Facebook remains the 800-pound gorilla of social media, with registered users expected to pass the 1 billion mark in late 2012. Most people are baffled by Facebook’s ever-changing privacy settings. Bad for them, good for reporters. With that in mind, here are ways that enterprising reporters can leverage the power of Facebook:
Vadim Lavrusik
Facebook + Journalists – “Like” this page, so you’ll receive regular updates in your news feed showing new Facebook tips and tricks, along with case studies of reporters finding creative ways to use the site. The page is managed by Vadim Lavrusik, journalist program manager at Facebook. He studied digital media at Columbia Journalism School, so he understands the needs of journalists and news organizations.
Photos – Lots of folks make their photos public (whether they realize it or not) on Facebook. That means that you often can look through someone’s photos on Facebook without being their “friend” or subscribing to their public updates. Pictures often can help confirm how well people know each other; a Facebook friend may be someone you haven’t seen in 10 years, but if there’s a photo of you with that person from two months ago, the relationship is stronger. Photos also can help confirm that someone was at a particular place on a specific date, as well as help you find out who may know the subject of your reporting by who is tagged in a photo with them. The Washington Post used Facebook photos and other social media reporting for a profile of suspected Wikileaks source Bradley Manning.
Interests – Much like lists on Twitter, “Interests” on Facebook allow you to create and name a topic collection of people, groups and organizations. Think of it as creating your own channel on Facebook. You can create lots of different Interest channels. For each Interest, simply add people, groups or pages. When you click on that Interest, you see the status updates for all of the members of that Interest list. Again, it’s like tuning into that channel on Facebook for specialized information. If you create an Interest list on Facebook, that group can be public (allowing others to subscribe to it) or private (just for your eyes and research). As an example, you may view or subscribe to this Interest list that I created called National security / military. This screenshot shows some of the Facebook pages included on the Interest list:
You can search other Interest lists that Facebook users have created for public view. Subscribe to those that might be useful, or just peruse them for ideas on who else might be worth connecting with on Facebook. Full information and step-by-step directions are available on the Facebook Help Center page for Interest lists.
Facebook search – Beyond finding people, the search function built into Facebook uses key words to find much more. When you search key words in the box at the top of Facebook, always click on “See more results.” That will open up a search results page with a helpful list of filters down the left side, including pages, groups, events and other categories. Notice that you can search public posts by everyone or just by your friends. So, if you want to find people making public posts on Facebook about a key person or topic, search “Public Posts.”
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