Ackura Blog

Gone are the days where people had to wait until the broadsheets hit the newsstands to find out the latest news. With the development of the Internet the way people discovered their news moved to online but it was still controlled by the major publications. Now with social media the consumer is able to find out about news as it happens and share/discuss it with their peers easily. Publications have discovered that the reach of their news no longer relies on the number of  newspapers they sell and should be more focused on allowing it to be discovered with the minimal amount of effort.

The most logical social media channel for news if Twitter, because it provides users with real time information and anyone who chooses to listen is able to get involved in the conversation. This recently happened with the protests in Egypt and people getting involved by adding the hashtag #Jan25 to their tweets.

So far Twitter has been the go-to platform for broadcasting news stories and link back to the original article on the publications website but over the past year Facebook has become an alternate destination for content to be hosted rather than just a channel to share the news.

Facebook’s rise in popularity with journalist has seen smaller publications shift away from websites to host the entirety of their news on their Facebook company page. The first to do this is the Rockville Central, who started off as a community newspaper for the Rockville Washington DC area before it moved online, due to costs and now is focusing on making the Rockville Central Facebook page the only place to go to for community news and journalism.

Although a potentially risky move due to Facebook’s poor search capabilities it’s a brave move into a media with a potential 500+ million readership and further displays how Facebook can be used by those who don’t have the resource or knowledge of running a fully fledge news website. With the way people read and access their news this move by Rockville Central could be extremely benificial for them.

Although moving the whole of your news to a Facebook page is not recommended it is vital that you consider Facebook to be a place where at least a copy of your news is published. Tying it in with a Twitter account your making your news easily accessible to those who might want to read about it and more importantly share and discuss it.