Stephanie Romanski

For several months now, my newspaper has officially been on Facebook. We have 91 friends, and about 41 of those friends are most likely readers of the paper either in print or online. The rest are either employees here, relatives of employees, or other media folks.

I send the Independent’s Twitter updates to Facebook’s status updates, and any Youtube videos we do also get added automatically. I use the RSS feed to stream in our latest stories as notes. It seems almost the opposite of what is preached regarding Twitter in that it should all be manual and provide interaction. Well I do that as well. I write on friend’s walls, leave comments, respond to comments and all of that good interaction stuff that is so vitally important with social media.

And then someone asked why I didn’t have a fan page for the Independent.

I’ll admit I was stumped for an answer. I have a proper page already set up. I have 91 friends. I interact with people there. Do I really need a fan page as well? Or should I *just* have a fan page? What are the pros and cons for both versions? And what about a group? Should I start a group too? How much do I do without it seeming like overkill?

I turned to my panel of experts on Twitter and posed my question. Here are the excellent responses I received:

ernmander @stephromanski I would say one or the other.

patrickbeeson @stephromanski I would think one page makes sense, right? Though it might depend on your goals for using Facebook.

p00bah @stephromanski I would lean towards the Facebook Fan, you can get insights on who is a fan and be as interactive.

paulbalcerak @stephromanski More flexibility design-wise with FB fan page. Let me know how FB works out for you. Still figuring out how to best use it.

joeruiz @stephromanski Wish I was able to see benefits of working w/Facebook. Tried it for our site, but can’t figure what works. Thoughts anywhere?

KarmicCycle @stephromanski fan pages irritate me because they don’t show up on your friends list. Not really even sure where to find them.

brooksbayne @stephromanski i would only use one. create a page for “brand or product”.

p00bah @stephromanski Thats why I think the fan page is better bet. Plus IMO it spreads around users a bit with each one saying “became a fan of..”

ernmander @stephromanski why don’t you create a GII Group page so they can join the group and post on the group page ?

ernmander @stephromanski Do the lot, Fan page, Group page and profile page sod it hehehe

paulbalcerak @stephromanski Seems like your fan page has better Google juice, too: http://tinyurl.com/a2w3w9

After gathering opinions and thinking on it for a couple of days, I decided to go ahead and make a fan page. I will also hang onto the Facebook account I set up for the paper. I figure it can’t hurt us so why not? But personally, I’m leaning towards the fan page being the better option and here’s why:

• Biggest argument, IMO, for a fan page is that many folks on Facebook might prefer not to have their local paper able to see their personal stuff, which is what happens when you just go with a regular account. But those same people might be more apt to become a fan. You’re still able to connect with your “fans” but they’re still able to hang onto their privacy.
• A fan page provides more of a sense of community with fans able to post on the wall for all to see, upload fan photos/videos, the discussion board, and receive updates.
• I set up our fan page just a few hours ago. Already 6 people have become fans because they see “______ became of fan of The Grand Island Independent” in their friend’s news feeds. It gets your name out there better. I was unable to create a “normal” page for the Indy using our business name because of Facebook’s restrictions on user names.

On the other hand, having a regular Facebook account is pretty nice. Since I manage the page myself, I do see the Indy’s friend’s status updates and can comment (if appropriate) on them or photos they post whereas with a fan page I can only comment on what gets posted to the wall there.

I think I will keep running both and watch how they do for the next few weeks and I’ll do a follow-up post about this. I’m not going to try a group as well, mainly because I’m only one person but it may be an option to try if you’ve got the time and inclination. Most of the groups I’ve joined on Facebook are mostly silly  – see “I played at Dennis the Menace Park in Monterey, CA… And survived!” for evidence of that – so I’m not sure a group is an option I want to mess with, to be honest.

Do I think having my newspaper on Facebook is beneficial? Absolutely. Facebook seems to have exploded in popularity in recent months. They’re doing really cool things with it, like partnering with CNN on President Obama’s inauguration day. That’s how I watched the Big Day

You can automate some of it, but as with Twitter, it really will be better in the long run if you have somebody keeping an eye on it and interacting with your friends and/or fans. Twitter has taught me that our readers prefer a real person on the other end of the screen, not a bot or a feed. If they have a comment or a question, they will more than likely want a response. So I wouldn’t set up a Facebook page, automate it and forget it. That’s just not enough.

Look after it. Grow it. Find the method of using Facebook that works best for your media organization. Keep up-to-date with what new tools and apps are available (advice that applies to Twitter as well) and most of all, interact. It’s fun!