I was talking the other day with John Jackson, online editor of the
Roanoke Times, about Facebook and its use within his organization.
While Jackson explained how they use updates (to send out breaking news alerts to users), he mentioned that he receives the
Chicago Tribune's Facebook updates. I made a mental note to become a fan of the
Chicago Tribune -- something I often do when I hear of a news organization's involvement with Facebook.
The next day, when I logged on to Facebook -- something I do constantly throughout the day -- I received my first alert from the
Chicago Tribune.
The update provided a link to
an interactive project that lets you write your own message on the Wrigley sign. Try it out and
make a sign for yourself. As a fan of both baseball and interactive journalism, this made my day. I found this project because of Facebook. I probably wouldn't have stumbled upon it otherwise. See Poynter's
latest update.
News organizations are catching on that Facebook is becoming a major part of young users' Internet habits. They are meeting young readers -- a traditionally low-readership demographic-- on our virtual stomping grounds. And it's paying off; I'm starting to find myself getting more and more of my news via Facebook.
The sidebar to this article lists various news organizations that have created Facebook pages. The number of fans ranges from a few dozen for smaller outlets to more than 10,000 for
The New York Times. If you're a Facebook member, watch your news feed to see the news organization pages added by your friends. And if you click on those organizations' Facebook pages, you'll see just how much of a work in progress all this is.
Jackson said he hasn't seen a spike in traffic on his Roanoke.com site because of Facebook. But he's satisfied with the results from his organization's Facebook Page because it links the paper to an expanded network of users.
"We wanted to be able to say we're here," Jackson said. "It allows us to extend our brand and keep control over the content that is put out there."
News sites such as roanoke.com encourage Facebook users to share the
stories and multimedia they view in their original context.
Bookmarklets make it easy to post this content to Facebook profile pages or group pages. The rationale behind this: When I see a friend post a story to their profile page, that means they are interested in it for one reason or another. This means I may be interested in it too, and I'm more likely to check it out.
In the past year, news organizations have found ways to make their mark on the Facebook community from within. Here's how:
Facebook Pages
(A side note: It's easy to confuse Facebook Pages with Facebook Groups. Facebook Pages are an evolution of Facebook Groups.
They both connect people of similar interests. Unlike Groups you don't have to be a Facebook member to view Pages which expands the audience outside the Facebook community.) Many news
organizations
are harnessing the
growing Facebook audience by creating self-branded Facebook Pages. Pages enable news organizations to identify loyal users, or fans. When users choose to be fans of your
organization, they invite updates about what the organization is up to via a text story or links.
Many Pages are simply virtual
meeting spots for users who
"like" an organization. They usually don't have much content or customization. But, Page creators, usually an
editor or producer from the online staff, can post videos, photos, text
stories, updates and applications to the Page.
With more than 500 posts to its Page,
The New York Times has capitalized on Facebook Pages to
engage users by sharing videos, photos and stories with its more than 10,000 fans.
When
the
Roanoke Times decided to create a Facebook Page, online editor John
Jackson appointed one of the staff's interns, Jordan Fifer, to create
and manage the Page. Fifer spends about an hour each week updating the
site with content. Jackson and Fifer use the
Roanoke Times Page in the
same way that we use the Poynter Page-- to direct users to our main
Web site by posting content.
On the Poynter Page, users can watch a
video about our redesign, view
photos from a recent webinar, get updates on or
discuss the latest content from Poynter Online and
connect with the other 429 Poynter fans.
Become of a fan of Poynter by visiting
our Page, and click "Become a Fan" in the top right corner of the screen.
Targeted ads are a promotional tool within Pages. Admins can create ads aimed at a specific demographic to
better promote the organization within the Facebook community.
ApplicationsFacebook boasts thousands of applications with a select few that prove to be useful news consumption aids. Below are a few of the more interesting examples of news operations putting Applications to good use.
The New York Times News QuizThe cross promotional value and competitive factor make this application effective. The quiz encourages me to use nytimes.com to be more informed about current events. After I take the five-question quiz about stories from that day's paper, I receive my score. Based on that score, I'm ranked among my friends and the entire Facebook community. I also find links to five nytimes.com stories to help me study for the next day's quiz. This competitive approach creates dedicated members coming back
everyday -- consuming news from nytimes.com when they might not
otherwise do so.
ABC NewsI first saw the evidence of the Facebook/ABC News partnership (which began in December) when I was watching Super Tuesday coverage on ABC. ABC displayed results from Facebook polls throughout the night's broadcast. Facebookers continue to vote in Election Pulse polls. They can also show support for candidates and follow the whereabouts of ABC correspondents through updates. The Soundboard on the Facebook Page lets users share updates of their own by finishing the sentence "(User name) is thinking...". A disclosure on the Page hints at the ABC connection. "Notice: Your response, name and profile picture may be featured on ABC News."
NPR Podcast PlayerFacebook makes it easy for users to upload audio and video, and NPR really takes advantage of this. I get to listen to NPR on my way to and from work. But, if I happen miss something, the NPR podcast player lets me stream audio (and video) from NPR programming each day. I find this to be much easier than downloading NPR podcasts using iTunes.
In the future Poynter hopes to build a Facebook application like many news organizations have done. Share your ideas: What kind of Facebook application could Poynter create to help journalists do their jobs better?
How to get involved with Facebook?Visit Facebook.com and create a profile. Search for colleagues and former classmates. Search for your favorite news organizations and get an idea of how they are using Facebook. Create a Facebook Page and develop your organization's very own fan base. If you're clueless about Facebook, take a
site tour.
Your thoughts about Facebook?Please submit your responses to the feedback section:
Have you used Facebook before?
How could you use Facebook to do better journalism?
What kind of Facebook application would be most helpful to journalists?
How might you implement Facebook on your site?
