The most effective ways for journalists to use Facebook

Maybe the most important quality of the interactive Web for journalists is the prospect to connect with their audiences through social networking websites. Journalists have begun to realize the immense potential of social networking as a reader-interaction, news-collection and information-dissemination tool. Today, all this is a new thing. In ten years from now, it will all be a routine and we will all be wondering how journalism had survived before without Facebook, Twitter or other social networking websites.

The job of journalism is to deliver globally while connecting locally, nationally, and internationally to help the information flow everywhere, to anyone, without the slightest setback. Facebook is a huge online community with over 250 million active users out of who 120 million log on at least once each day. The primary value of Facebook for journalists is gaining greater exposure and getting their message to a broader audience through social connections.

However, Facebook has also its pitfalls and a savvy journalist must be prepared to face possible embarassments.

The first step is setting up a profile. Many journalists use their personal profile to reach their readers, while others set up a business page to target their audiences. Both options work quite well. Besides, by setting up a business page, Facebook automatically links it to the personal profile, so readers can also see the person behind the professional. Including information about favorite music, movies, books, TV series and quotes provides an idea about the personal interests of the writer and possibly the character. Moreover, equally important is adding a link to the personal blog. In that way, readers who are interested in 'investigating' the personal profile will be able to visit a journalist's personal blog.

However, it often comes as no surprise that lots of online information is fake or incorrect. As, there is no way to double-check the information, the only way to verify it is to contact the journalist directly. Although the contact will also be online, people rarely lie if they are contacted directly because they feel honored. Besides, if the page has no inconsistencies and the writing is consistent to the age, education etc, then most probably information is correct.

Including a profile picture gives the chance to people to get an idea of the 'real' person. In fact, readers connect better if they see who the writer is. The looks, the expression, the posture, all reveal a detail about someone's character. Uploading an appropriate photo, preferably casual and 'catchy', will do the job of attracting more contacts. As it normally happens with people who use Facebook for personal reasons, a nice, intriguing profile picture has more chances to be preferred over a dull, purely professional portrait. Readers need to see the human behind the professional writer. Again, a picture that is cropped or unclear may arouse suspicions about a Facebook profile.

One of the most important aspects of Facebook is connections. Journalists that have built their profiles appropriately look for people to connect with as a means to promote their work and advertise their organization. To befriend with new people they usually do searches related to their field of expertise so that they gain new readers and new posting opportunities.

Having connections without interacting with them is worthless. The whole point of social networking is interaction. Journalists need to interact with their contacts so that they get feedback on their work, and possibly suggestions, comments, ideas. Many journalists share links to their blogs, write on their contacts' walls, comment on their friends' postings, and in general they interact. Sitting still and waiting for other people to talk without answering back is a huge mistake on Facebook.

A great way for journalists to promote their work is through the status updates. Typically, journalists give a brief description of their latest post on their Facebook status so that readers get instantly informed about their latest blog. This is a pretty enticing way to keep, at least, a group of readers interested in their work. Besides, journalists add a relevant link that gets the readers directly to the blog page to read the whole posting. Over time, status updates become an essential part of their routine and as the number of readers grown, it becomes more useful because it exposes their work to a larger audience. Status updates are also a good means to communicate thoughts, mood, links to news stories; anything that journalists consider will add value to their work and personality.

Many journalists inform their readers that they have a Facebook account so that they can follow them there. Besides, many of them get to know their readers by following what they post on their walls and what comments they make on their postings. In that way, journalists may come up with some great ideas about a new posting.

Finally, Facebook is a huge source of special interest groups. Journalists can join any of these groups and push on stories using social networking platforms instead of traditional pressure groups.

All in all, social networking is an excellent tool for journalists to promote their work and gain greater exposure. However, it takes some caution as Facebook belongs to the blogosphere and not to the real world. Anyone can write anything and people often misrepresent themselves. Journalists do have the sixth sense and as such they are able to keep certain ethical boundaries; or at least, they should.