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7. February, 2012 Digital and online, Recommended, Tools
This article has 5 comments

It’s time for journalists to take Facebook seriously

by Hannah Bass

Yesterday The Entrepreneur argued that journalists are late to the Facebook party. True, but I’d argue that that’s precisely why it’s now such a powerful potential tool.

Facebook has grown into a network of unprecedented size – 845 million active users – and has insinuated itself organically into the everyday lives of over half its users. Facebook is already where masses of ordinary people discuss politics, share memes, start riots and spread revolutions.

On the other hand, Twitter, beloved of journalists, has nowhere near that number of active users. The joy of Twitter, when used confidently, is that it allows users to interact with just about anyone. But in reality, it’s mostly just “civilians” listening in while journalists and celebrities talk among themselves. No wonder journalists love Twitter – it’s so easy just to broadcast a link to your latest byline without the same level of interaction expected on Facebook.

There are, of course, notable exceptions. Sky’s Neal Mann, for example, regularly sources stories via Twitter and is careful to maintain good relations with all potential contacts, making a real effort to reply when he’s tweeted. That kind of reputation pays off but it’s hard work to cultivate. And with Twitter there’s often the sense that you’re preaching to the choir as followers seem to represent a narrower self-selected demographic.

Despite Twitter’s aims, I believe that Facebook is at present a more democratic and less elitist platform. It’s also a space where users already feel comfortable communicating and interacting.

While I was working at DIVA magazine, I wrote a feature on social networking and relationships. I tweeted from the DIVA account asking for readers willing to talk about their experiences and didn’t hear much back. I put the same message on their Facebook group and within half an hour I’d had a dozen emails and scores of comments on the Facebook post. I also wrote a short, silly piece for the website (“top 10 women we wish were gay”) and the link got over 100 comments on Facebook. It was great way for me to interact with readers and defend some of my choices – and notable exclusions!

DIVA seems to be a bit of an exception, however. Perhaps as a smaller, more niche magazine it’s more necessary and more rewarding to interact with readers. But then again, with only a few staffers it has far more meagre resources for social media than larger magazines and newspapers.

Journalists don’t need to be particularly innovative when it comes to social media. They need to find a way to use existing networks; for example, by taking advantage of their magazine’s often woefully static Facebook page or following the example of NY Times journalists and using the subscribe service. News gathering and sharing among “the people” means talking to the people on their terms and on their level, engaging rather than preaching and adapting rather than inventing.

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psmith
psmith 5 pts

Interesting article and I agree with you that FB can be more inclusive. FB has got to the stage where people of all ages understand what it is and what it does. When was the last time you heard someone say "how does Twitter work I don't get it" - but I never hear people say that about FB. It's now common for two and three generations of a family to talk to each other on FB and there's no way Twitter can compete with that.

The other point to make here - particularly from a magazine point of view - is that if you journalists don't build an audience on FB, then the brands will do it themselves. So if you buy a fashion mag to see the latest lines of clothing, why would you bother if you get all the latest pics and prices from Burberry's Facebook page?

Put it this way: Vogue has just over 2m FB fans, whereas Burberry has more than 10m. Burberry is already starting to spend less on online ads as a result. As an industry we need to take this deadly seriously.

More on that here: http://www.themediabriefing.com/article/2011-11-22/marketing-academic-tells-publishers-brands-are-winning-the-social-media-war

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Frost_J
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mhd_bass Put a dot before a name so everyone can see it, not just people that follow both of you.

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Frost_J oh I thought was only if you'd clicked 'reply'?

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mhd_bass Nope.

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DJBentley DzkI0

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