Engage on community Facebook pages, not just your page

Facebook engagement doesn’t mean just posting links and questions on your own page. Good journalists should be reaching out to the community on other pages.

In a recent email, Toni Sciacqua, Managing Editor – Digital at the Daily Breeze, Press-Telegram and Daily News in Southern California, shared a great example of Facebook engagement:

I wanted to share a big social media aha moment we had recently at the Daily Breeze that illustrates how listening to and engaging with the community can pay off in building a new audience and help us address issues the community is talking about.

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San Pedro landslide shows power of gravity and social media

When you’re covering the story that everybody is talking about, you need to monitor social media. You want to hear what they’re saying and you want them to be talking about your stories, photos and videos.

Landslide photo from the Daily Breeze

My Digital First Media colleagues at the Daily Breeze have illustrated that with their smart use of Facebook in coverage of a landslide along the coast in San Pedro, Calif. Reporter Donna Littlejohn explains:

Ocean cliffs have fallen away before in our port community, colorfully chronicled by the daily newspaper through the decades. But when the latest slide began to slip, it played out most prominently on social media sites.

I got my first tip that something was up from a community member on Facebook. On Sept. 7 she wrote this on my wall: “Donna — someone posted on the San Pedro CA Facebook page that there’s a sink hole starting on Paseo del Mar. I don’t know near what street yet but I’ll pass on any new info.”

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