Using Social Media to Promote Published Work

By Meaghan Habuda

Though some journalists have their work published by the news organizations employing them, supporting the content they produce through social media is necessary in order to increase readership and maintain a personal, even professional, visibility online.

The Pew Research Center recognized a 2011 study that discovered five of 25 major news websites were able to acquire 6 to 8 percent of their audience from Facebook. Twitter generated less than 1 percent of readers in the findings, but content shared on the site has proven to create noticeable social presence online. The following information will enable media personnel to better promote their journalistic output.

• Facebook. Because users may now “subscribe” to each other, people have the ability to receive real-time updates from journalists posting brief summaries and external links to their completed articles. For example, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! does this on her profile, ending some posts with a direct question posed at users. This creates social visibility for the journalist and brings readers to the actual media publication site, where they will typically come across more stories to enjoy further reading. A journalist is able to engage audiences they would not have normally reached by subscribers who take advantage of the “share” button too, passing off stories they find intriguing to their friends. These actions initiate instant public discourse, ultimately allowing a free-flowing discussion of diverse opinions and ideas to manifest through “likes” and comments.  In addition, timeliness is essential in reporting, and Facebook’s live updates via the ticker on the right hand side of the webpage warrants users to stay informed on any potential breaking news or event a journalist may cover. The 5,000 character limit also permits journalists to post their articles directly to the site rather than linking to an outside source.
  
  

• Twitter. A journalist posting links on Twitter to their published work for readers to access should be obvious. However, adding a publication’s handle and relevant hashtags to tweets can enhance user engagement. If the subject of a story has a handle, include that too. Hashtags are a great tool for organizing content and conversations between journalists and readers. Feedback through hashtags is immediate and can be monitored overtime. Mother Jones’ David Corn tweets the political news articles he composes frequently, and sometimes he posts a link to the same story twice. In the picture, Corn first updated his account with the article title and url. Later, he posted the link again, rewording its description and incorporating President Barack Obama’s handle with a hashtag into the tweet. Similar to Facebook, reporters linking to their work on Twitter direct supplemental traffic to the authentic site of the press organization they have written for. Retweets additionally drive users to share news stories in an even simpler way than they would using Facebook.
  
  

Sources:

Buck, S. (2011, November 4). What Facebook's New Features Mean for Journalists. Mashable. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2011/11/04/new-facebook-for-journalists-journalism/

Twitter. (2012, September 20). Best practices for journalists. Retrieved from http://blog.twitter.com/2012/09/best-practices-for-journalists.html