Using Facebook

[Songbird]

forking Facebook changed again but the new format is forking awful as if designed by a 3rd grader on cocaine and Flintstones chewables.

Does anyone know how to @ a name or business in the body of a post?

You can't just type @ in front of the name because it doesn't pull up a list to choose from. You can do that in comments though.

 

[Severian]

Dude. Just stop using Facebook.

 

[MNgremlin]

Here's a couple of things I hate about our paper using Facebook to share links to stories:

1. We have a paywall (as most papers do). Inviting people to click on link only to be told they have to pay to read it doesn't encourage them to subscribe, it only infuriates the potential readers. Then they post all over your comment section "why can't I read this" or "unfollowing since I can't read this" or "can someone copy and paste", which to me detracts other potential readers and invites more negative comments about the paper.

2. I don't know how other papers do it, but at my shop, non-breaking news stories don't go live on the website until midnight. This is an hour after we send to the printers. Usually the newsroom is cleared out by then, so nothing gets shared on Facebook until the next day. Thursday morning, there was a house explosion in town at 6:30 a.m. The radio station had an initial post on Facebook before 7 a.m. with an updated story with a photo online by 8:30 a.m. Thursday. Those two posts were shared a combined 526 times. Our shop's story wasn't posted on Facebook until 10:30 a.m. Friday....10 shares.

 

[wicked]

If the paper has a straight news lede on a story that will be 24 hours old when it gets in most of your reader's hands, that's the first problem.

A house explosion sounds like it should be breaking (no pun intended) news.

 

[MNgremlin]

If the paper has a straight news lede on a story that will be 24 hours old when it gets in most of your reader's hands, that's the first problem.

A house explosion sounds like it should be breaking (no pun intended) news.

They might've run a breaking news brief, I honestly don't remember now. Regardless, they still didn't post the full update until when I said.

 

[studthug12]

They might've run a breaking news brief, I honestly don't remember now. Regardless, they still didn't post the full update until when I said.

Feature stories and things of that nature where strong engagement is expected should be posted at strong online times, 7 am when people are getting ready for work and on phones, noon and 5/6 pm and 8 pm to have up when people are getting ready for bed. A dump onto FB all at once or at midnight is about the dumbest thing you could do. You're doing it wrong.