Working as a reporter for The Arab American News has opened the door to great opportunities. One of the most exciting occurred last month when I joined journalists and media professionals from across the country at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida to participate in the seminar Elections 2012: The Campaign for Social Media.

Poynter is a school for journalism that provides training to professionals in the field. It sets high standards of excellence, and gives visitors the opportunity to sharpen their tools in the craft. 

The seminar was Oct. 25-27, and had  more than 25 participants from some of the nation’s leading news outlets including the Miami Herald, CNN, Gannett Washington Bureau, POLITICO and HLN.  

Arab American News reporter Natasha Dado stands among the more than 25 participants at the Poynter Institute’s seminar, Election 2012: The Campaign for Social Media.

The training focused on politics and using social media to improve election coverage.

Today high profile political campaigns are investing more money and time in social media giants to sway in voters at an unprecedented level.  

Participants also learned how to use Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin more effectively, collaborated on group projects, received lessons on how to conduct live chats, and were introduced to other social networking sites such as Storify and Instagram. 

Powerful journalism lectures were given by Poynter Digital Media Fellow, Jeff Sonderman; Poynter Leader of Entrepreneurial and International Programs, Bill Mitchell; Associate Editor of Poyter.org, Mallary Jean Tenore; Poynter Managing Director, Butch Ward; PolitiFact Editor, Bill Adair; Digital Content Strategy Director, Lynette Clemetson; O’Reilly media correspondent, Alex Howard; Dallas Morning News staff writer, Theodore Kim; Engage Vice President of Media and Public Affairs, Jordan Raynor and Rachel Stassen-Berger, Chief Political Reporter for the Star Tribune.  My trip to the school came after a Poynter faculty member contacted our publisher back in September asking whether someone from TAAN could attend the seminar in order to include ethnic media.  

Poytner values diversity, and knows ethnic media continues to gain huge momentum. An editor from Semana News attended the conference. The paper is written in Spanish and has a weekly circulation of more than 120,000. Another participant was from Univision, a Spanish speaking  network with rankings outnumbering the CW and coming in close proximity to some of the nation’s top English television networks. In Michigan, the five largest ethnic papers, TAAN among them, have a circulation of 130,000 — almost equal to The Detroit News. 

Upon returning from Poynter I spoke with my colleagues about the seminar, and since then we have been taking new steps to improve the paper’s site and boost our presence on social media. The seminar really forced me to become more active on social media. As journalism continues to undergo changes, I can always depend on Poynter as a resource. 

I want to personally thank the Poynter Institute for going above and beyond to make all the participants feel welcomed. You can follow us on Twitter @theaanews or visit our Facebook page for breaking news and updates.