In early January, Facebook announced plans to work more closely with broadcasters and other news organizations to enhance Facebook as a platform for distributing their news and make it worth their while to climb aboard. The Facebook Journalism Project would seek collaboration on improving the existing news formats, Live (video) and Instant Articles (text and […]
In early January, Facebook announced plans to work more closely with broadcasters and other news organizations to enhance Facebook as a platform for distributing their news and make it worth their while to climb aboard.
The Facebook Journalism Project would seek collaboration on improving the existing news formats, Live (video) and Instant Articles (text and graphics), and developing news ones; look for ways to monetize content; offer training; and tackle issues like fake news and news literacy.
Two months later, it’s clear Facebook is following through on its promise to connect.
Last month, the social media giant hosted one-day meetings with local TV and radio broadcasters and newspapers in Dallas and Atlanta and it has two more sessions schedule for later this month — March 28 in Seattle and March 30 in San Diego.
Jason White, the manager of U.S. news media partnerships at Facebook, says the sessions are part explaining and part listening.
“We talked about some of the best practices that we’ve seen emerging around Live and also around video on demand, which is still quite significant within the Facebook ecosystem.”
And a big part of the session is getting feedback, he said, with a full two hours are set aside for questions and answers.
White also says Facebook is using the sessions to introduce CrowdTangle, a newly acquired technology that enables “any media organization to track their performance on Facebook and other platforms quite seamlessly.”
A free service, it also gives users the ability to track their competitors to see what’s working for them, White says.
Estelle Parsley, VP of news and operations at WRDW, Gray’s CBS affiliate in Augusta, Ga., was impressed by how things went in Atlanta.
“I really was. I was impressed by the caliber of people that Facebook had added to their team, people with decades of journalism experience. There seemed to be a real respect, awareness, recognition that journalism is not just putting ‘news’ on a news feed.”
She also got more insight about how she can make money by using Facebook.
Being able to insert commercials in the videos “is a game changer,” she says.
Paula Taylor, director of digital content at WOWK, Nexstar’s CBS affiliate in Charleston, W. Va., was also impressed not only by how open Facebook was to broadcasters’ questions and concerns, but by how quickly it responded.
“We have already seen things implemented since we have been to Dallas,” Taylor says.
“It was very valuable. I have 22 pages of notes, I kid you not.”
Jeff Schlesser, the news director at WCTV Tallahassee, Fla., another Gray CBS affiliate, says he went to Atlanta to clear up some questions about measurement and placing news on the service, but mostly just “to connect with them and hear from the people who are making it happen because Facebook is essential to the newsroom.”
The Facebook reps discussed “everything from what’s coming down the line from Facebook Live to CrowdTangle to using Instagram for news,” Schlesser says.
“They even touched on the monetization of Facebook posts, which is a very interesting discussion.”
White says attendees in Dallas and Atlanta came with specific questions about how to perform better on their newsfeed and reach more people.
NOTE: This NOLA.com Facebook Live video was presented at the sessions as an example of a local news organization using Live:
https://www.facebook.com/NOLANewsPhotos/videos/967200620057039/
“Some questions we got were: how many times per day should we post? Is there an ideal time of day to post? What kind of posts perform better?”
White says he hopes to have better answers for those questions in the upcoming sessions in Seattle and San Diego.
“We do want to make sure people come away feeling more empowered and informed about how to perform well.”
Asked what she would tell people about attending the March sessions, WOWK’s Taylor says: “Book your flight.”
Click here for more recent information about monetizing video on Facebook.
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Click here to register for the Facebook session in Seattle.
Click here to register for the Facebook session in San Diego.
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