The next time you log onto Facebook to post your latest article, think twice about what you share. Instead of copying in the link, why not share an image from the story instead?

That method worked well for ProPublica. Its graphic of changing congressional support for SOPA and PIPA from Jan 18. to Jan. 19 went viral after being posted on ProPublica’s Facebook page Thursday night. In less than 48 hours, the image received more than 17,000 likes, was shared more than 10,100 times and received a whopping 1,298 comments. And those numbers are still rising.

Read more

“Four Questions With …” is an occasional series of interviews with different social media editors in the news industry.

Photo Credit: Eddie Vega

The role of social media editor is a relatively new, and highly coveted, spot in newsrooms. While there are still a lot of unknowns about what exactly this job entails, everyone can agree that there needs to be at least one person handling social media for the company full-time.

So, what is it like to be a social media editor? What are the job responsibilities and how does one end up landing such a gig? The goal of “Four Questions With …” is to answer some of these questions and to give insight into what is a new and constantly evolving field.

We unofficially started off the series in October, when I interviewed Daniel Victor, ProPublica’s then-new social media editor. Now we turn to Liz Heron, one of two social media editors at The New York Times.

Heron joined The New York Times in August 2010, after working at ABC News and the Washington Post. She, along with her colleague Lexi Mainland, are the go-to people at the NYT when it comes to all things social media.

Here are her thoughts on social media and journalism. Read more

The role of social media editor is a relatively new, and highly coveted, spot in newsrooms. While there are still a lot of questions about what exactly this job entails, everyone can agree that there needs to be at least one person handling social media for the company full-time.

Photo Credit: Jay Westcott

This past summer, for example, Reuters hired Anthony De Rosa to lead its social media team. And this week, ProPublica announced Daniel Victor as its newest social media editor.

So, what exactly does it take to land the gig? Who better to ask then ProPublica’s newest addition?

Read more

Photo courtesy Daniel Victor

Many a journalist wonders what it would be like to leave the beat for the blog, but few act on the curiosity. They prize traits in their employers like stability, history and health insurance.

During his four years as a reporter at The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa., Daniel Victor tasted online community collaboration in the news process through his beat blogs and tweets. He couldn’t shake the urge to be part of a deeper community conversation than allowed at a traditional beat reporting gig — even one where editors give room for innovation, as Victor’s did. So when he heard about a new D.C.-based online journalism start-up last year, he made the leap and landed the job of Community Host for local news site TBD.

Fast forward six months, and now Victor, who’s been quoted and noted in blogs from Poynter to Jezebel, learned in February that his job — along with most of his co-workers — is being eliminated as the website moves away from the vast blog network he helped assemble and toward a much smaller arts and entertainment niche. Bummer? Of course. But this 26-year-old doesn’t talk regrets. He’s too busy already thinking future and calculating how the failure will set him apart and set him up for great things. In fact, he’s already headed for them: Philly.com scooped Victor up to fill a similar community-building role there.

Here, he took some time to talk about the experience and what he learned.

Read more