Attracting Readers Through Social Media

Hello Everyone,

I have decided to track how the three news sites I am following, The New York Times online, MSNBC.com and Deadline.com, are attracting and retaining today's readers through social media. I have decide to investiagte how these three news sites use the social networks provided by Facebook and Twitter to attract readers.

The New York Times, for example, posts the sort of random news that attract Facebook users on its Facebook page. The New York Times follows this up by also posting links to various recent articles on its website and also provides links to other social media sites such as twitter and foursquare, where the organization is also represented. Something that I found particualry interesting and a very good idea that the Times does on Facebook is allowing for viewers to post their own stories on the Facebook page. This caters to newer genrations who like to post things about themselves online as if it were news.

On Twitter, The New York Times posts links to current news articles on its website about every twenty minutes. The articles posted are mostly beat articles or those that are more likley to spark interest among social media users who prefer shorta stories relating to current events.

MSNBC.com does not have a Facebook page but rather some of its journalists do instead. While some investigative reporters for MSNBC.com associate themsleves with the organization on their Facebook pages and post links to their stories on the news site, this is not enough to count the news organization as a presence on Faceboook. The sheer amount of viewers MSNBC.com could attract with Facebook but does not at the moment should be enough for the organization to consider creating a Faceboook page for itself.

MSNBC.com does have its own Twitter page however, and it efficiently uses it to post links to current event stories and other stories of interest to Twitter followers, similar to how The New York Times uses Twitter. Although MSNBC.com should look into becoming a presence on Facebook, Twitter provides it with the kind of environemnt it needs in order to attract readers who would be comfortable getting their news from the fast-based way the news source delivers its content.

Deadline.com has a Facebook page and uses it to post links to current news articles on its site. The Facebook page is not as interactive as that of The New York Times and functions mainly the way the new site does, as a dispensary of the most recent and insider enertainement industry news. While Deadline should look into expanding on its Facebook page, the kinds of readers it attracts mostly just want a source for fast news and the Facebook page, like Deadline.com itself, provides just that.

Unlike its more established presence of  Facebook, Deadline.com barely has a presence on Twitter. The news site has a Twitter page representing it, which provides a link to the actual news site but that is about it. Since Deadline.com is using Facebook as its primary social network for dispensing news and promting itself, it seems to think little of using a second source such as Twittter as well.

In order for these sites, particularly Deadline.com, to bettter promote themselves via social networks and create a greater presence on sites like Facebook and Twitter, I reccomend that they encourage news tips and greater interaction from readers. Facebook and Twitter could also serve as valuable sources for information for these news sites as well.