continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

“Not to say all of those [who post content] are journalists, but everyone participates in some shape or form,” said Lavrusik, who, differing from his fellow panelists requested that his Facebook profile be included in his bio in place of his Twitter handle.

As of right now, he has 28,693 subscribers to his profile. The page he runs, Facebook + Journalists, has 146,724 fans, while 1,337 people are “talking about” the destination as of this writing.

Part of Lavrusik’s job is to think of how journalists specifically can use Facebook better, and he’s been focused on building out the educational resources available to journalists on the network to help them enhance their reporting, share better, and find information clustered around events more easily.

“We really think partnerships, such as the one we have with Yahoo, have really personalized the news experience. The New York Times also now has Facebook features. You can log in and see what your friends share.”

Friends, he said, can be a pretty good filter (though some may call this narrowing).

Lavrusik is particularly pumped about Timeline, a new feature that hasn’t launched yet – it was supposed to go live late September. Currently, only Facebook developers can access it.

“It will launch when it’s ready,” said Lavrusik. “I’m really excited about Timeline.”

He’s also boiling over about the subscribe button, another project the 2010 graduate of Columbia’s School of Journalism has been toiling away at. “It’s the biggest thing I’ve worked on in the past few months,” he said.

The new feature will help Facebook users keep up with content better, he said.

It will allow anyone to subscribe to your public updates. This way, people who you may not know personally and/or consider friends, such as readers and sources, can read your updates without becoming a friend in your network. These contacts will be subscribers.

Then, Facebook users will be able to designate information they post as public (available to subscribers) or available only to those who are friends in their network.

This may further help users limit the availability of the information they post so that only certain people in their network can see it – without limiting the size of their overall network.

“We don’t give enough credit on how far people have come, how much progress has been made,” said Lavrusik. “Five years ago I used to help my mom log into her Wells Fargo account to check her account.” She now has her very own Facebook account, he said, that she created on her own.

“The fastest-growing demographic on Facebook is 55-plus,” he adds.

This is information he and colleagues study closely.

“The majority of news organizations don’t think enough about analytics and audience research,” said Lavrusik, “How the demographics break down.”

His gain, perhaps. The average Facebook user now posts double the amount of content they did this time last year, and that doubling has occurred each of the last two years, said Lavrusik.

Facebook actually has made changes based on how it’s seen users operate on its network.

For example, he said, in response to noticing that a community blog had started using the notes feature to post blog posts, they considered how they might improve the formatting of long-form content and decided to increase the number of characters available to use in a status update from 420 to 5,000 characters.

“If content is king,” said Lavrusik, “then distribution is queen.”

Does volume equate quality? Yes, he thinks so.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Political scribes, voters, news junkies and activists are using social media to seamlessly interact with the campaigns and the candidates, share behind-the scenes flavor with readers and gauge how voters are reacting to events in the news cycle.

It’s not unlike what major brands and commerce sites on Facebook are doing to encourage engagement with fans.

The Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank, has a few Facebook tips that political reporters can use as they cover the 2012 elections.

But really, these are general tips that anyone with a Facebook presence can employ to maximize their exposure and boost interaction with their key audiences.

Review Facebook Ads

A look at a candidate’s Facebook ads is a lesson in how the campaign is targeting local voters.

Republican presidential candidates are using multiple Facebook advertising tools to micro-target specific demographic groups.

Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty used sponsored stories. Romney and Rick Perry have developed applications that supporters can download.

Use Facebook Search

Use Facebook’s search tool to quickly gauge what voters, activists or campaigns are saying about developing news and events.

Read Facebook Fan Pages

Members of Congress are using Facebook and Facebook fan pages in myriad ways to share their views on specific legislation, engage with constituents in their district, or even document their votes on bills.

Reviewing the information shared on Facebook is one way to determine how transparent and accessible a candidate is.

Identify Sources

Review a candidate’s Facebook page, as well as the pages of political groups and causes, to find engaged supporters who may be willing to speak with you.

Facebook has become a great way for candidates to identify highly enthusiastic supporters.

For example, Jon Huntsman, developed a top supporters program on Facebook, that ranks and rewards his most ardent fans.

Notice Facebook Updates

Buzz for major campaign announcements is often created on sites such as Facebook.

Tim Pawlenty used a Facebook town hall to announce his exploratory committee.

And Poynter notes that, days before Rick Perry announced his presidency, he began updating his Facebook bio and interests.

Engage With News Hounds

Journalists and their employers ought to enable the subscribe feature and post links to stories.

Consider live streaming your election night coverage or other political programming, as CBS News and NBC News have done.

Our Election Tracker

Of course, journalists should remember our Election Tracker 2012, which offers a constantly updated look at the Facebook status of the presidential contenders, members of Congress and state government leaders.

Can you think of any other Facebook tips that can improve 2012 election coverage?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

According to blog TheNextWeb, the new BBC social media policy now requires “a second pair of eyes” to review every Facebook post (and Twitter update, for that matter) related to news reporting.

The policy clearly states, “A second check might well avoid you saying or linking to something unwise, which could land you, or the BBC, in trouble.”

The BBC also states some of the obvious, like, “Don’t say anything stupid,” and warns reporters to avoid sounding off on a particular topic or idea. A Washington Post editor recently swore off another social networking platform because it was too tempting to share personal views.

The Canadian Broadcasting Co. has joined most other major media organizations in not only creating social media guidelines, but also continuing to modify them as social media converges with other sources. For example, CBC recently made its Facebook policy more stringent by prohibiting journalists from using posts for attribution, as a way of encouraging reporters to actually report from the field, as opposed to from their desk.

The BBC guidelines are divided into three areas:

1. Your own personal activity, done for your friends and contacts, but not under or in the name of BBC News
2. Activity for core news (breaking news), programs, or genres carried out officially in the name of BBC News
3. Activity of editors, presenters, correspondents, or reporters carried out as part of official BBC News output.

Readers, what do you think of the BBC’s new Facebook policy?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.