When I’m teaching social media I find the first hurdle is that many journalists are suspicious of it as a publishing platform.
They get Twitter, but with Facebook they’re not so sure. It's just too social for them, too much about friends sharing stuff that's very personal to a small circle.
But I think it’s a great platform. Here’s why.
Facebook is beginning to move down the Web 3.0 route that underpins our interest, as journalists, in social media, and which is covered in depth in Masterclass 2 of MMJ.I talked there about how readers were creating personalised news stands of the material they were interested in.
That's exactly what users are able to do with Facebook.
On Facebook, users can become fans of us, of our content, and welcome our Facebook publishing stream onto their own news feed page.
There, our content is delivered alongside material from their own social circle.The result is a hybrid of personal communications from friends and material from organisations that an individual likes, enjoys, values, and wants to follow.
So Facebook is a very special place, and a very significant one for journalists to work in.
But we need to learn how to use it most effectively.
I posted an introduction to Facebook here If you are a subscriber to MMJ you can check it out, to become a susbcriber, buy the textbook, in ebook or paper form, here
I won't go over that ground again, but try to give an overview of the latest advice and thinking about optimising Facebook for journalism.
One key thing.
Keep your personal Facebook presence separate from your journalistic presence. I have separate accounts, so there is a complete separation. Others simply create a page for their journalism on their existing account.
1 comment:
Of course, having two separate accounts is against Facebook's T&Cs – so watch out it doesn't find out...
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