Here are a few of their favorite tools: Experiments in social media, part 2

"There's a huge value in doing things just because they're fun," said tumblr's Mark Coatney. Sounds great, but for those of us who are untutored in the ways of new media, where to begin?

TBD.com's Steve Buttry (more below) shared some of his favorite resources, including a blog called Zombiejournalism, whose tagline reads: dispatches from the walking dead of today's "old" media. It's a source for keeping track of what's going on in the new media world. National Wildlife Fund's Danielle Brigida added  Mashable as a favorite source for news in social and digital media, and Best Blog, a blog review site on Wordpress.

Several tutorials exist to help newbies jump into social media. Steve Buttry's blog has a lot of Twitter resources, he says, because Twitter is his main tool. And for those of us who worry about wasting hours on Twitter, you'll find a time management tool as well.

To find what you need on Facebook and Twitter, the speakers mentioned two sources, Social Mention and Kurrently. Finally, Brigida posts all of her presentations on Slideshare. "It's like PowerPoint on youTube." And it's a great way to find presentations on a topic you want to learn about. Her slides from today's presentation are here.

Mike Spear from Genome Alberta reminded the audience that all of this new media is just another communications channel. The same rules apply to traditional and new media. "If you can't tell a good story on radio or TV, you can't tell a good story online." Think in old media terms for how you tell the story, but think outside the box on where you tell the story and whom you tell it to.

TBD.com was launched 3 months ago to cover local Washington, DC, news. The name is a perfect fit, according to Buttry, director of community engagement. "In a digital world, news is always unfolding. And the path to success will involve a lot of changes, surprises, and failures along the way." He spent the bulk of his talk discussing the departure of TBD.com general manager Jim Brady. One more reason TBD makes sense.