Social networking: Google Plus

Or, more correctly, "Google +" - now released in beta.

It has some interesting features, and I predict we will see some people defect from Facebook and others add it as their truly private social network (I think many folks are going to keep FB for some time because it is, right now, the town square of the Web. PC World has a good rundown.

I definitely can see this catching on with my students.

However, the Financial Times does point out the "resharing" feature
could be a privacy hole (you can apparently turn that off, but not easily)


Computerworld  suggests that with a little tweaking to work with Google Docs, this could be a solution for collaboration within organizations (certainly would have to be better than the ill-fated Google Wave).

So this will be one more thing newsrooms will have to think about - and it reinforces the management challenges. It's so much easier when you have a Facebook that gives you "one stop shopping" to reach an audience, but it's not going to be that way anymore. It's going to take serious thought about where your audience is and how to reach them - not just mindless, robotic distribution.

Twitter for Newsrooms

Twitter has launched Twitter for Newsrooms, or #TfN, a guide to how to use the service for journalists.

Along with the Facebook site aimed at journalists, this should be pretty much required reading for those newsies plunging into the social media world.

Gordan MacMillan has an extensive post on #TfN - so instead of my reinventing the wheel here, just head there.

From the social media dept. - how to get fired without really trying

These two posts by 10,000 Words summarizing eight cases of journalists being fired for their social media pronouncements this year might be well-employed in classroom discussions on how it's best to walk away for a minute or two before hitting the publish button:

http://www.mediabistro.com/10000words/8-journalists-who-were-fired-for-tweeting-part-1_b4136

http://www.mediabistro.com/10000words/8-journalists-who-were-fired-for-tweeting-part-2_b4202

And while we're in the "hold that thought before you push the button" mode, All Facebook says about two dozen social media firing cases are in the courts. Social media, the new lawyer's full-employment tool.

Hilarious send-up of social media and journalism

From the Fox station in DFW:




Thanks to Chris Roberts for the outpoint.

Usability of RSS feeds, social networking

It would be worth your while to spend some time with Jakob Nielsen's latest "Alertbox" usability column.

In it he details research done to determine how people interact with corporate postings in feeds and on things like Twitter and Facebook.

Some interesting stuff:

Businesses that post too often crowd out the user's real friends and become unpopular (and thus risk being unfollowed). Users listed too-frequent postings as their top annoyance with following companies and organizations on social networks.

Users prefer a more casual style for business messages on social networks than what's appropriate for most corporate communications. At the same time, they expect RSS feeds to be more business-like and to cut the chit-chat. Also, for some services — such as the BBC — people preferred a highly professional tone, even on social networks.

RSS updates were viewed as more trustworthy and as more "official" sources than social messages. Users were also more likely to check RSS feeds at work, whereas they mainly accessed social networks from home.

No great surprise, either, is the observation that users don't go rooting around for postings in the stream they might have missed -- they are content to pretty much stay with what's on the page in front of them.

With "social media" being the hot topic in newsrooms lately, there's a lot to chew on here.

New internships for a new generation

Bet these job requirements weren't in the job or internship you originally applied for:

- At least 150 followers on Twitter
- At least 200 Facebook friends
- Administrator or creator of at least one Facebook group
- A blog with a Google Page Rank of 2 or higher

But they are the requirements for a social media intern at the Phnom Penh Post. The entire description and details are on thomascrampton.com.

He's got a similar skills set up for an Asian internship with Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide.

So, how many journalism/communications schools are teaching these kinds of skills?