New gig. Any advice/ideas?

Comment

Comment by Jason Molinet on September 16, 2008 at 12:24pm

Facebook suggestions.

Here's a fan page for one of my hyperlocal sites:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/FriarSportscom/25241231200

Here's a product my company developed and sells to help newspapers and web sites directly interface on Facebook:

http://apps.new.facebook.com/buildnclickrss/

Comment by Jamie Kelly on September 16, 2008 at 11:36am

Stephanie I've actually been kicking this around myself. We have a facebook page, but don't use it much. I've been on facebook for years, but am still trying to find out how we can make it useful for the paper.

Comment by Stephanie Romanski on September 16, 2008 at 11:15am

Can someone point me to some examples of papers utilizing Facebook? To be honest, I can't stand facebook/myspace etc. I've got our paper on there, but other than feeding our stories to it, I'm not familiar enough with Facebook to make good use of it. Any suggestions appreciated.

Comment by Joe Rutland on September 16, 2008 at 11:10am

Twitter ... that's a great suggestion. FWIW: A number of people here at the Laredo Morning Times, where I'm Business Editor, are on Facebook. I am not sure how many are on Twitter, yet my desire is to stay active in social media myself and let others beyond print media see that I am capable of doing more than just living in a print-only mindset. I see the paradigm shift taking place. I feel it within myself. Good luck and keep me/us posted.

Sincerely,

Joe Rutland
Business Editor
Laredo Morning Times
www.lmtonline.com

Comment by Jamie Kelly on September 16, 2008 at 10:20am

That's great advice! We're already doing a lot of those things, esp. w Twitter, and looking to do more, particularly with forums. (we already have comments on stories, but I'd like a place were users can set the discussion)

Thanks for all the help!

Comment by Stephanie Romanski on September 16, 2008 at 10:15am

Definitely get on Twitter.

Set up your update rss feed to automatically post to Twitter whenever a new story is posted. Do a Twitter search on your city and surrounding areas and follow those people. They'll get a notice that your paper is following them, and chances are they will return the follow. Helps get the word out about your Twitter stream. Post the tweets on the front page of your paper's website. Pimp the heck out of it in print. Get your reporters and photogs twitter accounts and ask them to send tweets when they're out in the field. Got a columnist? Movie critic? Restaurant critic? Have them tweet.

Look into seeing if anyone in your community would be willing to tweet sports scores from local games and run them on the site.

Big story breaking? Get into your paper's twitter stream asap. Get a liveblog going - use Cover It Live (coveritlive.com) to post updates in real time and take questions from readers.

Use CiL for other things too, like political debates. Get your sports writers together to do a 30 minute chat with the readers before some big game. It's free, it's easy, and it's awesome.

Use interactive maps. Some newspapers have Google maps where readers can post gas prices at varius stations in their area. Or a pothole map.

If you don't have forums, get some installed. Let readers comment on stories.

Most importantly, be enthusastic with the newsroom. Sometimes they fear change and can resist these ideas. Don't get angry or frustrated. Just keep plugging away. Work on changing the culture. Let your excitement about these tools show. Do some research and show them examples of great uses of twitter and liveblogging.

I'll shutup now. :)

Comment by Jason Molinet on September 15, 2008 at 2:30pm

Twitter feed a few key updates a day. That would be the next move...

Comment by Jamie Kelly on September 15, 2008 at 12:56pm

good call. We already have a page, I need to look at it and see how we can update it.

Thanks!

Comment by Jason Molinet on September 15, 2008 at 12:48pm

Start with something simple. Get on Facebook, personally and as a newspaper. In fact, recruit every reporter to join Facebook that's not already online. Plug it in the paper and on the paper's web site...