Facebook as a news tool

[Don Denton]

Hi:

Looking for some feedback here;

Our company has just recently started to push using Facebook as a tool for not only drawing readers to the papers (online and printed) but as a source of news in itself.

I'm finding that from a photo perspective, viewers/readers react most strongly to oddball/offbeat photos and/or pretty landscapes. It appears that, on Facebook at least, you can't run enough sunrise or sunset pictures. For some reason sports seems to draw the least commentary/involvement.

I'd be interested to hear what other papers are seeing readers are commenting on and how you are using Facebook.

Thanks

Don

[Gregory Sawisky]

I'd be wary of posting ANY photos to Facebook. I seem to recall that when you upload photos to FB you relinquish all rights to the photos and FB can re-use them, sell them, or do anything with them as they please.

[Anil Mungal]

I'd be wary of posting ANY photos to Facebook. I seem to recall that when you upload photos to FB you relinquish all rights to the photos and FB can re-use them, sell them, or do anything with them as they please.

Currently you don't relinquish rights, but you do allow Facebook to do what they please with it until you delete it.
See the Facebook Legal Terms link: http://www.facebook.com/legal/terms.

Specifically section 2 states:

You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings. In addition:

• For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.
• When you delete IP content, it is deleted in a manner similar to emptying the recycle bin on a computer. However, you understand that removed content may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time (but will not be available to others).

Of course, these terms can be changed at any time.

[Moe Doiron]

Hey Don, no inside info, just coming at this is as a sideliner ...

But not sure containing viewers to your branded FB page with your content is of much value. The point would be to use your FB page reach to alert subscribers to stories, galleries, news, etc and have them follow the link back to your main page. FB "recommendations" and "likes" reach out to an even wider audience to bring in new readers. That way your advertisers benefit. Simply feeding content to the FB page would only benefit Facebook and their advertisers. Using it as a newsfeed destination, hmm, dunno.

Now of course that opinion is only effective until something new comes along ... 

As for the pretty sunset photos ... there you have the million dollar question in newspaper online programming:

Do you dumb down and provide content that’s pretty much available everywhere else and attract a wider audience to bring home the clicks or do you keep the quality high and unique so fewer but more loyal readers come to you for their news?

Some have gone overboard with the first strategy but most use a (sometimes) balanced hybrid of the two to limited success. Btw, the latter of those strategies is what made print newspapers successful for decades.

It’s a slippery slope.

Good luck!

[Warren Toda]

(sorry, another long one)

Our company has just recently started to push using Facebook as a tool for not only drawing readers to the papers (online and printed) but as a source of news in itself.

What do you mean by using Facebook "as a source of news in itself"?


I don't run a newspaper, (but if I did, it would be wildly successful    ), but I would not do what every other paper is doing with Facebook or Twitter because it isn't working and it never will.

Virtually all businesses, newspapers included, treat Facebook and Twitter as places for free advertising. Papers just dump promos and teasers for recently-published articles: "In-depth analysis of the budget", "Zoo names new polar bear", "New gallery from the Leafs-Bruins game just posted" ...... Nobody #$@^! cares!

Don't try to use FB or Twitter as way to lure people to your paper's web site. Your hometown citizenry already know you exist. They all know how to use a web browser and they know where your web site is. Anyone who wants to buy a paper is already buying it.

Reading a newspaper separates people because it's a solitary activity, it's not a team sport. FB is the opposite because it connects people, it is a team sport. (Note the magic phrase: connects people.)

Use Facebook to get people talking. Period.

From famous newspaper publisher Bonnie Raitt:
                         Let's give them something to talk about
                         A little mystery to figure out
                         Let's give them something to talk about


When you use FB, remember that it's only about them, the reader. It's never about you the newspaper. Never!

On FB, be the cheerleaders for your hometown. It's your job to start "the wave". (Yes, it sounds hokey, but bear with me).

Everyone wants to help but no one wants to go first. (see: Diffusion of responsibility). Your job on FB is to be that person, the one person who takes charge and organizes people's efforts.

What's important in your city, what needs to be done, what can you do to inspire, what can you do to cause hope?

Always break things down into little accomplishable tasks. This keeps people motivated since each challenge is do-able and, thus, has an end point. People need to see that their efforts have a real, meaningful effect. Folks really do want to make a difference, but a vague and impossible task like "we need to raise money to fight cancer" is a complete waste of time.


Quick (and lousy) examples off the top of my head:

1) Easy one: clean up a park (or two) each weekend. Get Tim Hortons, McDonalds, PizzaPizza, etc. to donate refreshments. Pictures and story of park cleanups go into your paper and web site, but not on FB.


2) Local animal shelter is overcrowded: talk about it on FB, run cute animal pictures on FB, do a countdown on FB as each animal is adopted. Pictures and stories about pet ownership, the value of pets, and maybe profiles of some of the new pet owners go into your paper and web site but not on FB.


3) Playground needs new equipment:

The Main Street playground needs new equipment. Our good friends at Maple Street Home Depot are going to donate the lumber and other building materials. The Smith Gardening Company on Queen Street is donating some sod and small bushes.

So now all we need is about 30 people with tools to put the gym set together and another 15 people with green thumbs to plant the sod and bushes. Who's in?

There are about 230 kids in the neighbourhood who are counting on us.

Pictures and story of playground construction go in newspaper and web site, but not on FB.


4) Silly stuff: (as always, pictures and story go in newspaper and web site, but not on FB.)

• This weekend is going to be really hot! If we can get 100 people in bathing suits to show up at ....., it'll make for one heck of a picture!

• There's an XYZ High School football game this weekend. Let's surprise the team with a big league crowd of cheering fans. We're going to supply the reporter and photographer, Acme Meat Company is going to supply the hot dogs and Tim Hortons will supply the drinks.

All we need is you. Bring a chair, bring a friend, bring your screaming voice and bring your wildly painted face. (School colours are yellow and green, by the way)

• What Guinness World Record can we attempt? Nothing too dangerous please.


5) When you were a kid, remember how much fun it was to have a bicycle? Remember how great it was for you and your friends to spend an entire summer's day riding your bikes?

The Salvation Army has told us they know 34 kids who, because of family problems, can't afford a new bicycle.

ABCD Sporting Goods on King Street can get us 34 cool bikes and helmets at cost. But we need to raise $8,000. We could ask for donations (and of course we'll take donations!) but we know money is tight everywhere.

So how about this: we'll give a free full page ad to ABCD Sports. For each person who cuts out the ad and takes it to ABCD Sporting Goods, the cost of the bikes will drop by $10.

In our city of 127,650 people, can we find 800 heroes?


6) What did someone else do for you today that made them your hero? (Ongoing pictures and stories of these "heroes" go in the paper and web site but not on FB).


7) Start a trade or barter on FB (not sure if this would be allowed). This could copy the red paper clip. Perhaps make it only for folks in your home town area.


8 ) Who do you know that should be featured in our newspaper and why?



Do not use FB as a means of free advertising. Do not attempt to recreate your newspaper on FB. Do not just dump links to your web site on FB.

Use FB for only three things (not necessarily in this order):

               • to inspire
               • to create hope
               • to spread joy

And you can do this by creating a shared purpose. People use FB to be part of something. What was that magic phrase again?

[Stacey Newman]

As a photographer and writer, I post very little "work" on Facebook. What is on Facebook I watermark and keep very low res. Having said that, in the stock photo world the community of photographers has moved most discussion groups and sharing forums over to FB, simply because it's a medium many of us in the industry, all over the world, are using. I pretty firmly believe that compromising content for Facebook audiences would be a terrible direction to take things.

I like Moe's comments and Warren's....Facebook/Twitter as means of linking to your publication/paper sites...sure. But I really hope to see outlets maintain standards and lead with their quality content, rather than dumbing it down to gather ratings via social media.

[Ken Gigliotti]

Pictures for stories are automatic and compulsory . Or are they ? The one thing editors and  reporters  learn in J-School about  photographs  is , “it sure is nice to see what the person they are writing about looks like.”
  I do mean the only thing they learn in J-School about photographs . These identification  photos , for reasons of “niceness” have come to preempt  more interesting photos .I have never agreed  with this  policy , yet it is what we live with . The newspaper form  has so much  repetition . It would be “nice” to see other  types of photos  occupy valuable , limited  space . Dumbing down , dumb is running a boring picture and throwing away  “nice” pictures . Even pictures without people could be included . Hang pictures like art within the architecture of the newspaper . Couldn't hurt.

[Kenneth Armstrong]

This is a different question entirely, but I was wondering about getting on Facebook. I left it years ago (about 2006) and never looked back but I'm thinking as a freelancer I should get back on.

In particular I had an assignment editor find me recently through Facebook (by asking "who freelances in Sault Ste Marie" in his status) and it made me think of getting back on.

Any thoughts? I'm not big on the idea but it seems like Facebook isn't going away anytime soon.

[Ken Gigliotti]

I think Don's original question had to do with the kinds of pictures people react to . When we see the pictures people offer to newspapers and TV  networks it is clear that the range is much wider that what we as photographers  are allowed to offer in the media we work in .  Some of the work offered by the public is “ordinary” but some of it it is extraordinary.
  Photography is personal  , we can bring personal pictures to the media .People live and grow ,and  that is somehow not news. It is also the most valued  of photography , it is the thing people mourn the most when it is lost , the thing they are most proud of and show their friend everyday .WE are an everyday media ,alway have been . There is room for that. If not a newspaper ,  the public will find other outlets.
   They have found other outlets. This is the truth we do not see .
   I know for a fact , newspaper photography is extremely limited on a daily basis . Our paper has engaged in many book publishing projects  and the photos from these projects have found themselves into the newspaper . Not every picture needs a person , video proves that , weather , the change of season , rising and falling  light on architecture . Just photography is appreciated. We need to validate the things our readers see . We need to see what they see. Photography effects people in many different ways , we need to acknowledge that photos as “information”  is a very narrow path. Our readers appreciated a good photograph. Photographs can effect people in a non literal way . They will often say ,  “I don't know why I like this photo , but I just do .” That should be a primary goal .

[Don Denton]

Thanks for all the replies.

Warren had a question as what I meant by Facebook as a source of news.

That simply means posting some photos and/or brief news stories on Facebook as quickly as possible. These photos/stories might not make the paper or online version or at the very least will not be posted as quickly to the online version. We are posting links and promos to online/printed stories but the Facebook postings I'm talking about are unique  and fresh news items in themselves.

Facebook sort of comes in between Twitter (very fast, very brief) and the online paper and the idea is that every outlet helps you bring eyes to your (oh how I hate this word) 'brand'

dd

[Geoff Lister]

Interesting stuff here. I worked for the student paper at UBC for the last two years and we're always playing around with what to do on social media. The best part is that nearly 100% of our readership uses it.

Quirky photos work. People like weird things on the internet.

Links only work if someone else reposts your link. Facebook has an algorithm that buries links, especially if you don't post through Facebook. Facebook wants you to stay on Facebook. That said, we still post them, because if something does go viral, we can track the link through Facebook analytics and see how many people are clicking on it versus how many people see it.

What works best though was surprising. We put event photos (250 of them) up from the last day of classes and our reach went up 4000%. I didn't make a mistake with the four digits there. People tag there friends, who see the photo and want to tag there friends, but have to like the page to do so, and then they're hooked. One set of event photos saw a 25% increase in followers and an instant increase in the velocity our articles have on Facebook. We did the same with another event and had similar results. The plan is to just blast any major event with a ton of photos, it's phenomenal for our web traffic, long term.

It's about finding the balance of what kind of content to put on Facebook (which earns you no revenue) to draw in your readership and what to put on your website that people will click through to go to the article.

Something we haven't tried that I've heard is very effective from someone tied into the social media world is posting a couple photos with the link to the story below, it skirts Facebook's link algorithm.

At the end of the day, the majority of our online traffic comes through Facebook, so we consider it pretty important to use. We also gather all sorts of tips through both Facebook and Twitter, reinforce connections and sources through social media.