At Friday's Mashable Media Summit, Facebook's journalist program manager, Vadim Lavrusik, explains how the social network's new features can help journalists.
“Profiles and subscribe are going to be the most useful for journalists that are posting as themselves,” says Lavrusik. He suggests these users review their profile settings if they plan to start using Facebook publicly. Oftentimes, their privacy settings may be so restricted that their profiles won't appear in public search. Conversely, users should check settings to make sure they don't publicly share more than they're comfortable with.
Apart from individual journalists, larger-scale media organizations are reaping the benefits of the new Facebook. Lavrusik acknowledges that online media will always have concerns that page views affect advertising. Why, then, would they export their media to an outside host like Facebook? According to Lavrusik, Facebook has monetized the advertising available in its applications. "You can put advertising on there and monetize the audience. … You can control what’s in that environment," he explains. "[Media] is thinking about it as a mobile application; you’re able to consume content in Facebook instead of kicking back to a news site.”
In response to Mashable deputy editor Chris Taylor's assertion that "Facebook Is Too Damn Complicated," Lavrusik says that most users don't engage with every tool on Facebook anyway. "Your average user isn’t going to use all these features," he says. "You don’t have to do everything on Facebook. It becomes complicated when you think about it that way.”
On the other hand, some of us at least want to try to use Timeline. When will it finally roll out? "When it's ready," Lavrusik promises.
For more of a helping hand, see the gallery below for Lavrusik's presentation slides and Facebook advice for journalists.
[nggallery id=2993]
[nggallery id=3005]
Presenting Sponsor: AT&T