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I just remembered when during the Social Media Club meeting one journalist was saying not to believe the internet would be there in a couple of years time this myst have been naivity or was he just closing his eyes as a change was imminent? Media are business nowadays and nobody can hide from that fact. The numbers are convincing enough – and business is about numbers. Media are business – so about numbers.

The romantism of working in media will be diffent in the near future. We don’t work on a typewriter for a long time and the print is not made with lead shapes anymore. It’s getting to be about people and people only. The distance that existed traditionally between the journalist and the audience is to disappear, we will work in the centre of the society, surrounded by people who are our sources and the audience at the same time. Get used to it. It’s the only way.

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During the workshop of Social Media Club Utrecht, Netherlands, on 29th June 2011 the theme was Social Media and journalism. Elvira van Noort emphasised that during her internship in 2005, various journalists did not believe in internet at all and that the editorial desks of the internet and print departments were separated. Nowadays, the line between journalist work and the citizen or community is getting thin. However, a task of the journalists is to verify and check the content the community provides and thus adding reliability. Turned around, the community can make the journalists work for them by sending messages the journalists should act upon. Aart Lensink of LVB Networks was worried about the ‘duty-content’ – the stream of comparable content that was produced by organisations that want to have content for the sake of it. A blurb of words, optimised to be found in Google but by its un-originality the result was opposite. But do the ‘official’ media loose their position? It is clear that suppliers, the business, seem to get closer to the professionals compared to the professional media which are disappearing. The latter can be caused by the business model of controlled circulation and advertising which declined. When at the same time the suppliers and professionals have the means to share their experience themselves, the parallel movements make that the information structure changes. Forever.

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KPN UMTS coverage in The Netherlands

Telecom provider KPN in The Netherlands is about to charge an additional fee for services such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Skype, online video… in order to cope with the increasing data traffic that smartphones and other mobile-ready equipment are causing. This means that a subscriber will pay to be online and additional to it, for certain services. This is strange as they are online services. It’s a miracle why one kind of data is different than another. Why not charge for the total volume consumed, this sounds fair. This also may be an incentive for the hard- and software suppliers to have a look to their products. In my house, we have a Blackberry and an Android phone. As we are regularly in other countries, we have the Vodafone Internet op Reis bundle, which gives 35MB/day for 2 euros/day. And a text message when this limit is reached. The Android phone usually gets this message at 1 or 2PM, as the Blackberry with comparable or more intensive use does not get to this volume. Yes, the Blackberry data is being compressed by the Blackberry Internet Service – but charging for data can give a difference for the preferences people will have. By the way, in the landline world, there also is price differentiation according to internet usage, translated to volume and speed of the connection. This could be adopted for mobile.

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Jackie Lampugnano askes herself how journalists are using social media. With Matt Lindner she had a conversation on his opinion about this issue. And it is basically so simple. Journalists are looking for story ideas and soacial media are a heartbeat of what is being said around and it is easy to make selection or search. Also they are engaging, being there, and giving an answer to what other people are looking for rather than pushing their own opinions.

Social media also are very good for the research: you already can read yourself into subjects or even ask questions that may rise. Twitter is a good example but the groups of LinkedIn also turn out to be a good source. And there are various more specialised groups around.

In the end, it’s about relationships. These are getting you further ahead in life. This is valuable for journalists, but for all people who want to be involved in social media. The social part of this term seems to bee looked over quite often. And that’s what makes the conversation useful.

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It was weird to see a job ad for a journalist advocate working for Facebook, to promote the use of Facebook under journalists. Did reporters not discover the networking site yet? For years, the social media site is known for its benefits. In 2009, Mashable already wrote about the opportunities to find leads for an article, to find sources to get information and a two-way communication tool to reach an audience. Nothing new… also not because one year earlier, already was described how a journalist found a way to make scoops using Facebook as a platform of preference.

In the time of Web 3.0, where many journalists still seem to prefere their notepad and pencil over the computer and the internet for professional use, Facebook (among others) is a good platform to integrate and create groups and interaction. Hanging out on Facebook must lead to stories, is a quote that can be found in several places.

So why would Facebook need a journalist to be a journalist advocate? Why don’t reporters find Facebook? It has in a way the agility of Twitter in the perspective of speed – and at the same time, the functionality of LinkedIn with groups for special knowledge. And it is quite easy to connect with people. I just wonder why this should be brought under the attention of the professionals. I’m curious how you as a journalist think of Facebook. I like it for several purposes. Hanging out, hearing about new professional developments, to name one example. How do you think of this?

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I bumped into an interesting discussion about Rockville Central being set to become a Facebook-only outlet. The managers of this website, a local community site, decided to manage Rockville Central entirely from Facebook. This was to avoid a duplication of work and most people who visited the site were mostly on Facebook anyway. Sounds logical. The whole platform is there: the posts for the news facts, the image and other media gallery, the facilities to comment, like and continue this way. The downside obviously should be that you don’t really control the technical side of it all and as mentioned, the conditions. I’m not sure if you can really manage an earning model on Facebook as well – perhaps it’s just about publishing.

Would you ever consider running your (community) site from Facebook (or LinkedIn, as you can create a group there as well) only? I’m curious to hear your opinion!

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Lisah Petterson (@journalistlisah), an anchorperson on the Swedish TV4 channel gives in her blogpost on My Newsdesk a good tip for journalists looking for sources. The hastag #jourtip added to the request is used by Swedish journalists looking for sources, spokespersons or suggestions. The article is also mentioning her Twitter account increased interaction with her tv audience. The more active she is, the more she gets out of her efforts. Her advice is that journalists should use social media more as an integral part of their resources.

Another way is to use Twitter for referrals. When I can’t really find a direct contact (in Twitter or LinkedIn), through a couple of referrals I normally get where I want to come. It’s good to know your resources – and use them!

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This time I keep it to the point, and dedicate my words to 10 Popular Misconceptions about Social Media. Especially people working in media seem to have difficulties really understand their meaning.

1. Lunch and other irrelevant talk – there are so many people with their preferences that there is enough to share. What is irrelevant for you may be important to know for some-one else. There’s also a ‘mood’ indicator!
2. Twitter as a business doesn’t make money so isn’t a viable business – there are more businesses that don’t make money and still are significant. The value of Twitter is based on the number of users quite important.
3. LinkedIn is for business, Facebook for personal contacts. Some-one missed out here on the business cases now made on Facebook. Why do you think businesses are creating Facebook pages? To reach their client base and perhaps even give service or a branding.
4. Social networks are time consuming – I just twitter wherever I am, whenever I do. Just need an internet connection on the phone. Some people do not understand that even the time that a computer needs to start up, find a servcr or a file, can be used to communicate. So it can make lost time useful.
5. Sharing is for exhibitionists. Sharing is a gift and can help other people. I like helping other people, don’t you really? And of course, I like to show when I am doing fun things. Not that weird…
6. 140 characters is not enough for meaningful messages. It forces you to trim the message down to the point. This is an important skill.
7. You can’t make money on Twitter. I know quite some businesses that make a lot of money on Twitter. Twitter helps my business… don’t you think my follower base of more than 2300 does not have potential? Wine merchand @slijterijmeisje makes a significant part of her revenues on Twitter – and if there was nothing to earn here, we would not have that many spam messages either.
8. Does age matter? Simply said: no.
9. Information overload. It just compacts the information and helps it channel. I don’t mind.
10. It’s just for nerds and geeks. Don’t think so – judge for yourself.

It’s easy to take a mickey out of social media. It’s there for stay and as you see here: social media is more or less put on Twitter. You can reach a lot of important people for business through LinkedIn, access information using Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups and Twitter contacts – just mention #twitterhelp if you have a question to answer! If people don’t see the point in social media, it just characterises themselves. Just see and use them as a tool. It will broaden your world and push you forward. Maybe not immediately but you will get there.

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A personal story this time. Through Twitter, I came in touch with a former colleague – a photograher of a weekly newspaper where I was the editor in chief (Stadskrant Veghel). Years ago. Through the Twitter connection we said hello but it was for me the incentive to invite her for a cup of coffee. Fixing a date is the next challenge, so she came up with a meeting of the Social Media Club in the region, SMC0413. This was good as for me, it was an incentive to meet other people, like a girl I used to play squash with and other former colleagues. And of course, I could meet new people with one common characteristic: social media.

It was a great meeting and I wondered if there was a Social Media Club in the region where I live. Yes, Amsterdam but the waiting list of their meetings usually is longer than the available space. A no-go. Then Hilversum, the media city of The Netherlands. None! I couldn’t believe it. So I made a call on Twitter for social media people around the city to join SMC035 – and we created a LinkedIn group SMC035. As more or less immedately, I found people who wanted to help giving the SMC 035 a shape. I was amazed that on the first day the LinkedIn group was created, we got about 16 members, actually (over the week-end) the number is 24. And quite some of them like to help organising the events. This is a good spirit, that’s what I like about social media: getting things done, spontaneously, and with other people. Everything is possible as long as you are open for it!

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