Comments on: iherald – newspaper group clones facebook http://www.andydickinson.net/2009/02/11/iherald-newspaper-group-clones-facebook/ online journalism, newspaper video and digital media Tue, 07 Sep 2010 01:00:14 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Young people aren’t quite the web experts you think they are « Freelance Unbound http://www.andydickinson.net/2009/02/11/iherald-newspaper-group-clones-facebook/comment-page-1/#comment-7162 Young people aren’t quite the web experts you think they are « Freelance Unbound Mon, 23 Mar 2009 18:59:04 +0000 http://www.andydickinson.net/?p=1337#comment-7162 [...] a social networking site of its own, though the move seems a little pointless [HT: Martin Stabe/Andy Dickinson). But I think they are only scratching the surface.  The big challenge – for journalism [...] [...] a social networking site of its own, though the move seems a little pointless [HT: Martin Stabe/Andy Dickinson). But I think they are only scratching the surface.  The big challenge – for journalism [...]

]]> By:   iHerald - a comment from the editor by andydickinson.net http://www.andydickinson.net/2009/02/11/iherald-newspaper-group-clones-facebook/comment-page-1/#comment-6723   iHerald - a comment from the editor by andydickinson.net Sat, 14 Feb 2009 13:15:25 +0000 http://www.andydickinson.net/?p=1337#comment-6723 [...] I’m trying to whean myself of too much weekend posting - work life balance and all that. But I thought it was worth giving a bit more visibility to a comment on my recent post about The Plymouth Heralds new social networking site. [...] [...] I’m trying to whean myself of too much weekend posting – work life balance and all that. But I thought it was worth giving a bit more visibility to a comment on my recent post about The Plymouth Heralds new social networking site. [...]

]]> By: Neil Shaw http://www.andydickinson.net/2009/02/11/iherald-newspaper-group-clones-facebook/comment-page-1/#comment-6719 Neil Shaw Fri, 13 Feb 2009 21:01:00 +0000 http://www.andydickinson.net/?p=1337#comment-6719 Hi, thanks for the interest - and you've made some good points. As to the disparity between the number of members, we hope that's just a matter of time. We have been using Facebook for well over a year, while iHerald has been live since the start of January - and our marketing has been very restricted (non-existent) so far. The motivation behind our use of Facebook, iHerald, MySpace, Bebo, Twitter and YouTube has always been to interact with our users, rather than dump print content online and hope that appeals to the audience. We now get thousands of page views every day on thisisplymouth directly from these sites, and users on these sites discuss us and our news every day. Hitting the 5,000 limit on Facebook was the trigger, but the real drive is to create a platform where our users can interact with us and each other AND share their content with us. Gathering User Generated Content is a key part of our goal here. As for the Facebook group, its limitations have always disuaded us from putting in too much effort. The only advantage it has over the profile, so far as I can see, is that we can contact the group members in bulk - rather than only sending emails 20 at a time. Facebook has allowed us to take our content direct to a new audience who are genuinely interested in us and Plymouth news, and it has allowed those users to contact us with information (just today we were tipped off about a large number of job cuts in the city, while yesterday we were sent tributes to a young mum who died in the city over Facebook). But while it has raised the profile and altered the image of our brand among a key audience (damn, must have been spending too much time with the marketing team) it can't really provided the interaction we want, or the UGC. Facebook has been great for us, we enjoy it and we will continue to use it, but iHerald is different. As to duplication of effort, using Twitter apps we take an RSS straight from our site, through Twitter, on to Facebook so effort is minimal and iHerald is mostly about monitoring - but as the number of users increases we are building a team of editors to moderate the content. Hi, thanks for the interest – and you’ve made some good points.

As to the disparity between the number of members, we hope that’s just a matter of time. We have been using Facebook for well over a year, while iHerald has been live since the start of January – and our marketing has been very restricted (non-existent) so far.

The motivation behind our use of Facebook, iHerald, MySpace, Bebo, Twitter and YouTube has always been to interact with our users, rather than dump print content online and hope that appeals to the audience. We now get thousands of page views every day on thisisplymouth directly from these sites, and users on these sites discuss us and our news every day.

Hitting the 5,000 limit on Facebook was the trigger, but the real drive is to create a platform where our users can interact with us and each other AND share their content with us. Gathering User Generated Content is a key part of our goal here.

As for the Facebook group, its limitations have always disuaded us from putting in too much effort. The only advantage it has over the profile, so far as I can see, is that we can contact the group members in bulk – rather than only sending emails 20 at a time.

Facebook has allowed us to take our content direct to a new audience who are genuinely interested in us and Plymouth news, and it has allowed those users to contact us with information (just today we were tipped off about a large number of job cuts in the city, while yesterday we were sent tributes to a young mum who died in the city over Facebook). But while it has raised the profile and altered the image of our brand among a key audience (damn, must have been spending too much time with the marketing team) it can’t really provided the interaction we want, or the UGC.

Facebook has been great for us, we enjoy it and we will continue to use it, but iHerald is different.

As to duplication of effort, using Twitter apps we take an RSS straight from our site, through Twitter, on to Facebook so effort is minimal and iHerald is mostly about monitoring – but as the number of users increases we are building a team of editors to moderate the content.

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