Print media may be a dying enterprise due to the Internet, but thanks to Facebook, some smaller news sources are actually gaining more exposure. A study of newspapers and websites in Chicago showed that the smaller sites derived one-half of their traffic directly from Facebook.

The study found that social media is vitally important for smaller blogs and sites, which gain readership based on likes, shares, and word-of-mouth. Larger sites, such as www.chicagotribune.com, already have brands built up from decades of print media history. Overall, 18.9 percent of the traffic from Chicago-based news sites of all sizes comes from Facebook.

The study, conducted by the Chicago Community Trust, suggests that more publishers and bloggers should look at Facebook as a way to distribute news and bring more traffic to the sites:

Emphasize social media as a traffic driver. Especially for small sites, it is now as  important to have a Facebook page as a home page. Devote time and attention to  winning likes of your Facebook page, and update the page frequently.

Readers: Do you get your news from Facebook, Twitter,or the source?

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