Facebook: Reporters Going With Pages Or Profiles?

Look up Dan Petty. He's the Social Media Editor at The Denver Post. I like how his is setup.

 

I use Facebook only to meet lonely neglected wives.

 

I've seen some reporters who have one Facebook profile that serves as personal and work, and they balance that pretty well. It all comes down to to being responsible and smart about what you post. If you take some luxury with that, then yes, get another page. But if you can be sensible, it shouldn't be a problem.

 

C'mon, man, everyone knows you can leave a digital trail. That's why bookstores are the best...

 

Thomas, did you ever decide which route to take, if any? Here's mine a little less than a week into it. A decent start, I feel. Just posted a bunch of photos and videos I took at the Double-A game last night.

http://www.facebook.com/stephensreporting

And I'm in love with my new cover photo.



This is the old one:

 

I did create one, but I admittedly haven't used it much yet. Basically the same setup as yours, though I'll probably touch more on general sports topics and focus less on the stuff I actually produce. Because of the way our company page is set up, most of my stuff is posted on there. Don't want to cross post much, if possible, that way people can follow both pages without getting annoyed at double posts.

I'll be honest, I just haven't quite found a way to make my page all that interesting. I've built a nice Twitter following by making my niche just being all over everything on my beat. An aggregator of sorts. I'm never going to be the guy that picks up massive followers because he's funny.

So I'm trying to find a way to make my Facebook page interesting to follow. Suggestions are certainly welcome.

Also, is there any sort of privacy settings for the page I need to play with? Didn't see anything on first glance, so I assume it's totally public. Just want to make sure it is so people can find it easily.

 

Cheerleader pics.

 

I have a personal Facebook that I've made personal - period. I haven't allowed the subscribe option, and don't confirm friends that I don't know. We've created a work Facebook page for the program I cover that people can "like" where we post news and sometimes do chats during games. (I also have a very active work Twitter feed).
I think you have to be careful when you're a reporter and you mix work and personal/fun. On April Fool's Day, a fellow reporter from another site on my beat posted "news" that my program's very popular offensive coordinator was in talks with another BCS program about becoming coach-in-waiting.
It was supposed to be fun, but very poorly thought-out, and the "fans" who he had confirmed as friends went ape-crap, and deservedly so. He'd blurred the line and then jumped over it.
It was confirmation why I keep my page private and keep work out of it.

 

I'm 99 percent sure on pages, it's all public updates. I tried messing with the audience setting just for fun and it wouldn't let me do anything else.

 

I run a Patch site, so I have to maintain a page for work. (Actually, two pages, since my Patch is now two towns.) I basically just "update" the page with every story that gets published on the site, which is similar to how I handle Twitter. I've found that depending on age, you get different audiences - Anyone college age and beyond is normally on FB, while Twitter is useful for building up a high school audience.

My personal account, I use mostly for staying in touch with friends. If someone tries to add me from work, I normally accept it, but shunt them off into the "you can't see anything" group with my family members.