If you’re looking to grow the audience for your newspaper, magazine, station or Web site, you may want to create a Facebook page.

If you already have your own Facebook profile, don’t worry – setting up a Facebook page is quite similar.

Facebook pages are similar to profiles in that they have friends (called fans), walls, offer the option to add pictures and are super easy to update. In addition, pages allow you to:

- Publish your wall and status updates to your fans’ news streams

- Interact with your fans via status updates, comments and message updates

- Create customizable tabs (along with Discussions, Events, etc.)

- Direct non-fans to a landing page (tab) other than the page’s wall during their first visit

-Pull in an RSS feed, or offer a landing page for YouTube videos

- Track your page’s metrics

To get started, go to facebook.com/pages/create.php. When you have finished filling out all of the necessary information (name, category, profile picture, blurb box, and basic and detailed info), don’t forget to publish the fan page and add other folks as administrators.

Some tips:

- Publish interesting content: This may be a no brainer, but be aware of what your Facebook audience enjoys reading and chatting about. This doesn’t mean you should compromise what news stories you promote, rather when sharing a news link, mention an engaging angle to promote conversation.

- Keep your profile active – but not spammy – so fans see your updates and visit your fan page often.

- Interact with your fans: If folks comment on your posts or wall, be sure to continue the dialogue – this helps to create a sense of community on your fan page. Encourage dialogue by asking questions, etc.

- Once you have more than 25 friends, you can claim your vanity URL. This is helpful, because it makes your Facebook page that much easier to promote and direct future fans to.

- Interact with your fans: If folks comment on your posts or wall, be sure to continue the dialogue – this helps to create a sense of community on your fan page.

- While your Facebook page may become a feed of information, try to make it a resource for Facebook users to come back to for more than just updates.

For more on Facebook’s pages, check out the Facebook Pages Product Guide (March 2009)

Amanda Maurer is a digital news editor at the Chicago Tribune, who specializes in social media. She blogs at acmaurer.com; you can also follow her on Twitter at @acmaurer.

Entrepreneurial journalism has taken off at a rapid clip, or so it seems — all the evidence thus far is anecdotal. Grants are assisting non-profit start-ups, self-funded endeavors are staying in the game, and colleges and universities with journalism programs have turned their attention to a new news curriculum.

Six months ago I started tracking new news sites that focus on independent news creation. I founded InOtherNews.us, to monitor activity “beyond legacy media.”

I have 50 start-ups listed on my site so far and here is a selection of stand-outs. Some were started this year. I chose them for their uniqueness, consistency,  efficacy, and overall commitment to entrepreneurial journalism for the public interest.

Metropolis: Philadelphia-based news and opinion site. Launched in November. Edited and mostly run by a veteran news reporter, who last worked at the Philadelphia Inquirer. Metropolis, like other start-ups, relies on contributors. Although it is in its early stages, it is ambitious in its coverage. Opinion columns by the editor draw on deep knowledge and nuance of the city. Good community forum space.

Rust Wire: This regional endeavor focuses on the revitalization and rebirth of America’s Rust Belt — that area of the midwest and northeast from Michigan to Western New York. The site’s co-founders, both former reporters in Ohio, are passionate and knowledgeable about Rust Belt issues.

The Eastsider LA: Former Los Angeles Times reporter Jesus Sanchez started The EastSider LA to observe his own neighborhood, a steadily gentrifying area of Los Angeles. His site is a good example of solid neighborhood news reporting, especially in the shadow of LA Times downsizing and reduced coverage of the city. Jesus brings the nuts-and-bolts information residents need and want.

Woodstock CT Cafe: A great example of what a community can do with information, given an open forum and a desire for debate. This site has been around several years and serves seven small towns in “The Quiet Corner” (as it is known) of Northeast Connecticut. Anyone can post to the site, which is moderated with an seemingly invisible hand. Discussion usually centers around the school district that serves the towns. There is always pre- and post-local election forums.

Spot.us: This popular site has to be included in this list, for taking a creative approach to funding the news. Spot.us, which has been written about extensively in traditional media, works on a crowdfunding model, where the general public is asked to subsidize stories through individual donations.

The Digitel: A testament to the link economy. This Charleston, South Carolina site rounds up information from regional or national outlets, then picks the newsiest bits and links to them. They also have some original content. Lots of sections, lots of content. They put the human element in aggregation.

Philadelphia Neighborhoods and Intersections: The South Los Angeles Report: Two examples of university journalism programs working in new media. These sites are hyperlocal projects run by journalism programs at Temple University (Philadelphia Neighborhoods) and the University of Southern California (Intersections).

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Red Bank Green, one of many sites covering news and entertainment for a section of New Jersey. The site recently scooped traditional media on a story about Bruce Springsteen fans purchasing the house where Springsteen wrote “Born to Run.” (disclosure: I am acquainted with a reporter there)

Alamo City Times: This site provides a place for topics of discussion and activity around San Antonio, Texas. The site, which is primarily in English but features a section in Spanish, keeps its community engaged through a space for highly visible user-generated content. (disclosure: site founder Patricio Espinoza sits on the board of directors of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists with me)

Baltimore Brew: A site plugging along, covering basic community events, news and happenings around Baltimore, Maryland.

This list reflects general community news missions. There are many more start-ups worth noting, but they belong in a different category. The recent past has seen large-scale, non-profit start-ups such as the Texas Tribune, MinnPost, Voice of San Diego, St. Louis Beacon, and Crosscut. Those are all in a different league. Their news scope is state-wide or multi-state, their budgets and staffs larger than community news start-ups.

And check out Chris Wink’s roundup and evaluation of 24 hyperlocal sites he lists on his technology news blog Technically Philly.

SPJ Digital Media Committee member Jessica Durkin continues to track community or other independent, online news startups at http://inothernews.us. Jessica is based in Scranton, PA and is the Region 3 director for the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. She’s usually Twittering about hyperlocal and entrepreneurial journalism @jessdrkn.

“The people have Tweeted.” And apparently they really like chewing Trident Layers gum.

When Trident recently paid for full-page ads in USA Today, the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, the maker of the new, multi-flavored gum may have made history. They’re the first company to “embrace real-time Web-branded conversations” as marketing tool in a mainstream print ad, according to Tim Leberecht of CNET.com.

But the ad — featuring a giant pink and red gum strip surrounded by 10 enthusiastic Tweets such as “Trident Layers. The gum that loves you back” — pushes Twitter toward a thin, transient pop culture line. At what point does a social networking site cease to be cool? I’m sure News Corp execs, who hotly dispute the notion that MySpace is now “uncool,” secretly wish they knew the answer to that question.

Less than five years ago, Rupert Murdoch spent $580 million in cash to purchase MySpace in 2005. But now advertisers are following users out MySpace’s digital door. Yet, between the spring of 2008 and the same period this year, Facebook nearly doubled its unique U.S. visitor total to 70.28 million while overtaking MySpace, which lost 3.4 million unique U.S. visitors over the same span.

Meanwhile, MySpace fired 30 percent of its U.S. staff in June amid an ad sales slump. Advertisers are expected to spend $520 million this year at MySpace or 14 percent less than in 2008, while Facebook’s worldwide ad sales are projected to rise 20 percent to $300 million this year, according to the research firm eMarketer.

As Matthew Flam wrote about MySpace in a June story at Crainsnewyork.com: “Some observers feel that with a home page ad that reads ‘Meet Russian Women’ and a Wild West atmosphere that has resisted efforts to transform it, MySpace will never get its buzz back.”

None of which is to say that social networking sites suddenly become uncool by partnering or associating with advertisers. (In Twitter’s case, Trident concocted the ad and its team discovered the positive gum Tweets via a Twitter search, according to Leberecht of CNET. Trident then used the Tweets after seeking permission from the Twitter users who posted them.)

Just look at Burger King. Its brilliant marketing push for the Whopper, conceived by MDC Partners’ Crispin Porter + Bogusky, offered a free coupon for the burger to any Facebook user who “defriended” 10 people. Facebook users dropped a whopping 233,906 friends for the Whopper, which lead Facebook to ask Burger King to take the app down.  The ad agency behind the gimmick told The Wall Street Journal that the controversy generated 32 million news articles and media mentions.

Ultimately, it might not be so difficult to tell which Web sites will cross the line into cultural irrelevancy. Few companies succeed when they assume they’re indispensible. Most of all, Web sites must continually innovate and adapt to users’ wants and needs. As Charlene Li, founder of the research firm the Altimeter Group, told the LA Times in June, “The speed with which a company like Facebook is able to innovate and keep things fresh is the key to survival in this space.” 

Scranton-based communications professional Daniel Axelrod spent five years as a full-time newspaper reporter before moving into public relations in April. He is president of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Keystone Pro Chapter, which covers most of Pennsylvania, and 2009-10 vice chairman of SPJ’s national Digital Media Committee.

Interactive timelines are a great visual way to inform and engage users about your news topic.

Dipity timelines can do more than display simple text. Adding photos, links, and pulling in RSS feeds are just a few of the fun features you can play around with.

Timelines created in Dipity can be displayed using a standard linear graph or in ‘Flipbook’ mode which is similar to a multimedia carousel or ‘List’ which displays the content in a cataloged format.

Whether you are detailing a series of events that lead up to a major news event i.e., the spread of the swine flu, or providing a historical and chronological display of events i.e, the History of the New York City Marathon timelines are no longer confined to the boring textbooks of yesteryer.

HOW TO START CREATING YOUR OWN DIPITY INTERACTIVE TIMELINE

Go to Dipity and create a free user account.

Click ‘Add a Topic’

A window will appear asking you to choose a method to craft your timeline: Web search, RSS Feed, Blank.

To begin creating a standard timeline choose Blank.

The window will allow you to give the timeline a Title, Desciption, upload a timeline profile picture, add SEO tags, pick a theme, a timezone, and allow you to determine who you will allow to view your timeline.

I would suggest picking a free theme and allowing anyone to view your timeline.

To start creating events on your timeline click the blue button ‘Add an Event’.

A new window will appear that asks you to include a:

• Title
• Date
• Description
• Upload a picture or paste an image URL
• Add a link
• Include the location of the event (Dipity will generate a map for the location of the event)
• Add a video URL

Once you click ‘Save’ the event will be added to your timeline which you can view in the standard Timeline format, as a Flipbook, List or on the Map.

You can always go back and edit or delete any of the fields by clicking the event located on your timeline.

You can click ‘Add a Source’ to feed other online account data into your timeline i.e., Flickr, Tumblr, FriendFeed and Yelp, to name just a few.

Once you have completed adding in all your ‘events’ you can embed your Dipity timeline into your website, blog, or Facebook. Dipity will generate a customized embed code when you click ‘embed widget’.

Dipity is also social media savvy and allows other Dipity users to comment on your timeline and has Twitter, Facebook and a host of other social networking apps to help you spread the word about your cool new timeline.

Still have more questions? Check out the Dipity FAQ.

If you experiment with the RSS timeline feeds you’ll discover that Dipity automatically pulls in the images embedded into your posts or articles. Personally, I think this is a great feature – one less field for me to fill in!

Examples of Dipity interactive timelines:

• All things SPJ
• H1N1 Vaccine
• Apollo Timeline

Hilary Fosdal is the Interactive Content Manager for Barrington Broadcasting Group. She blogs at hilaryfosdal.com and tweets @hilaryfosdal.

Reporters: Ever think of a record or document you’d like to get hold of and say to yourself, Wait — haven’t I already FOIA’ed that?

You’re not alone.

In response to a question that someone posed on the FOI-L listserv, let’s talk about some ways you can use technology to help you keep up with your records requests. We’ll look at some pros and cons of each approach.

The simple text file: The most basic way to do it is with a text file on your computer — or, on a shared folder on a server on your network, if you’re trying to share with co-workers or a team. Problem is, only one person can access that document at any one time — which could be a pain if you’re trying to share with a large group or your entire newsroom.

And, if your newsroom’s network is like any of the ones I’ve worked on, you can kiss goodbye the hope that anyone outside your building can ever access the document on the server — that cuts out your statehouse bureau, your guys at the cop shop, or any reporter who ever leaves the office with a laptop. Which is just about everyone these days.

Some better approaches:

Create a Google Doc. Google will let you create and share documents for free if you have a Google/Gmail account — create a word processing document and then “invite” your co-workers to share it. No, you aren’t sharing it with the whole world, just with the invitees. More than one person can be in the same Google Doc at a given time, and it’s easily accessible to people outside the office.

(I should also note: You don’t have to do your FOIA list as a word processing document. You can also store them as a spreadsheet file, with columns for date sent, agency FOIA’ed, description of document requested, status of request, contact person, etc.)

Create an intranet for your team/workgroup as a Google Site. Google also lets you create free sites that you can share with a limited number of invitees. You can create new “pages” in your site, including one using the “list” template, that will allow you to create columns and pull-down menus for the headers I listed above. You can also upload attachments, such as .doc or .pdf files of the actual requests, in case you need to review how you worded something.

Create a wiki, either for yourself or your team. No, setting up a small wiki doesn’t require any coding knowledge or server space — sites including Mindtouch’s Deki Wiki and PBWorks’ PBwiki will let you set up a wiki for a few users for free, which they host themselves and which you administrate entirely through their Web interface. (At my shop, Texas Watchdog in Houston, we have a Deki Wiki for FOIAs, as well as having a Google Site intranet.) The idea is that everyone goes to the wiki and updates it every time they file a FOIA request, giving an accurate reflection of what has been requested and where it is in the pipeline.

You can also try notebook-type storing solutions such as Evernote, which offers free accounts with a maximum monthly upload limit (pay users get more storage), Springnote or even Google Notebook — which still works, even though Google says it’s stopped active development on it.

Again, multiple people can access these repositories at once, and they’re easily accessible to people outside your office, as long as they have an Internet connection. (The caveat: These are only helpful if people take the time to update them with info about their newly filed FOIAs. If that doesn’t happen, well … that’s a human error, not the computer.)

So, how do you keep up with your FOIA requests?

Jennifer Peebles is deputy editor of Texas Watchdog, a nonprofit news site in Houston, and yes, she sends a lot of FOIA requests. Contact her at jennifer@texaswatchdog.org or on Twitter: @jpeebles.

Facebook’s privacy settings are changing — and it’s important to learn how those impact you.

This week the company started to ask its 350 million users to review, update and approve a new privacy policy. Facebook officials claim this updated policy (and settings) is simpler and easier to understand than the previous detailed, but complicated, privacy options.

Watch for the window to pop up the next time you log in. If you’ve missed it, you can change your privacy settings at any time by going to the Privacy page. Based on your previous settings, Facebook automatically recommends whether you should choose the new settings or keep your “old” settings. Note: So far I’ve heard that not all previous settings have moved over in the update.

Facebook officials claim the new settings give users more control over the information they share. For example, users will now have the option to decide who can see each update by selecting the audience of “Friends,” “Friends of friends” or “Everyone.” However, if you have a public profile, “Everyone” no longer means everyone on Facebook; it now includes everyone online (except for minors).

Some bloggers disagree that these changes promote privacy. “It’s not about privacy at all, it’s about increasing traffic and the visibility of activity on the site,” writes Read Write Web author Marshall Kirkpatrick.

What do you think? Here’s some additional reading:

New Tools to Control Your Experience by Facebook’s Ruchi Sanghvi

Facebook Will Be Google-able (If Your Profile is Set to Public) another post by Read Write Web’s Marshall Kirkpatrick

Amanda Maurer is a digital news editor at the Chicago Tribune, who specializes in social media. She blogs at acmaurer.com; you can also follow her on Twitter at @acmaurer.

When: January 21, 2010 from 6pm-8pm

Where: Google’s Chicago Office, 20 W. Kinzie St., 17th Floor, Chicago, IL 60610

Cost: FREE

SPJ’s Digital Media Committee Presents:

Google 101 for Journalists: Getting the Most from the Web

Every day, millions of people around the world use Google‘s search engine to find what they’re looking for. Editors, journalists, producers, and others in the media have long known just how essential it is to be able to find and use information efficiently and effectively, and this Google 101 introduction demonstrates ways to work more efficiently and effectively on the web. Learn how to get the most from Search and other free tools from Google. Whether you’re in broadcast, print, or digital journalism, this session will introduce ways you can search smarter, keep better tabs on your beat, see what’s hot and what’s not, add a visual edge to your online content, and use Google on the go when you’re reporting in the field. Walk away with tips and tricks and an online resource — for Google Search, Hot Trends, Insights, Reader, News, Maps, and more.

Light refreshments will be provided.

Sign up now! It’s free! http://www.eventbrite.com/event/507511982

Watch snippets of opening remarks from Rupert Murdoch and Arianna Huffington during the first day of the Federal Trade Commission workshop titled ‘How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age.’

Josh Cohen, Senior Business Product Manager of Google News explains during his 15 minute presentation at the FTC workshop how to prevent Google and search engines from indexing content on websites.

During the FTC workshop “How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?” Steven Brill and Karen Dunlap share their thoughts on past and future business models for journalism.

Hilary Fosdal is the Interactive Content Manager for Barrington Broadcasting Group. She attended both days of the FTC workshop. You can read more of her work on Running for Food.

***

Below are selected photos from the workshop. To see the full photoset check out this link.

Photographer: Steve Fosdal

This is the second in a series of mini-tutorials on the basics of shooting video. If you know how to turn on a video camera and press record, this series is intended to help you take it to the next level for better news video results.

When it comes to video, there are three basic areas worth focusing on that will bring the quality of your final product up a notch to look and sound much more professional than Uncle Bob’s 2008 Christmas footage. Technique, planning, & publishing. This post deals with the topic of planning. Planning for your video includes the kind of thoughtful consideration you’d give to story angle and style. You must determine the reason you’re doing video, then execute it in a way that makes sense given your technology, time and storytelling commitments. Planning is also required in order to effectively do your job. The requirement to carry a video camera and still camera along with your usual notepad and pen can be intimidating, but proper planning makes it possible.

• News video is all about letting the viewer EXPERIENCE the elements of the story for themselves. In writing we do this through narrative writing, but video lets viewers see and hear the elements for themselves.
• When planning to shoot video for a multimedia story, ask yourself if the story you’re telling has some “action” element that would be exciting to show others. One way to think of it is by asking yourself, “what would I show my best friend if he/she were here on this story with me?” It could be how parts work together to make something important happen, it may be a process, it may be a demonstration, or it could be a person or animal doing something that’s more interesting on video than as a still photo.
• Consider asking if the interviewee has video. In cases where you’re interviewing a missionary to Africa or Peru, the volunteer may have taken video of their time there and can submit it for your use online. Police can often provide squad car camera video of traffic stops, etc.
• Consider video slideshows. Ever had a story with tons of great photos, but not enough room in the paper for more than two? Consider editing them together in sequence with a voice over that we could post online as a video.
• Capture important people saying important things. If someone is making a speech and you know you’ll be standing there for more than 20 min. just taking notes, why not set up the video camera on a tripod to get some footage of the speech. You could post a memorable selection or quote from the speech online.
• Longer form videos of political debates or controversial meetings can be of value to online viewers. Consider these types of videos as a resource for those readers who want more. Not everyone will watch a 45 min. video, but some will find it extremely helpful to know that they can find such coverage on their local news site!
• Sports – Even if you don’t get video of the championship game (which is a good idea), we can go out to team practice for video of the featured athlete doing their thing. Our, if you’ve got a unique sport or unique aspect to a sport, video could enhance a sports feature story.
• Plan out your use of digital cameras, video cameras and interviewing to make sure you’ve got your bases covered. For instance, when covering a rodeo cowboy, perhaps you arrive and snap some photos while he’s practicing. Then, when he takes a break, you take up your notepad and interview him, maybe even conduct the interview with the video camera rolling. Then, when he enters competition, you get some great b-roll video of him doing his thing. You’ve now got your interview notes, photos and video. Congratulations, you’re a multimedia journalist!
• If you’re covering a breaking news story, my rule is always leave the video camera rolling. Get video of the fire, interview the firemen on camera, don’t stop rolling. Then when you get back to the office, pull notes from the on camera interview.

• Some cautions: Video of school plays or other copyrighted works is prohibited by law. We also have the same obligations as still photos when taping kids. Get permission and cover your butt.
• Just think about what you’d be willing to watch online. Don’t subject your readers/viewers to something you wouldn’t waste your time watching.

Jeff Achen is an interactive media strategist for the Minnesota Community Foundation, The Saint Paul Foundation and GiveMN.org, nonprofit organizatons in Minnesota. He is also a consultant, freelance photographer/videographer, and blogger at www.mnvideopro.wordpress.com. You can follow him on Twitter.com/jeffachen or email jeffachen@mac.com.

I can’t stay in a world without love, Chad & Jeremy once sang. But do we really want to stay in a world without length?

The Web can be pretty liberating for us old newspaper people — not only can you write a story, you can also do a video version of it, live-blog events, post audio and slideshows and all kinds of cool multimedia stuff. And you can write as long as you dang well please.

When my former newspaper ramped up its online presence a few years ago, one of the very first things we noticed about storytelling on the Web was the lack of a space limitation on your stories. Bosses say that story has to contain on page 1b at 7 inches? We can put a 16-inch version on the web! Copy desk says you can have 18, max, for that story that’s jumping to 4b? Write a 28-inch version for the Web and then trim it to 18 for print! Nevermind what Bowater wants to charge for a ton of newsprint these days — we have unlimited free pixels on the InterWebs!

But I’m older now, and I think the Web has matured, too — and so have its readers. So let’s get down to brass tacks here, kids: Just because you have unlimited space for your story on the Web doesn’t mean the world wants to read all of it.

Very few topics out there are truly worth an old-fashioned notebook dump, even when you’re writing for the Web. As journalists, it’s still our job to separate the proverbial wheat from the chaff for our readers, and to tell them the stuff that’s interesting and important — which brings with it the responsibility of discerning what’s interesting and important, as well as having the courage to leave out all the rest. Our readers trust us to make those calls for them. And when we take them down the garden path to a destination that leaves them thinking, “Gee, that was a colossal waste of my time,” we’re going to lose that trust.

I’m as guilty as anyone of overwriting. But we all need to have that little voice inside our heads that says, “This is too long.”

Just my two cents’ worth.