Mike McGuff to open Houston’s Social Media Day Conference

I will be kicking off the Houston’s Social Media Day Conference next week talking Twitter and Facebook. Do you think I can do the entire speech in 140 characters? Maybe.

My speech will include social media tips that can be taken right out of old school broadcasting. That's right, old media can help new media every once in a while.

Houston’s Social Media Day Conference
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Houston Food Bank – Conference Center
535 Portwall St.
Houston, TX 77029

http://houstonsmday.com

UPDATE
Getting asked on social media for a start time. The conference kicks off at 8am with a proclamation from the mayor's office and then I'm up at 8:30am. I will be nursing a Dr Pepper 10 that day!

Kelly Rowland dated KTRK abc13 reporter Foti Kallergis?

KTRK abc13's Foti Kallergis reveals in live report his prom date was Destiny's Child's Kelly Rowland

As promised! My prom picture. Mrs. Kelly Rowland (L) , my twin Mario (M) , Me (R) . 1999 Elsik Prom. pic.twitter.com/8bs9p00fJU
— Foti Kallergis (@FotiKallergis) May 11, 2014

Foti Kallergis

After doing a story about Houston Texans cheerleader Caitlyn going to the Crosby High School prom as a lucky student's date, KTRK abc13 reporter Foti Kallergis upped the ante by revealing his prom date.

 While a Texans cheerleader would be any 18 year old's dream date, Kallergis topped that with his date...Kelly Rowland of Houston's own Destiny's Child.

Say my name, say my name!

As you can see above, Kallergis and Rowland went to the Elsik High School prom together in 1999.

Kallergis revealed his big prom get at the end of his live shot, then pitched to Twitter for viewers to see the photo. Hey, he didn't brand himself in Austin as "an experienced celebrity publicist and strategist" for nothing!

Naturally tweets starting flying with questions on how Kallergis pulled this one off. He explained the two grew up together and then dated for two years.

 So how did Kallergis deal with Rowland's rising star at that time of their romance?

"I was very supportive and understanding," Kallergis explained on Twitter. "We made it work."

While I don't know Kallergis personally, I bet he is a Soldier, a Survivor, who was Dangerously in Love with one of the Independent Woman, Part 1 of a Bootylicious Houston music super group.

UPDATE 5/13/14
Looks like Kallergis and Rowland can't have a rekindling of the old flame for now. Rowland just got married this past weekend.

KPRC 2 really likes KTRK abc13's news coverage; KTRK responds with promo

UPDATE 6/5/2013 4pm
KPRC 2 issues apology/explanation to KTRK 13 over tweeted photo

ORIGINAL POST
Channel 13's coverage good enough for channel 2 to use

You know how I call myself a dunderpate at the top of this blog? Dunderpate is another word for dunce. And the dunderpate of the day in Houston media is all of KPRC channel 2.

Clearly today's biggest news story is the overturned truck which closed down the entire West Loop for most of the day. It took my wife like three hours to get to work as a result. KPRC sure wanted to get that news out on Twitter this morning but must not have had the multi-station chopper up or something, because it tweeted a stolen SkyEye 13 photo from KTRK's on air coverage! Screen grabs below:



At the time of this publishing you can see the tweets here and here.

UPDATE: Mike Guerrero is KTRK's morning chopper reporter/photographer.

In the blog world, I get stuff stolen from me all the time. But in the TV world, you don't see stations grabbing stuff from each other usually. In fact, the basic sense is to not put any mention or reminder of the competition in front of your viewers. Now KPRC did remove the 13 logo from the image but still, the image is obviously KTRK's look.

As I blogged before, KPRC 2 has had its controversial moments with Twitter specifically. Nothing brought attention to the station like the fictional Liberty County mass graves story from the summer of 2011. It has been widely reported that @local2breaking was the source for that story as fact, leading many other media outlets to run with it and then later retract it. Later that year, I told you how KPRC re-branded that account to become @KPRCLocal2.

It appears the folks at KTRK noticed how much KPRC endorses them and put together a response you can watch below.

I contacted KPRC for a response and will share it with you if I get one.

UPDATE 6/5/2013 4pm
KPRC 2 issues apology/explanation to KTRK 13 over tweeted photo

Top Twitterers at each Houston TV station

Tuesday's Top 5 Houston TV Twitter users post was a big hit.

So, I wouldn't be the "Father of Houston TV Social Media" if I didn't take it to another level and find out the top 5 Twitter users at each Houston TV station (anchors and reporters).

To set up some guidelines, I pretended to be an average viewer and hit each station's website bio page for Twitter account links. If a Twitter account wasn't on the station's site, then I figured it was a personal account and it wasn't counted.

KPRC 2                              Followers
1. Benton, Mary                         3,073
2. Sachse, Dominique                2,742
3. Jaquez, Nefertiti                    2,205
4. Boyle, Mark                              961
5. McNeill, Rachel                       845

KHOU 11
1. Jang, Lily                              20,384
2. Gradney, Mia                          1,916
3. Zubowski, Courtney                1,358
4. Craig, Tiffany                          1,291
5. Basu, Malini                            1,010

KTRK 13
1. Abrahams, Tom                       1,376
2. Spera, Rebecca                        1,174
3. Cosley, Kat                                  650

(KTRK only had three Twitter accounts on its website bios page. Because of this, I included Live Well hosts. I didn't want Tom to be lonely.)

Fox 26 KRIV
1. Carey, Isiah                              3,902
2. Teague, Don                             2,173
3. MacDonald, Sally                       637
4. Garcia, Rita                                593
5. Dominguez, Ruben                      578

These numbers only account for news anchors and reporters (I noticed not all weather folks have Twitter accounts so I just cut if off with news people - other departments like sports and weather could come later). I also learned stations seem to value Facebook more than Twitter - so it looks like more work is cut out for me on that angle.

I went to each Houston TV station website and acted as any normal viewer would to find lists of station related Twitter accounts. Not all reporter/anchor Twitter accounts are linked to the station websites so I figured either those are personal or not a priority for the station. Therefore they were not counted here.

(Numbers as of 7/27/2012)

RELATED
Track Houston media through Twitter

Top 5 Houston TV Twitter users

I put up the first Houston TV Twitter and Facebook accounts in 2008 (KTRK 13) and other stations eventually successfully followed, but all of a sudden four years later, Houston TV stations really have a sudden case of social media fever.

This month two Houston television stations apparently held social media summit/bootcamps for employees. Those two stations also just hired folks to deal with social media specifically.

One station staffer posted on Twitter that there is a requirement for reporters to 'up' their follow counts. The future is here.

 I should offer a Twitter TV ghost writing/consultation service like Hollywood celebrities have. A TV anchor/reporter could hire me to 'up' their follow count by tweeting as them and giving advice. Ka-ching! You know how to contact me.

As the self-proclaimed "Father of Houston TV social media," I will now cover this area more since there is obvious interest like never before (before I figured no one would care so why waste the time).

So let's look at the top 5 Houston TV Twitter users in Houston by follow count for some social media tweets and giggles.

1. Jang, Lily (KHOU)
@khoulily
20,384 (Follow count)
22,957 (Tweets)
22,348 (Following)

2. Carey, Isiah (KRIV)
@isiahcarey1
3,902 (Follow count)
12,779 (Tweets)
1,107 (Following)

3. Benton, Mary (KPRC)
@MaryBenton
3,073 (Follow count)
11,457 (Tweets)
1,276 (Following)

4. Sachse, Dominique (KPRC)
@dominiquesachse
2,742 (Follow count)
423 (Tweets)
41 (Following)

5. Jaquez, Nefertiti (KPRC)
@nefertitijaquez
2,205 (Follow count)
4,384 (Tweets)
258 (Following)

These numbers only account for news anchors and reporters (I noticed not all weather folks have Twitter accounts so I just cut if off with news people - other departments could come later). I also learned stations seem to value Facebook more than Twitter - so it looks like more work is cut out for me on that angle.

I went to each Houston TV station website and acted as any normal viewer would to find lists of station related Twitter accounts. Not all reporter/anchor Twitter accounts are linked to the station websites so I figured either those are personal or not a priority for the station. Therefore they were not counted here.

(Numbers as of 7/27/2012)

RELATED
- Track Houston media through Twitter

Track Houston media through Twitter

I've added a new feature to my blog that I'm really excited about. It lets you track the Houston media through its member's tweets. That's nearly 300 people you can watch tweet in real-time.

During breaking news situations, like when it rained really hard a few weeks ago, I knew what was going on without having to turn on the TV, simply by watching this Houston media Twitter page.

From a competitive standpoint, TV stations might just want to throw this page up on a monitor in the newsroom so you know what the folks across the street are doing. For example, this pre-dates my Houston tweets page, but when I worked at KIAH 39, I knew the stories the other stations were doing ahead of time, by just watching Twitter.

It's not just limited to TV though. I have radio DJs and print writers from the likes of the Houston Chronicle, Houston Press, Houston Business Journal, Houston Community Newspapers...etc.

This page is causing me to actually check my own blog throughout the day. Clearly I know what's on there and what's coming up, but this feature always keeps me surprised. Great for those quick five minute breaks you need when sitting in cubicle land.

To access the page, look for the "Houston tweets" tab in the top navigation of this blog or for a link on the right column under my Twitter follow button.