Social Media and Journalists

Bad Facebook journalism is popping up, because nobody really understands how it works. If only someone would pick up the phone to verify now and then.

“Facebook's New York-based journalism programme manager Vadim Lavrusik is on a three-countries-in-three-days tour of Europe. When in London on Monday (23 April) he shared his tips on how journalists can best make use of the platform. Here are his 10 suggestions:”

(Published April 25, 2012.)

This short list was written by Ben LaMothe, who blogs for 10,000 Words. Example:

"Knowing What Stories Get Good Traction On Social Media Sites:

"Not every story you write, shoot or take video for, will translate well on social media sites. But there’s a skill to knowing an online community, and having a sense of what will resonate with that audience on that platform, and what is less likely to have an impact."

(Published April 10, 2012.)

“Simply posting headlines and links has never been good Facebook practice. Now it will nearly ensure that your posts will get little engagement and exposure. Posts should be conversational, whether you are doing a status update or posting a caption for a photo.”

“Changes to the algorithm guiding the Facebook news feed make it more important than ever that newsrooms and journalists engage effectively on Facebook.”

"Reuters journalists Anthony De Rosa and Lauren Young gave their own set of best practices for navigating the stream in a recent webinar [link]. They shared tips for using social media as reporting tools, conversation starters, audience builders and more. IJNet tuned in and found these takeaways ..."

"Mobile location sharing is still relatively nascent. Data shows that usage of location-based social apps on mobile devices grows only incrementally year over year, despite the hype surrounding mobile apps like Foursquare, and the fact that many other apps are introducing layers of location-based 'Look at where I am!' features.

"And, of course, more recently we’ve seen the downside of those location-based services, with the much maligned Girls Around Me app, which triangulated data from Foursquare and Facebook to let creepers know where females were congregating."

(Published April 9, 2012.)

"On Facebook, news is simply what people share. So the fact that, at 7 a.m., I was out of coffee is news. So is a Washington Post story I shared hours later about how updates on Twitter can reveal people’s moods.

"I’m certainly not suggesting that news organizations should start publishing every little thought that comes into readers’ minds and calling it news, or that they should start lowering their news-judgment standards in a futile attempt to woo readers. What I am asserting, though, is: News might be news even if editors don’t consider it to be so."

(Published October 2011.)

"You've always been subscribed to friends. Now you can hear from journalists, celebrities, political figures and other people too. Click the Subscribe button on someone's profile to get their public updates in your News Feed."

Liz Heron, social media editor of the New York Times on seven ways the news outlet is getting "deep and meaningful."

(Published Feb. 13, 2012.)

Examples include Reuters, ProPublica, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, NPR; tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, Egypt; Foursquare, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google+.

(Published October 2011.)