Patrick Thornton of Beatblogging.org called last week to talk about how I use Twitter to cover trials.

It resulted in this post and podcast.

Also look up Patrick on Twitter @jionoclast.

As journalists, we are all very much aware of the importance of the company brand. Many of us work for years hoping to climb the journalism ranks to one day be associated with a brand we covet.  The New York Times, ABC News, the Washington Post, Washingtonpost.com, Dateline NBC, The Wall Street Journal, NPR and a host of others.

But consider this. In today’s media landscape, you are our own brand.

It’s a concept that we have to embrace so that we can mange it and use it to our advantage. If you don’t manage your own brand, or at least start building it on your own, Google will do it for you . And you might not like the results.

With rampant layoffs and an unstable economy, we have to be more than our current title at our current workplace. If and when those no longer exist, how will you market yourself? Will anyone know who you are based on your web presence? Do you even have a web presence beyond the extent of which your news stories are posted online? If you answered no to any of those questions, please read on.

Chris Brogan, one of my favorite bloggers, has written an ebook about this very topic. It is appropriately titled: Personal Branding for the Business Professional. I’ve read it several times, and while I thought I was doing a pretty good job with my personal blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts, LinkedIn, Friendfeed, Upcoming.org and Plaxo accounts, I could be doing so much better. I am now working on an e-book and I hope to squeeze in some other tips presented in Brogan’s.

So, start thinking about who you are professionally and how you might want to convey that using some of the social networking tools available. And don’t assume that you have to take advantage of every single platform. That would be a full-time job on it’s own.

And if this seems all too overwhelming and you’d like more basic ideas or help along the way, I can certainly help or tap into the vast network of people I’ve connected with on various platforms for more information and ideas.

If you find this concept intriguing, let me know either in the comments area or via e-mail and I’ll blog about it more often.

-AngelaConnor

Jack Lail says “We’d get more readers if we gave them less frickin’ news to read”: “The news junkies, however, are the users that move the metrics and we focus even more on what they want because they are generating more pageviews and longer times on site. And thus we have less of what more casual news consumers want. Sort of like drinking ourselves to death?”

“We Were Print” – the blog of “former and soon-to-be-former print journalists” – chronicles the dark humor that is our business with links to this week’s Doonesbury.

Don Himsel gives us the latest generation of point-and-shoot cameras as News Videographer.

Mindy McAdams reports on a session she attended on pro video at the Online News Association’s annual conference.

“Fixing D.C. Schools” is the kind of project I still remember seeing for the first time on Washington Post.com.  It covered every aspect of the public schools in D.C., from the maintenance of the school halls to student scores.  It told stories across the multimedia platforms.

No surprise it won the Knight Award for Public Service during the Online Journalism Awards.

See the awards site for the complete list of winners, then linger for a while to marvel at some inspiring work, including “I Didn’t Do Murder,” by the RecordOnline.com, from The Times Herald Record (Middletown, N.Y.), which won best investigative piece for a small site.

Let these influence your next project.  Better yet, show them to your editor.  This is the kind of work we should be striving to produce in the digital age.

Random notes from the SPJ National Convention which ending Sunday …

Some SPJ members may see the organization as still being for a bunch of old newspaper dudes. You may think curmudgeons rule, but you couldn’t tell that by attending the workshops and sessions in Atlanta.

“People are getting new media here and loving it,” Molly McDonough said. “I don’t get that back in my newsroom.”

I would agree.

SPJ has kept its high-tech ambitions a secret to some, however.  That’s evident this week, after SPJ’s Convention struggled with lower attendance, but the Online News Association, meeting this week in Washington D.C. sold out in advance.

Nevertheless, I didn’t talk to one person who came to Atlanta already a devotee of online and new media who didn’t rave about the conference and promise to return next year.

A few of the highlights:

Sree Sreenivasan on “Figuring Out Blogs & Whatever’s Next” – Every journalist should have a blog and know how to use it. Post often. And keep it short.

• “If you can’t sell it in six words, you can’t do it in 6,000,” he said.

Sreenivasan had a handout of links, but its also online.

Howard Owens on Reinventing Journalism, included his 10 Things Journalists Can Do:

Among them:

• Include informed insight and personal voice.
• Stop competing for scoops and awards
• Cover people not processes
• Be kinder.
• Be smarter.
• Emphasize accuracy, honesty, and transparency.
• Be the guide. Be the filter. There is a fire hose of information. Help your readers find it.

Molly and I got a great reaction on our “60 web sites in 60 minutes”.

• It included a showing of Facebook with this live update: “Molly is thinking Ron should pick it up a bit or we won’t get to 50.”

People picked up Twitter for the first time and kept people updated on the convention

Want to find out what you missed? Or maybe you were there and want to pick up some sessions you missed.

You can from two of my new friends:

Rene Gutel wrote some great blog posts about the sessions she attended.

So did Jeff Cutler

And as always, you can read the reports from the talented students covering the convention on The Working Press.

Don’t expect SPJ to retain its curmudgeonly image forever.  We’ve put together a Digital Media Committee, which I’m co-chairing. You’ll see other of our members posting here in the future.

After all, nearing its 100^th birthday, SPJ is the original social network for journalism.