article Sunday about media companies using Tumblr to increase their social media reach.

Over the last few months, other media outlets have caught wind of Tumblr, which is free to use. The newest recruits include The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, BlackBook Media Corporation, The Paris Review, The Huffington Post, Life magazine and The New York Times.

The article focused on Mark Coatney, who set up a Tumblr account for Newsweek and was recently hired by Tumblr. Coatney’s role is to help media companies understand what they can do with Tumblr.

“I saw it as an opportunity to talk to our audience in a new way,” he said. On Twitter, he said, “the main feedback comes mostly from retweeting,” or retransmitting an interesting message. On Tumblr, “the tone is a lot more conversational.”

There is certainly potential here. Tumblr doesn’t have nearly the reach of Twitter or Facebook, but news orgs that have mastered those two and are ready for something else might find it valuable.

I used Tumblr for one of my classes this spring. Students posted their homework right to their Tumblr, which made it simple for me to see everything all in one feed.