Facebook: Reporters Going With Pages Or Profiles?

[Matt Stephens]

Without outing anyone's specific pages, I'm just wondering how many folks on here have built one and what the best route has been for you?

I've noticed a growing subscriber number on my personal Facebook profile. It's not a lot, but it has doubled in the last month, despite having extremely strict privacy settings to make it somewhat hard to find me. That being said, noticing there are some subscribers, I've started posting more updates under the "public" setting. Mainly stories, whether they're mine, co-workers or other outlets.

I had always been against this idea in the past, but now am thinking, "why not?" I'm getting more comfortable with the thought of making myself a reporter account to help interact with readers and get information out to them just like I do on Twitter, except Facebook obviously reaches a lot more people.

For those who have, which route did you take: page or profile? I know that the way Facebook is setup today, there's not a load of difference between the two if you're just using it as something to interact with readers, but it's the whole "like me" vs. "subscribe to me/friend me" semantics that has me on the fence on which to choose. I've seen people have either and with great success.

Any thoughts? Has one worked for you better?

 

[Stitch]

If you're trying to be a public figure, do a page. Have people "like" you. It's not a good idea to use a normal Facebook profile for work purposes. Use your regular profile to keep in touch with friends and family, and post photos, but leave the work stuff out of it.

 

[Thomas Goldkamp]

Can anyone explain how exactly the pages work as opposed to the personal profile? We have a company page, and we use it to post stories and interact with people. I'm assuming the page you're talking about would be the same thing, but would be "my page?"

How do people "subscribe" to your updates? If they like it, they see the page's updates in their feed?

I should probably know this, but I admittedly have disliked Facebook more and more with every change over the last few years.

 

[Stitch]

Can anyone explain how exactly the pages work as opposed to the personal profile? We have a company page, and we use it to post stories and interact with people. I'm assuming the page you're talking about would be the same thing, but would be "my page?"

How do people "subscribe" to your updates? If they like it, they see the page's updates in their feed?

I should probably know this, but I admittedly have disliked Facebook more and more with every change over the last few years.

If you like a page, the updates appear in your news feed.

 

[Matt Stephens]

Thomas,

I'm with you on getting annoyed with all of the changes. Some of them have been just me reluctant to change and they eventually become something I like. Others are just bad.

The way pages work, especially since the switch to Timeline format, is basically like you said. It's very similar to a profile now, except it's used more for companies rather than a person (I actually believe it's against Facebook's TOS for a company to have a Facebook profile. It has to create a page).

I'd use it as my Facebook reporter persona. Posting stories, photos, breaking news, asking opinions, etc., like I do on Twitter. But this way if someone searches me on Facebook, I'll actually show up, and not have to use my personal profile for that. I do want to keep them separate. That's my space (pun intended).

As for subscribing to your updates, users can find people on Facebook now that they're not friends with and select the "subscribe to public updates" option without sending a friend request. For example, none of my status updates are public, based on the security settings I chose. But if I wanted one to be public, I'd just have to select that option before clicking post (there's a settings drop down on your status bar so you can change it on the fly). Posting a public update will have it show up on your wall for the world to see if they search for you, but also will fall on the news feed of those you're not friends with, but subscribe to you.

I know folks who just use their personal profile and post public updates, others who make a separate personal profile, but just so people can add them as friends to subscribe for news and others who have "fan" pages.

There's benefits in each, I suppose, but I like the idea of making a page so that only those interested in high school sports news, minor league baseball, or whatever I'm covering, will get it. That way it doesn't clog the news feed of my friends from high school who don't care.

 

[Thomas Goldkamp]

Thomas,

I'm with you on getting annoyed with all of the changes. Some of them have been just me reluctant to change and they eventually become something I like. Others are just bad.

The way pages work, especially since the switch to Timeline format, is basically like you said. It's very similar to a profile now, except it's used more for companies rather than a person (I actually believe it's against Facebook's TOS for a company to have a Facebook profile. It has to create a page).

I'd use it as my Facebook reporter persona. Posting stories, photos, breaking news, asking opinions, etc., like I do on Twitter. But this way if someone searches me on Facebook, I'll actually show up, and not have to use my personal profile for that. I do want to keep them separate. That's my space (pun intended).

As for subscribing to your updates, users can find people on Facebook now that they're not friends with and select the "subscribe to public updates" option without sending a friend request. For example, none of my status updates are public, based on the security settings I chose. But if I wanted one to be public, I'd just have to select that option before clicking post (there's a settings drop down on your status bar so you can change it on the fly). Posting a public update will have it show up on your wall for the world to see if they search for you, but also will fall on the news feed of those you're not friends with, but subscribe to you.

I know folks who just use their personal profile and post public updates, others who make a separate personal profile, but just so people can add them as friends to subscribe for news and others who have "fan" pages.

There's benefits in each, I suppose, but I like the idea of making a page so that only those interested in high school sports news, minor league baseball, or whatever I'm covering, will get it. That way it doesn't clog the news feed of my friends from high school who don't care.

Okay, makes more sense. I'll have to start a page for myself, since I've never used my personal Facebook profile to draw traffic to my company's site. Like you, I'd rather not flood my actual friends with news most of them don't care much about.

Two separate accounts, basically. Kinda sucks and was hoping to avoid that.

That was one of the reasons I thought Google+ had a chance to be really popular. You could pick and choose which circles you wanted to share stuff with. The only problem was that you couldn't EXCLUDE certain circles from seeing your public updates. So I couldn't have a public Google+ account that looked like my Twitter from the outside, but also served as a Facebook for my "Friends" on the inside. Anyone know if they've changed that? Haven't been on Google+ since July or August.

To me, that's how you merge Twitter and Facebook into one working profile that serves both the business and personal needs. You allow public updates to be "hidden" from certain people. Friends aren't subjected to the public business updates, and the public followers can't see the personal updates. Then I could have everything all rolled into one account.

Of course, that wouldn't change anything from an employer standpoint, because no one's ever going to use just the one platform... Ugh.

 

[Matt Stephens]

Google+ took a big step back when it locked out Google Apps accounts, IMO. I liked it at first, but my profile was created my CSU Alumni Association E-mail since we use GMail. Everything was working fine until one day, Google decided it wasn't going to allow Google Apps accounts to work with Plus and gave ZERO recovery or converging options, locking people out. I can still find my Google+ profile, but literally have no way to access it. It's not worth the trouble of trying to create a new one and I know a major media company that had the same trouble, so it's choosing not to focus on that route.

 

[flexmaster33]

I have my personal Facebook account for friends and family and set up a work account "Podunk Sports Page"...we have fill ads that promote finding that on Facebook and use that as a way to communicate with readers and link stories from our website...I'd consider it quite the success in the two years I've been doing the work side of that equation. Plus, you get some other quick ways to contact people.

 

[HanSenSE]

I have my personal Facebook account for friends and family and set up a work account "Podunk Sports Page"...we have fill ads that promote finding that on Facebook and use that as a way to communicate with readers and link stories from our website...I'd consider it quite the success in the two years I've been doing the work side of that equation. Plus, you get some other quick ways to contact people.

Pretty much the same here. I have a personal page for friends and family, but I make it a point to keep it off-limits to readers. My paper has its own page where we post stories, and there's a separate one for sports where I've been encouraged to create a sports bar-like atmosphere. I also use it when I live blog games or promote something that's in the next day's paper.

 

[CA_journo]

Our paper has a Facebook page. My personal one can't be searched for and I've made sure basically no one outside of my friends can see anything. I used to add readers who searched for me on Facebook at my last job, but now putting up that kind of privacy wall is my way of leaving work at work. The people who do manage to find me are put on a list where they basically can't see anything I post. Our work Facebook page has been awesome, and as others have said, it's been a great way to get sources on general issues.

I'm just a weekly sports editor. I'm not really famous enough/vain enough to create a Facebook page, I guess.

 

[Bradley Guire]

Whatever you do, make sure your employer has your password to any social media you use. C'mon, what's the harm to let them take a peek?

 

[Thomas Goldkamp]

Anyone know of any pages for writers that have had good success with a personal Facebook page? Would love to see examples of the types of things they put on their personal pages to draw interest. Preferably someone who's not already nationally famous, but is on the way up and has built a solid Facebook following.

 

[Matt Stephens]

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

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

I use Facebook only to meet lonely neglected wives.

 

[Den1983]

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.

 

[Thomas Goldkamp]

I use Facebook only to meet lonely neglected wives.

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

 

[Matt Stephens]

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:

 

[Thomas Goldkamp]

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.

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

I'll be honest, I just haven't quite found a way to make my page all that interesting.

Cheerleader pics.

 

[BigRed]

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.