News organizations use social media
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These are common invitations and pleas from news organizations today. They can be seen on news website homepages and individual articles. There are social media buttons on articles, so viewers can share the article on various social media sites without going to the individual sites.
Social media is the new way to socialize, and news organizations are using it to increase readership and audience, as a tool for readers to share what they’re reading and what they find interesting or entertaining.
The local social
Screenshot of Facebook recommended button
WTOP’s website has a Facebook button that shows how many times a story has been shared on Facebook. This creates a sort of competition between stories, shows the amount of interest in different types of stories and shows how active WTOP’s audience is.
Many news organizations use this number plugin for social media sites. It is an effective way to get people to share and spread their stories, and their name.
WTOP also has individual pages for Facebook and Twitter, showing how important it is to the radio station to be seen on social media sites and publish its content on these sites. The Twitter page lists every Twitter handle related to WTOP and its anchors. The WTOP Twitter feed can also be viewed on this page.
There is also an Alerts page, where viewers can sign up for text or email breaking news alerts. There is also information on the page for how to stay connected with WTOP on mobile devices.
Screenshot of social media button
Connect with WUSA9 is 9 News Now’s page completely dedicated to social media and interacting with the television station. There is a place to sign up and connect with the television station on Facebook and there are discussion boards and forums with various topics.
9 News Now also has an interactive button that says “Follow us anywhere” to connect with the television station on Twitter, Facebook, visit mobile sites, the RSS feed or email subscriptions.
Screenshot of The Voice photo galleries
The Voice, or The Takoma Voice or The Silver Spring Voice, has a different approach to social media and interacting with its readers. The Voice has the same social media buttons where readers can connect with the newspaper, such as Facebook, Twitter and RSS feeds, but they are not very prominent.
But there is also a page on the website, called “Check out our pics,” where photos from the community are featured. These photo albums are numerous and change often. The albums have pictures from festivals, competitions and specific events in The Voice communities. At the bottom of the page the most popular photos are featured.
Having a page dedicated to photos from the community showcases how local and in the community the newspaper is. It furthers The Voice as a community paper, which it truly is, as it is still printed in magazine or newsletter-form and distributed mostly in specific communities, such as Takoma Park or Silver Spring.
Socializing nationally
Screenshot of social media plugin
On the main page of The Huffington Post the social media buttons are shown in a graphic called “Social News,” which showcases its availability on social media. There are so many ways and websites readers can connect and interact with the newspaper. The Huffington Post calls itself “the Internet newspaper.”
Screenshot of ways to stay connected to The Washington Post
The Washington Post almost has an overkill of ways to stay connected with the newspaper, when you leave the website or stop reading the printed version. At the bottom of the website there is a list of “ways to get us.”
The Post also has a Facebook application called the Social Reader, (now called Trove) for readers to share the stories they read instantly with their friends on social media sites. The stories are from the Post and other online news sources, such as Mashable, AP and Reuters. This creates a “socially powered newswire of intriguing articles,” according to the Post’s website.
This is a very innovative way to connect to readers. It gives readers the ability to share stories they find interesting with friends, puts the power in their hands, utilizing the strength of social media sites–interacting with other people. This gets readers interested in reading what their friends or acquaintances are reading, thus publicizing the Post’s name even more.