By Ashley Rogers
To be a journalist into today’s technologically advanced world, one must embrace the concept of social media profiles. SM profiles help to gather a following of readers, interact about societal issues and allow journalists to broadcast their stories with a click of a button. I searched for three journalistic profiles that are currently available on Facebook and Twitter. Each journalist had a list of varying credentials and followers.
The first profile I reviewed was CNN news anchor Anderson Cooper. His Facebook profile had 393, 206 followers with the majority of content being topics featured on his show “Anderson 360.” The website is updated several times throughout the day to announce breaking news as well as any changes or new guests added to his CNN program. There are photos and video to give a visual presentation of news events Anderson has covered. Followers of Anderson’s comment frequently on postings, but Anderson does not personally reply back on his Facebook. Instead, it looks to be set up more as a discussion forum for followers to interact with one another. Keeping his content professionally based, Anderson seems to be generating news talk and public opinions with his posting.
The next profile I looked at was Lisa Ling, special correspondent for the Oprah show and National Geographic host. Her Twitter account had 33,720 followers and a total of 1,505 tweets. Lisa updates her page almost daily about personal and professional topics. Content ranges from comments about Los Angeles weather to political events. It appears that Lisa Ling is just entering the world of social media profiles on Facebook and Twitter. Her Facebook page shows that she just recently joined.
The final profile I researched was Amy Green, a freelance journalist who has contributed to People, Newsweek, the New York Times and Christian Science Monitor. Her Twitter page had 133 followers. Green seems more interested in her writing than networking with social media. Her tweets ranged from personal to professional content. She also retweeted several postings. There were several links to her blog, but that does not seem to have a large following either. A majority of the blog and Twitter account discussed projects she is working on.
Out of the three profiles I viewed, I would have to say that Anderson Cooper’s was the most impressive and interactive. Though he did not reply to postings, his Facebook page made followers talk with each other and generate news buzz. This to me is smart social networking because he has created a forum that people want to talk about and therefore gets his name out more. In all fairness though, he is a well known figure which helps in furthering his brand. I would like to see how Lisa Ling’s social media profiles develop. She reports on a wide variety of stories and I would like to see more of that content on her websites. I thought that some of the comments on Lisa’s page as well as Amy’s needed to be posted elsewhere. I would rather read about the topics they are reporting on than some of the random content they included on their pages. Regardless of the content, I found that the need for social media profiles is an important part to maintaining a successful journalism career.
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