Enthusiastic UCO alum and journalism ambassador

@okieprof

Some people win you over with their immediate smile, enthusiasm for life and work.
Mike Sherman, UCO journalism alum and sports editor of "The Oklahoman" is one of those. He's a regular speaker for the Twitter for Media class, and I still get carried away listening to him. There are repeated stories and comments of course, but there is always new "stuff" as well. In fact, he's a constant stream of storytelling, illustrating every thing he says.
It's so refreshing and exciting to find a journalist with confidence in the future these days. He's a great ambassador for journalism.  So much so that I forget to stand up and take a photo while he's talking to the class. Ah well, he'll be back.
And something else all our speakers have said, and the students notice, is the emphasis on reading. They all spout off names of people you need to follow or read.
And my students came up with a hashtag for Mike, #MikeontheMic!
(Again, all of this should have been posted much earlier. The fault all belongs to @okieprof. Sorry.)
So here are some of his comments, and the class debriefings, recorded with the help of @cassjack12:

• twitter is a way to learn, it's an antenna
• Twitter is antenna to find conversation, not an open window to scream out of "
• "Twitter is one giant sports bar." 
• “Creeping is what the cool kids call it, I call it research”
• the way you act on twitter, You are.
• it's a better listening device than it is a broadcasting device
• look up Andy Carvin, Seth Godin, Jay Spear
• “have a brand before you start trying to build it”
• know what you want to provide
• “your brand isn’t what you say it is, its what your customers say about it “
• this generation lives out loud – everything is on the web
• twitter makes the world small
• you can follow prospective customers 
• don’t let you Twitter be too self-centered 
• don’t be too busy building your brand to see your neighbor
• what would we do if we were all in the same room 
• how would we talk 
• how would we interact 
• twitter is like Sam’s samples--tweets are samples, you pay with attention 
• “people don’t have to follow you to know what you’re saying”
• homepages of websites are dead as we knew them
  have to find ways to get on people's screens 
• twitter allows you to see what readers care about 
• my growth game is strong 
• "there is no done"--there is no deadline in journalism today 
• advice: 
• learn how to interview  
• “you cant write what you don’t report”  
• when writer’s block happens 
• show don’t tell 
• make people see 
• read “Making Words Dance” a book about Red Smith

 Student debriefing comments about what stood out:

• writers block is just about having not all the information 
• I'm not the same two years ago...always changing and growing
•  things you put on social media is public, you put it out there so expect people to see it 
• use twitter to follow along with conferences you can’t go to have empathy to get the real story 
• twitter is a great way to learn because you get to go to places you are not
• your brand is what other say about it, not what you say about it 
• ask compelling questions-what do people want to know, and tell that story
• journalists are servants
• be a human first
• never done, constantly transitioning
• read a lot, even beyond your field