2010: The Year of the Twitter and the Facebook

I've spent a good part of this year as an advocate for social media and the important role it plays in sharing news. I've been on Twitter since January 2008, back when people were merely talking about what they had for breakfast. I've been on Facebook since 2004 (back when it was college students only, too.)

But now it seems this year has been the year that pretty much every newspaper in the nation has started paying attention to how they can use these new-fangeled social mediums to promote themselves. Including mine.

We've had a website (side note: this year also saw AP change their style rule from "Web site" to "website.") for many years but that was about it. Earlier this year we got a Facebook page. But not much was posted. Until I and couple other reporters asked to be added as admins so we could post on our paper's Facebook. Now we're putting more out there, people are paying attention and even *thanking* us for breaking news updates, etc.

Twitter has been the big uphill battle. There are really three of us who have been adamant that The Paper create a space on our website to link to any and all employees who tweet. But because they didn't know The Twitter from The Gawker or The Slashnet, I thought all hope was gone.

A typical conversation:
"So, what do you use it for?"
"I post links to stories, have conversations with followers/readers and tease some upcoming stories."
"And how do you do that?"
"Well, it's a little hard with only 140 characters, but there is an app that lets me Tweet from anywhere."
"..."

Or this exchange after leading a social media workshop with the whole newsroom:
"I'm not going to get on Facebook just to do this."
"Why not? It's not like you'd be required to post anything to your own account. It's simply a way to access The Paper's page."
"I just don't want my name out there."

Ugh.

And then last week happened.

Exec. Editor walks up to my desk and proudly declares that he created a Facebook page so he can now contribute to The Paper's own page. I was the first one he told. He was so proud. And then, the next day, the publisher sent an email to me and the other two reporters, with a link to a shiny new page on The Paper's website, with a shiny live Twitter feed widget for all our tweets.

Victory. Is. Mine.

It only took 10 months.