Social media tools to reach larger audience, WEF

By Emeka Aginam
The  World Editors forum ahead of its annual conference in Vienna from 12th  through 15th  October, 2011 has said with optimism that Editors around the world can  use social media tools including  Twitter and Facebook to reach larger audience.

The World Editors Forum, with a focus  on the new tools of social media to help editors build communities around their newspapers  run  concurrently with  the World Newspaper Congress that  will also offer a “Facebook for Journalists” workshop in which Facebook representatives will provide tips and advice on how Facebook can be better used by newsrooms, both to find sources and reach a larger audience.

The WEF session on building communities will feature Jim Brady, Head of Project Thunderdome, the Journal Register Company’s initiative to engage audience and creating content across all platforms and geographies, Matthew Eltringham, Editor of the BBC College of Journalism website, Anette Novak, Editor-in-Chief of Norran in Sweden, and other speakers to be announced.

Meanwhile, more than 1,200 chief editors, publishers, managing directors, CEOs and other senior newspaper executives are expected at the Editors Forum, Congress and Info Services Expo 2011, the annual global summit meetings of the world’s press

Already, Mr Brady, who the Washington Business Journal calls “an online news visionary,” has formerly worked at AOL, washingtonpost.com and the local news site TBD.com. As head of Project Thunderdome, he is responsible for generating and organising common content for the Journal Register’s 18 daily papers and related online publications.

Mr Eltringham is an expert in social media and digital engagement with 16 years inside the BBC’s news operations.

He has overseen BBC News’ use of social platforms as a source of content and as a channel to share its own material and engage audiences.

Ms Novak has been working to turn the 100-year-old Norran into a modern media house with a focus on co-creation, moving the trademark position from “news leader” to “motor in shaping the community’s future.”

Other WEF sessions will include the following:
* After WikiLeaks: the next step for newspapers, featuring Mathias Müller von Blumencron, Editor-in-chief of Der Spiegel, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, founder of OpenLeaks, and other speakers to be announced.

-  Paywalls, from the newsroom perspective, which will include Jim Roberts, Assistant Managing Editor at The New York Times, Matúš Kostolný, Editor-in-Chief of SME in Slovakia, and other speakers to be announced.

* Rethinking newsroom integration: the latest experiments in a multi-platform age, featuring John Hillkirk, Editor of USA TODAY, Christian Ortner, Editor-in-Chief of Vorarlberger Nachrichten in Austria, and other speakers to be announced.

-*The steps towards a successful tablet application, with Mario Garcia, CEO and Founder of Garcia Media, Peter Hossli, Editor-in-Chief of the Collection from Ringier, and other speakers to be announced.

*Looking beyond the article, a session dedicated to new storytelling techniques and featuring Scott Klein, Editor of News Applications at ProPublica, Bill Adair, Founder and Editor of Politifact, Justin Peters, Managing Editor of the Columbia Journalism Review online, and Marcelo Rech, Director General for Product at RBS in Brazil.

*What content should print newspapers focus on to survive and thrive?, followed by a session on how editorial initiatives can contribute to print success. Speakers include Simon Kelner, Editor-in-chief of the UK’s The Independent, Shyam Parekh, Editor of DNA in India, Alexandra Föderl-Schmid, Editor-in-Chief of Der Standard in Austria, Tom Kent, Standards Editor and Deputy Managing Editor at The Associated Press, and other speakers to be announced.

*Plus much more, including special sessions focused on the Arab Spring, ethics and quality journalism in the wake of the UK phone hacking scandal, the Innovations in Newspapers World Report, and the annual World Press Trends report.

The events, organised by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and hosted by the Austrian Newspaper Association (VÖZ), will be accompanied by a rich social programme, tours, meetings with local and international political, business and cultural leaders, and more.

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10 tips for a good Facebook profile picture

A couple of weeks ago I looked at what makes a good Facebook page welcome tab, so I thought I would follow that up by looking at the profile picture.

Your page profile picture is the image on the left side of your page and always stays there no matter which tab your visitors click on.

Facts on the profile picture:

• The space you have available is 540 pixels long by 180 pixels wide (of you aren’t sure what this is Facebook will automatically resize what you load up).
• You can change it as often as you like.
• The thumbnail for your page (that’s the little picture that appears next to your page posts in peoples’ newsfeeds and on the wall) is made from your profile picture.
• Every profile picture you upload automatically goes into a photo album called “profile pictures”.

Tips for a good picture:

• Make it eye-catching.
• Simple and clear is better than packing lots in – people shouldn’t need to squint to read things or see what it is in the image.
• Make it relevant, that means if your page is about a product include the product, if your page is about a service-based business show relevant happy customers or the service in action.
• Include your logo so that people know when they first visit that they have the right page – particularly relevant if you don’t have a welcome tab.
• If you include a phone number also include the area code, visitors might not realise you are in a different state to them.
• Make sure it matches the rest of your business’ branding, eg. if your business colours are red and pink, don’t use blue and green, etc.
• If you have a product-based business use it as a place to showcase your products and change it regularly so that people see the range you have. This worked really well on my Mocks page, and when we changed the picture people would ask, “Where do I buy that design?”
• If you have the photos tab showing on your page after you load up a new profile picture go and add a description – this is particularly relevant if you are promoting a product because you can add a link to where it can be bought.
• Get topical, eg. Christmas is around the corner, get a festive picture for the season.

I see some profile pictures that are really wasting what is prime real estate in the Facebook world, because your profile picture becomes your thumbnail and that’s what people see when they search – it’s all about first impressions and making it easy for people to find you. Have a really good look at yours; does it tell someone at a glance what you are all about or are they screwing their eyes up trying to read it?

Lara Solomon is the founder of Mocks, mobile phone socks www.MyMocks.com, founder of Social Rabbit – your guide in the world of social media www.Facebook.com/SocialRabbit and author of ‘Brand New Day – the Highs Lows of Starting a Small Business’. Lara’s business LaRoo was the winner of the NSW Telstra Micro-Business Award in 2008.

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