Ideas for good use of Facebook?
Hi, all.
Does anyone have examples of news organizations that use Facebook particularly well? We have a fan page with 289 followers -- which is about twice what we have on Twitter -- but I don't think we've really hit on how to use Facebook effectively. Basically, every once in a while we'll put out a link to either a major breaking news story or a cool feature, and that's about it.
As a result, although I feel pretty good about our use of our Twitter feed, it seems like our Facebook usage is a bit lacking.
Any suggestions? Personal experiences? Good models to point to?
Does anyone have examples of news organizations that use Facebook particularly well? We have a fan page with 289 followers -- which is about twice what we have on Twitter -- but I don't think we've really hit on how to use Facebook effectively. Basically, every once in a while we'll put out a link to either a major breaking news story or a cool feature, and that's about it.
As a result, although I feel pretty good about our use of our Twitter feed, it seems like our Facebook usage is a bit lacking.
Any suggestions? Personal experiences? Good models to point to?
Views: 1020
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Leah on -
Hi Erik,
Here are some robust Facebook fan pages:
Austin American-Statesman has a great Twitter integration using Involver, nice Databases tab linking to computer-assisted reporting projects and nice mix of post users and Statesman's posts to wall:
http://www.facebook.com/statesman
This New York Times page has status updates several times a day. Nice mix of photos, video and a quiz Facebook app. Good engagement.
http://www.facebook.com/nytimes
CNN's fan page has a highly active discussion section. Nice use of events for special programming. Good mix of engagement, breaking news, questions to fans:
http://www.facebook.com/cnn
Newsweek has some pretty interesting custom content on its boxes tab. Nice integration of Twitter using Involver. Good mix of photos and video. Good engagement:
http://www.facebook.com/Newsweek
Hope this is helpful...
-
Permalink Reply by Greg Linch on -
Ditto Leah's recommendations. In addition to posting stories during the day, I'd also suggest a more personal touch. For example, when I interned at DMN last summer and ran the FB page, I would ask questions from, "What are your plans for this weekend?" to "Hey, there's a features writers looking for local bands to profile. Who would you recommend?" And the always important request for feedback, "How we are doing on Facebook? What could we improve? What do you like to see here?"
That last question also relates to the audience and their expectations for news on Facebook. Do they just want links to stories and other content or are they looking for a more personal experience (i.e. you highlighting interesting things residents are doing, saying, posting to FB). People might like one or the other or a mix, so you could split the presence into auto-fed account for news and a more personal account. That way you minimize complaints on both sides (straight news and more personal) and those interested in the mix could just subscribe to both.
I think it's also important to jump into the comments -- be it to respond, clarify or keep the conversation going. This can also be good to cross-pollinate discussion if there's something especially insightful in comments on the site or FB.
Also, fans will appreciate an occasional photo that's interesting or quirky.
-
Permalink Reply by Spencer Soper on -
Great question, Erik. And I've enjoyed reading the others responses. One thing I'd add is to THINK NICHE.
Don't just have a general Facebook presence for the paper. Fine to have one for brand-building, but that can't be the only tool. That's the dated mentality that "we'll give them everything and let them pick what they like." Have a separate FB page for high school sports coverage, for instance. Or a popular columnist. Or for the paper's political coverage. Or for local crime news. That way you're not blasting out every headline and people get desensitized to them. With niche-oriented FB pages, you attract people interested in particular content and engage them directly about that without diluting the relationship with stuff in which they have no interest. This task is best left to the reporters covering these topics.
Over the summer I started an FB fan page for my weekly column On The Cheap. We just crossed the 500 fan mark without advertising or anything. And the fan base has spread beyond our print circulation area. It's also helped us promote our silly videos, like this one, which obviously can't appear in the paper.
-
Permalink Reply by Paul Balcerak on -
These are all great suggestions. One more (though maybe someone said it and I missed it or maybe it's in a link): Make use of your @ button. Since adding @ replies (basically copying Twitter), Facebook has made it a lot easier to make your content pop up on other pages.
To make it work, just type @ in your status update bar and then start typing the name of the person or fan page you're referencing (make sure doing so is relevant, obviously) and click on the name when you see it. Once you post your update, that person will get a notification.
-
Permalink Reply by Noah Bombard on -
I'd appreciate any insight you guys might have on the Facebook discussion I started here: http://www.wiredjournalists.com/forum/topics/facebook-fan-pages-and
-
Permalink Reply by Erik Gable on -
Two things that are bugging me about Facebook fan pages:
1. Since I'm an administrator of our page, any time I post to the wall or respond to another Facebook user, I'm not me -- I'm "The Daily Telegram - Adrian, Mich." Makes it kind of hard to engage with people on a personal level when everything I do is automatically as "the institution." (I know I could just sign the posts, but they still have the institutional name and avatar.)
2. Facebook won't let us change the names of fan pages! OK, I realize there are good reasons for this -- they don't want 5,000 people waking up one morning and finding that where they were previously listed as fans of "puppies and kittens," they're now listed as being fans of "raunchy sex" -- but given that businesses and their brand identities both change, wouldn't it make sense to have some way to change page names?
-
Permalink Reply by Noah Bombard on
-
Yeah, there is that divide when you're addressing your Facebook fans or friends as a company. There's no reason you and other staff can't have fan pages of your own, though. That's your opportunity to put your professional face on the company. People are generally more interested in following a reporter or editor at a newspaper than following the newspaper itself, I think. That's the way I'd like to see The Eagle-Tribune move.
Use that Daily Telegram page to post the big stories, inquiries, info on upcoming coverage, etc. Use your individual fan pages to build a following of people who are interested in the work YOU are doing there. That's my two cents, anyhow. Then again, my opinion on these things changes every time Facebook makes major changes.
-
Permalink Reply by Spencer Soper on
-
Start your own work-related profile, Erik, and get out there and mix it up. Readers like that. I have one anecdote to share that was a real eye opener for me. I cover energy, and Pennsylvania's electric industry has been deregulated. Folks in our area now have to shop for an electricity provider, just like you shop for telephone carrier or home heating oil delivery company. There's a lot of confusion and misinformation out there, and it runs rampant in our comments section whenever I right a story. One day I saw folks spewing bad info, so I posted a comment that straightened things out. I also told folks I'd be following the matter and if they sent me an e-mail, I'd put them on a loop for updates whenver I wrote a story on this issue. The e-mails came pouring in and now whenever I do an electric story, I e-mail it to 100-plus readers and get a lot of feedback, ledes and calls. Readers want a personal connection, and a Facebook page can help you do that.
-
Permalink Reply by Tom Davidson on -
A side question, Spencer (and this may be worthy of its own thread): What are you using to manage that email list? Do you simply use a blind cc: list in Outlook or whatever your corporate email system is? Did you web team give you access to an email list-management tool that's part of their CMS? Or are you using a third-party software like MailChimp or Constant Contact?
-tgd
-
Permalink Reply by Spencer Soper on
-
I manage it on Outlook, Tom. If you have a better way to handle it, I'd love to see it.
-
Permalink Reply by Tom Davidson on
-
One small way to attack this is via an avatar that projects personality. My favorite, of course, is Col. Tribune at Chicago Tribune (but then again, I'm weird - as is Bill Adee, the Colonel's creator and occasional alter ego).
-
Permalink Reply by Mariella Bussolati on -
Hi I can tell you about LaComune Di Milano page on Facebook. This is not a media, but something like. It's actually a subvertising media. making political information on the streets with signs that mimic the official signs of the municipality of Milano, Italy. If you do not understand italian, you can have some informations here http://www.memefest.org/en/profile/lacomune/ (La comune is patricipating to Memefest festival)
As you can see LaComune has around 1 thousands friends. In the first steps they came just a while after each action (the first 300). Then people starting asking friendship just because they have seen the profile in their friends page. They were probably curious about the odd icon. The power of Facebook as we know, is to let people spread your news sharing the post with others . And feed many comments all over.
Now there is some people who download the signs, print them and put them on the streets. And even if there is also a website (http://scusateci.noblogs.org) facebook is far more useful to spread the news of new actions.
La comune has also a Twitter, but probably this could be more useful if the action were made very often, which of course is not.I hope this can be useful for you
ciao
Mariella
© 2013 Created by Ryan Sholin.
Powered by
