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Notes from Facebook for Reporting and Storytelling, May 16, 2012

Poynter NewsU Webinar with Facebook Journalism director Vadim Lavrisuk

Follow the Twitter convo at the #nuwebinar feed 

Recent Facebook Statistics

• The average Facebook user spends 26 minutes on the site per day.

• The amount of Shared Content on the site has doubled in the past two years. 450B pieces of content are shared daily. The average user shared 150 items/month.

• There are 900M active monthly users on Facebook. 500M use mobile apps.

Useful for Journalists and News Organizations

• Facebook search is a Rolodex of 850M, searchable by place and keywords

• Sources increasingly respond quicker to Facebook content as it humanizes Journalists.

• Journalists can now use one profile to distinctly share personal and professional information by using the Subscribe features. Subscribers are not Friends and can only see posts directed to them via the Public Only button when you status update.

• Facebook’s social discovery program will recommend those who Like the Times Colonist Page to also Subscribe to anyone on Facebook who lists the Times Colonist as an employer.

• Reporters who publicly post behind-the-scenes photos and videos of their work increase subscribers the most quickly as it lends a more credible and human edge to their professional work.

• Posts with a journalist’s  or news organization’s analysis receive 20 per cent more hits.

• Posts with 5 lines of text and a thumbnail receive 60 per cent more hits.

• There is an 85 per cent increase of clicks on links on Saturdays!

• The highest traffic times on Facebook are (EST) 7, 8, 10 a.m. and 4, 5, 12 p.m., Midnight and 2 a.m.

• Facebook drives a lot of traffic to news websites (and advertisers) with a 500 per cent increase in referrals in the past two years.

• $$$News organizations can monetize their Facebook presence by using a sponsored Social App, such as the Washington Post does. Billion-dollar software companies such as Zinga exist on this.$$$$

• News organizations can increase their Likes (ie. Targeted readership) by offering premier content and interactive polls, contests and posts if the reader Likes the page.

• Real-time news updates on Facebook (and Twitter) drive readers to news sites throughout the story development and encourage them to respond with response and valuable content.

• The Timeline feature can be used to document the news organization’s rich history by adding important dates and content, as well as to document an unfolding project.

Check out the Poynter Institutes NewsU Webinar Series here: https://www.newsu.org/social-media-webinar-series-2012