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"Leah Betancourt is the digital community manager at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, Minn. She is @l3ahb3tan on Twitter.\nCelebrities like Martha Stewart and Bill Gates might find Facebook high maintenance, but the world's largest social networking site can be invaluable to journalists. Facebook gives reporters a means to connect with communities involved with stories, find sources, and generate leads.  For media companies, Facebook is a way to build community and reach a larger audience.\nJournalists and the institutions they write for are finding Facebook to be an important resource in conducting the reporting that they do.  Reporters and media companies are using Facebook to engage with their audience, connect with sources and build their brands.\nFinding Leads on Facebook\nIn April 2008, Ivan Oransky, who at the time was the managing editor, online, of Scientific American, joined Facebook. Shortly after setting up his new Facebook account, he accepted a friend invite from bioethicist Glenn McGee, the founder of the Alden March Bioethics Institute, who had once worked with Oransky at \"The Scientist\" magazine as a columnist.\n\"Then I noticed a bunch of things about his profile page: A curious status line about having the worst month ever. A job that seemed to end abruptly.  Lots of references to lawyers,\" wrote Oransky later in a blog post on ScientificAmerican.com. \nOransky assigned a couple of Scientific American reporters to chase down McGee and see what was up. The publication eventually ran three stories about McGee\u2019s departure from the Alden March institute that he founded and led.  For Oransky and his team at Scientific American, Facebook was useful in this case as a lead generation tool.  \nFinding Sources on Facebook\nFacebook also gives reporters a means to connect to communities to which they might not otherwise have access.\n\u201CJournalists should be using Facebook as a tool to unearth timely conversations around their topic or local community,\u201D said J.D. Lasica, founder and editorial director of Socialmedia.biz and a former editor at the Sacramento Bee, in an email interview.\nHe said many reporters have begun using their Facebook friends to help hone questions for interview subjects, to discover sources for articles who they didn\u2019t know existed, or to learn about issues or events that turn into full-blown stories.\nIn fact, Peter Shankman\u2019s Help a Reporter Out (HARO) service that connects journalists to sources and is one of the most useful source finding tools in a reporter's arsenal, was actually launched as a Facebook group in November 2007. The group allowed him to secure an initial base of members to whom he could push out queries. Reporters would email him with what they needed, and he would send messages to the group, Shankman said in an email interview.\n\n\n\n\nBecause Facebook group emails were capped at 1,200 at the time, Shankman was forced to launch HelpAReporter.com, in order to grow the service.  HARO sources now top more than 100,000.\nShankman still uses a HARO Facebook fan page to post completed articles from those who used his service. \u201CIt\u2019s a good addition to helping the overall growth of the brand,\u201D he said.\nTimely topics can also bring together Facebook members on a fan page or group.\nPaul Bradshaw, course director of the MA Online Journalism at Birmingham City University\u2019s (UK) School of Media, said in an email interview that his best experience in using Facebook for gathering sources was when Twitter stopped offering text message service in the UK.\n\u201CI started a Facebook group around the issue and through discussions on the group wall and forums, discovered very useful information about the companies setting up replacement services,\u201D he said. \u201CIt also meant I could quickly find people who had used those services.\u201D\nReaching Audiences on Facebook\nDuring the 2009 presidential inauguration CNN.com ran a live streaming video player next to real-time status Facebook updates. The event attracted millions of viewers to CNN and Facebook and at peak, 8,500 status updates were being posted every minute.  In June, Facebook opened that technology to anyone via their new Live Stream Box service. Users sign in with Facebook Connect and status updates appear in the Live Stream Box, their profiles and on their friends\u2019 activity streams.\n\n\n\n\nFacebook fan pages are also being used by enterprising media companies to grow awareness of their brands and connect with readers. On November 5th, 2008, the day after Barack Obama became President-Elect of the United States, The New York Times ran an ad campaign on Facebook asking fans what Obama should do first as president.  The newspaper\u2019s fan page led with a call-to-action image asking fans to join the discussion. It also offered a free virtual gift of its newspaper with the headline \u201CObama Wins.\u201D\nThe goals of the campaign were to grow the newspaper's number of Facebook fans, raise awareness of the NYTimes.com as an interactive news center, and to engage the Facebook community in a conversation about the election outcome, according to an internal New York Times memo from President Scott Heeken-Canedy that was posted by the Nieman Journalism Lab. \nIt worked; the campaign\u2019s brand message reached 68.3 million people, the number of fans on the newspaper's fan page more than tripled in 24 hours, more than 34,000 comments were shared, and more than 400,000 virtual gifts were given, the memo said.\nCommunity is a Two-Way Street\nBuilding a community among social networks doesn\u2019t happen overnight. Bradshaw said he sees parachute social networking, in which journalists descend on a group related to a particular event (such as the Virginia Tech shootings), but to which the journalist had no previous relation. He recommends combining activity on Facebook with activity elsewhere online, such as people\u2019s blogs.\n\u201CDon\u2019t be a parasite,\u201D he said. \u201CDo see this as a long-term investment in your community \u2014 contribute.\u201D\nWorking a beat takes time. It\u2019s no different as a user on a social networking site.\n\u201CIt\u2019s all about karma. The community won\u2019t share with you unless you\u2019ve shared (your experiences, your thoughts, your passions) with them. Don\u2019t just be a journalist. Be human,\u201D Lasica said.\nDealing with Ethics Issues\nRecently, news organizations have been creating or expanding their ethics policies to include use of social networking tools.\n\u201CIt's best for everyone in an organization to be on the same page,\u201D said Jane E. Kirtley, Professor of Media Ethics and Law and director of the Silha Center at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota, in an email interview.\nAs a lawyer and media ethicist, she said she supports the concept of policies, if only because a good policy will help to make clear what the rules actually are to everyone involved. Kirtley pointed out that the biggest issues newsrooms should consider when making a social media ethics policy or having their journalists on Facebook are whether to use a single Facebook page for both professional and personal purposes, who to friend, and what kind of material to put in one\u2019s profile.\nShe said that whether news organizations should have social media usage policies for their journalists is a very controversial issue. And so are the policies themselves.\nLasica, for example, believes that the Wall Street Journal\u2019s policy on online activities is misguided when it states: \u201CSharing your personal opinions, as well as expressing partisan political views, whether on Dow Jones sites or on the larger Web, could open us to criticism that we have biases and could make a reporter ineligible to cover topics in the future for Dow Jones.\u201D\n\u201CThis backward-looking embrace of the notion that reporters are blank slates is part of the reason newspapers are losing readership and relevance in the digital age,\u201D he said.\nOransky, on the other hand, warned that joining a Facebook group can be seen as advocacy. He said he would not join a Facebook group with a particular science or medical agenda.  \u201CI think that\u2019s dangerous,\u201D he said.\nHe\u2019d like to see a Facebook app for media credentials. So if journalists join a Facebook group or fan page, they can be designated as a member of the media. It would be similar to a reporter attending a news conference with a press badge\nThe Journal also counsels its reporters not to \"discuss articles that haven\u2019t been published, meetings you\u2019ve attended or plan to attend with staff or sources, or interviews that you\u2019ve conducted,\" which Lasica thinks is misguided.\n\u201CFacebook and Twitter are wonderful tools for creating transparency around the black art of newsgathering,\u201D he said. One of the things that newsroom managers don\u2019t understand is that the public doesn\u2019t see journalists as human beings, according to Lasica. \u201CSocial networks help reconnect reporters and editors with people in their communities by letting the public know that, yes, we do have personal lives, likes, dislikes, opinions, weekend adventures and so on.\"\nKirtley thinks transparency is certainly desirable, in theory, but urged caution about revealing too much about the newsgathering process.\n\u201CThink carefully before expressing opinions about news subjects or sources. (\u2018I knew the guy was lying through his teeth.\u2019) And make sure that you are keeping any promises of confidentiality that you have made, regardless of what platform you are using,\u201D she said.\nThe Importance of Getting the Facts\nIn an online social sphere, where it can be unclear whether the profile online is truly that person, identity is key. This goes both ways \u2014 journalists should be upfront that they are members of the media and they must make sure the sources they use from social media sites are who they say they are.\nKirtley said ethicists urge journalists to be crystal clear about who they are \u2014 their real name, and real affiliation \u2014 and the fact that they are gathering news for publication. \u201CThey shouldn't assume that the people they are dealing with recognize this, especially if the source is a young person or someone not accustomed to dealing with the media,\u201D she added.\nIdentity isn\u2019t the only thing that should be confirmed. Fact-checking information from social networking sites is critical.\n\u201CVerify, verify, verify. Facebook is a great source for story ideas, but no news story should be solely-sourced through social media,\u201D Kirtley said. \u201CSeek corroboration. And if at all possible, interview the person either by phone or face-to-face. It is so easy to lie on the Internet, and to misrepresent oneself. No journalist wants to spread falsehoods or be taken in by a hoax.\u201D\nAccording to Kirtley, \"Most news organizations realize how valuable social networking can be, both as a newsgathering tool and as a way to promote the news organization's \u2018brand.\u2019 The trick is to accommodate the competing interests without stifling the exchange of ideas. It's not an easy task.\u201D\nEthics Tips from Jane E. Kirtley\n\n1. Verify facts, identification of sources, etc. Be as certain as possible that the information you are providing is truthful and accurate, or, if that can't be determined, making very clear what the source of it is.\n2. Remember that nothing on Facebook or social media is really private.\n3. Once it\u2019s posted there\u2019s no way to take it back or restrict what other people might do with it once they get access to it.\n4. Reporters should disclose in their stories that they utilized Facebook as one of their reporting tools.\n5. Be cautious about friending controversial individuals.\n6. Be aware that others may draw inaccurate conclusions from your decision to friend someone.\n7. Friending an unnamed source is the same as revealing the source\u2019s identity. If you\u2019ve promised confidentiality, you shouldn\u2019t do it, even if the friend is using a pseudonym.\n8. Journalists are regarded as \u201Cjournalists\u201D virtually 24/7, especially nowadays with people with all kinds of agendas who are constantly looking for evidence of journalists\u2019 bias.\n9. Use images and content from sites such as Facebook with care. How do you know it\u2019s accurate? Don\u2019t spread lies.\n\nTips on Using Facebook from J.D. Lasica\n\n1. Be human. You\u2019re not a detached observer, but a participant who need to share and give back instead of just taking.\n2. If you\u2019re using Facebook just to publicize stories you\u2019ve written, you\u2019re using it wrong.\n3. Remember that Facebook is about sharing, not about broadcasting.\n4. It\u2019s all about karma. The community won\u2019t share with you unless you\u2019ve shared (your experiences, your thoughts, your passions) with them.\n\nMore social media resources from Mashable:\n- 10 Ways Journalism Schools Are Teaching Social Media- How Social Media is Radically Changing the Newsroom- 10 Must-Haves for Your Social Media Policy- The Journalist's Guide to Twitter- Everything I Need to Know About Twitter I Learned in J School\nImage courtesy of iStockphoto, Phaif, robynmac, topshotUK"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2009/08/03/facebook-journalism/>