Twitter launched a new weekly e-mail digest this week, which will be rolled out to all users in the next few weeks.

In addition to being a statement that e-mail is still a very effective marketing tool (see Timehop), this new service has some important implications to news media.

The digest shows two things – “the most relevant Tweets and stories shared by the people you’re connected to on Twitter.” Let’s face it, a link to my blog is never going to make that list. But articles from news organizations with their great content and large following can and should appear in every one of those e-mails.

Here’s a snapshot of my first e-mail from Twitter.

When I click on that second story, it takes me directly to a Des Moines Register article. Not a Twitter-branded page and then the Des Moines Register article – directly to the Register article.

Want to make sure your content gets included in these e-mails? Here are a few things to remember:

1. Make it easy for people to share your content on Twitter by having a “tweet this” button.
2. Tweet about content that people will actually want to share with their friends (see: 5 reasons people share news).
3. Include @ mentions of relevant people in your tweets. There is a lot of noise on Twitter. To make sure important people see your content, simply give them a mention in your tweet. The Des Moines Register’s original tweet about the story above should have mentioned @ypcdsm, a group with a large following on Twitter that was directly related to the story.
4. Connect with your community on Twitter. People are more likely to share your content if you actually interact with them on the platform.
5. Thank people for sharing your content.

Baseball season has been in full swing for more than a month, so this seemed like a good time to check in and see which teams have been doing the best job growing a following of fans on Google+.

It’s clearly a list of haves and have-nots. A handful of teams have been circled by more than 100,000 people, but the majority of teams have been put in less than 5,000.

Here’s the list (Note: If you are interested in following any or all of these teams, use this shared circle):

It looks like the teams at the top are the most active. The San Francisco Giants have already posted 27 times in May. At the bottom of the list, the Atlanta Braves have posted just once in May.

Like many people, I signed up for for the social network Google+ as soon as I could get an invite. And like most people, I rarely check in these days.

But I do believe that Google+ has a strong future. In an effort to get my social media strategies class excited about Google+, I found some features I love about the social network.

1. It makes other Google products better

From sorting your Gmail by circles to seeing personalized search results to author profiles showing up in Google News, setting up your Google+ Circles adds a social layer to your overall Google experience.

2. Instant Upload

Turn on Instant Upload in the Google+ app. When you take a photo with your mobile device, it will automatically be sent to a private album in Google+. From there, you can share it or just save it for later (you get unlimited memory to store photos on G+).

3. Hangout effects

Hangouts (video chat with up to 10 people) are one of the coolest things on Google+. You watch YouTube videos together or share your screen with other chatters. You can also add a pirate hat or mustache to make your chats a little more fun. The coolest part if that when you move, your effects move with you. It’s magic!

4. Ripples

Ripples show you how information is shared throughout Google+, and helps you find new people to follow. Click on the dropdown arrow next to a post, then click on ripples to see how far a post has traveled.

5. Creative Kit

It’s like a combination of Photoshop and Instagram. Creative Kit lets you edit your photos, make them look like they were taken with a retro camera, or add cool images (Frankenstein mask, beards) and text to your photos.

6. Meme generator

When you upload a photo to a post, press “add text” to turn it into a meme.

7. Make text bold and italic

Facebook and Twitter don’t have this. Put an * around text that you want to post as bold. Put a _ around text you want to post as italic.

8. Edit posts after they go live

Typo? Gramatical problem? Just click on edit post and correct your post mistakes.

More about Google+

Learn about the core features of Google+.

Facebook launched Timeline for Pages today and will roll it out to all pages on March 30, 2012.

But why wait? Here’s how to activate timeline for pages now.

1. Go to https://www.facebook.com/about/pages/ and click on “Preview your pages” in the middle of the page.

2. Select the page you want to preview and click “turn on preview” (or preview all).

This will show you what your current page will look like in the new style.

3. Click on “Add a Cover” on the right side of your page to select the timeline photo that will go with your page.

You can upload a new photo or use one already associated with your page. If the photo you choose doesn’t work in that space (size appears to be 850 x 315 pixels), click cancel and try another one.

4. Once you have a photo that you like, click “Publish Now” at the top of the page. Your new page is now live. You’ll also see some new admin features at the top of the page.

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.

It’s one week before the Iowa caucuses, and my latest numbers on GOP candidates and social media show it’s a three-way race between Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and Ron Paul.

I’m tracking 17 different indicators of how popular candidates are on social media and how effectively they are using social media in their campaigns. This is the third time I’ve looked at the numbers. See the numbers from Nov. 13 and from Dec. 7.

Here are the current (Dec. 27) results. The average rank is how high the candidate ranked, on average, in each of the 17 different indicators (an average of 1 would mean they were first in every category; an average of 7 would mean they were last).

My previous numbers mirrored what was happening in national polls, and these ones appear to as well. Polls show Ron Paul gaining momentum heading into Iowa. In my numbers, he has jumped from fifth (Nov. 13 – ignoring Herman Cain, who is now out of the race) to fourth (Dec. 7) and now to third. More importantly, he’s neck-and-neck with the frontrunners.

Gingrich was first and Romney second in the previous two polls.

Here are rankings for each category:

 
Here are the indicators I am tracking (read more on my original post):

• Twitter followers in last month
• Facebook likes
• Facebook likes in last month
• Twitter lists
• Twitter followers/lists ratio
• # of last 20 tweets with @ in them
• Klout.com score
• Tweetgrader.com rank
• tweetlevel.edelman.com score
• retweetrank.com score
• Shares of last 12 FB posts
• Comments on last 12 FB posts
• Likes on last 12 FB posts
• Facebook “Talking about this” number
• Topsy.com tweets in last 7 days mentioning username or Real Name
• SocialMention.com Strength

If you are interested in interviewing me about these numbers, contact me at chris.snider@drake.edu.

WordPress is a great tool for quickly and easily launching a professional-looking website with little or no knowledge of writing code. There are thousands of themes and plugins to customize the look and performance of your site.

This makes it perfect for college and high school newspapers looking to dive head first into creating or redesigning a website. Or for community newspapers that want to finally go digital.

With that in mind, here are some of my favorite WordPress themes for newspapers or magazines. (Unsure about how WordPress works? Check out this beginner’s guide.)

Need web hosting? I recommend MDD Hosting.

Telegraph

Telegraph Demo

Cadabra Press

CadabraPress Theme

Daily Headlines

Daily Headlines Theme

Tribune

Tribune Demo

Newsley

Newsley Theme

Yamidoo PRO Magazine

Yamidoo PRO Magazine Theme

Yamidoo Magazine

Yamidoo Magazine Theme

Newstock – Premium Magazine

Newstock magazine theme

MagNews – WordPress Magazine Theme

MagNews – WordPress Magazine Theme

Exciter Magazine WordPress Theme

Exciter Magazine WordPress Theme

WP-Ellie

WP-Ellie Premium WordPress Theme

WP MediaMag

WP-MediaMag Demo Site

eNews

eNews WordPress theme

PureType

PureType WordPress theme

Global Press

Global Press WordPress Theme

Deadline

Deadline WordPress Theme

Newscast

Newscast 4 in 1 – WordPress Magazine and Blog

Avenue

Avenue – A WordPress Magazine Theme

London Live

London Live 3 In 1 – News, Magazine And Blog

Periodic

Periodic – A Premium WordPress Magazine Theme

Repro

Repro – Premium WordPress News / Magazine Theme

Boulevard

Boulevard – A WordPress Magazine Theme

Duplex

Duplex – Magazine / Community / Blog Theme

YEN

YEN – Magazine, News and Blog WordPress Template

Broadcast

Broadcast – News/Magazine WordPress Theme

News

StudioPress News Theme

Magazine

StudioPress Magazine Theme

Massive Press

Massive Press WordPress theme

WordPress Newspaper

WordPress Newspaper theme demo

Advanced Newspaper

Advanced Newspaper theme demo

Newspro Magazine

Newspro theme demo

A little more than three weeks ago, I measured how the GOP presidential candidates were faring on social media. I looked at 17 different measurements of popularity and engagement on Twitter and Facebook (you can see exactly what I measured here).

My results were fairly close to the most recent national polls.

Now, four weeks before Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses, I decided to run the numbers again (I will run them again on caucus day) to see if anything had changed.

Here are the current results

Below are the current results, including Herman Cain for consistency. Paul and Huntsman each moved up a spot. Perry and Santorum each dropped a spot.

Here are the results without Herman Cain. The rankings don’t change.

These results don’t perfectly match recent polls that show it’s a three-person race in Iowa between Gingrich, Romney and Paul.

My numbers are spot-on for Gingrich and Romney at 1 and 2. But I have Paul running behind Bachmann. It is worth noting that Paul is gaining in my polls. So perhaps things will be right by the Jan. 3 caucuses.

Stay tuned…

It’s been more than four months since I updated my list of the top TV stations on Facebook.

Here’s the current top 10:

Here are the stations with the biggest growth in the past four months:

See the complete list of top TV stations on Facebook.

Can social media predict the 2012 GOP presidential nominee? That’s the question I asked for a recent panel presentation to the National Communication Association at its annual convention in New Orleans.

I proposed that the more popular a candidate is on social media, and the more a candidate is able to engage others on social media, the more successful the candidate will be in caucuses, primaries and the election.

To test this, I looked at 17 different measures of social media success – both in terms of popularity (the amount of reach for each candidate) and engagement (how well candidates used the tools). The results mirrored recent national polls, meaning there may be some value to this data.

Here’s a look at how the candidates rank in each area (all data was from Nov. 13, 2011).

1. Total followers on Twitter

It’s worth noting that Gingrich had 1.3 million followers as far back as March, so his huge following is not necessarily tied to the election.

2. New Twitter followers in the past 30 days

3. Facebook Likes

The top three candidates here all started with a solid base. Romney had 800,000-plus as far back as March.

4. New Facebook Likes in past 30 days

5. Twitter lists

How often each candidate has been added to a list on Twitter. This is an indication that followers find value in their content.

6. Twitter Lists/Followers

The frequency with which followers add candidates to Twitter lists. For example, Bachmann is added to a list once for every 22.6 followers that she has. The lower the number the better; a high number may be an indication you are followed by accounts that aren’t really engaged with your content.

7. Number of last 20 Tweets with @

This shows that the candidates are actually being “social” on Twitter and not just pushing their message.

8. Klout score

Klout measures influence online on a scale of 1 to 100.

9. Tweetgrader Rank

Tweetgrader measures the “power, reach and authority of a Twitter account.”

10. Tweetlevel Score

Tweetlevel.edelman.com – Measures your influence on Twitter.

11. Retweetrank.com Rank

Measures how likely your tweets are to be retweeted, an indication that people value what you say.

12. Shares on Last 12 FB Posts

The number of people who clicked “share” on each candidates’ last 12 posts to Facebook.

13. Likes on Last 12 FB Posts

The number of people who clicked “Like” on each candidates’ last 12 posts to Facebook.

14. Comments on Last 12 FB Posts

The number of people who commented on each candidates’ last 12 posts to Facebook.

15. Facebook “Talking About This”

Number of people who have interacted with candidate’s page in the past seven days.

16. Mentions on Twitter Past 7 Days

Source: Topsy.com (Searching a candidate’s Twitter username and real Name)

17. Socialmention.com strength

Strength is the likelihood that your brand is being discussed in social media.

Overall results

Each candidate is assigned a value from 1 to 8 based on how they ranked for each area I tracked. The lower the candidate’s average score, the higher they are regarded in social media circles. You can see that Herman Cain is leading the pack with an average rating of 2.29. Newt Gingrich (3.47) and Mitt Romney (3.53) are second and third.

Engagement results

Below is what the results look like when I only look at engagement and not popularity. Rick Perry jumps up two spots in these results. So while he doesn’t have as large of a following as others (he ranks fifth on both Twitter and Facebook), he is engaging well with that audience.

Comparing to national polls

I decided to compare my results to two national polls released at the same time (Nov. 14) – one from CNN and one from Public Policy Polling. Those two polls had Gingrich, Cain and Romney in the lead. My results had the same three in the lead (although Perry did jump into third place when only looking at engagement).

Discussion

Early results indicate that measuring social media popularity and engagement is a good indication of how a candidate is performing nationally. I plan to look at these numbers again in early December and on the date (Jan. 3) of the Iowa Caucuses.

If we see a change in the national polls reflected in the social media numbers, that may help validate my research.

It’s also hard to say at this point whether a candidate’s success in social media propels them to success in the polls, or whether a candidate’s success in the polls propels them to social media success (the chicken and the egg debate). But clearly social media is an area that no candidate can afford to ignore.