Facebook Files

While they might not be in the NBA Finals this season, the Los Angeles Lakers are the champions of the social media world.

Social media company Unmetric determined the Lakers rank as the highest social media team from the 2012 playoffs. Miami was second followed by Boston, the Los Angeles Clippers and the Chicago Bulls.

According to Unmetric, the scores are “a scientific blend of 24 qualitative and quantitative social media metrics, weighted and balanced to produce a single benchmarkable number.”

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Colorado Springs Gazette reporter Barrett Tryon has been receiving grief from his employers for posting an LA Times story on his personal Facebook page. According to Carmen Boles, content director of the Gazette, the Facebook post violated the social media policy of Freedom Co. Tryon refused to remove the post. He tells Jim Romenesko he’s meeting with his employers  at 11:30 this morning to discuss the issue, and that he expects to be fired.

Beyond the absurdity of attempted censorship by a newspaper, traditionally an institution that promotes free speech, is the issue of employee rights. A story on Poynter notes that these kinds of overreaching attempts by employers to place restrictions on worker’s social media have drawn the ire of the National Labor Relations Board:

In at least six recent cases, according to a memo from the general counsel, the independent federal agency that investigates unfair labor practices has found provisions of employer social media policies to be unlawful.

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In the wake of 2100 Trust LLC’s acquisition of Freedom Communications Inc., a journalist at one of the transacted publications chose to link on Facebook to an LA Times article by James Rainey and Walter Hamilton. The Colorado Springs Gazette breaking-news specialist, Barrett Tryon (pictured), also highlighted this passage:

The new owner hopes to spin off the smaller papers in separate deals by the end of the summer to help finance the purchase of the Register, according to an editor at the paper who was not authorized to speak publicly. These are the Gazette in Colorado Springs, Colo.; the Appeal-Democrat in Marysville, Calif.; the Desert Dispatch in Barstow; the Porterville Record, Calif.; the Daily Press in Victorville; and the Sun in Yuma, Ariz.

As subsequently detailed by Bryce Crawford of the Colorado Springs Independent, Tryon was quickly asked by his paper’s content director Carmen Boles to remove the Facebook post. He refused. “Because it’s on my personal account, and from an LA Times article,” he said later via email, “I’m not removing it. It comes down to perception and we could argue that all night long.”

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Early on in the 21-page treatise “A Mathematical Model of Bieber Fever: The Most Infectious Disease of Our Time?,” University of Ottawa student Valerie Tweedle warns that “tabloid journalism may be our last, best hope” against this fast-moving media blight. In other words, only a sensationally negative scandal can (eventually) impede the constant flow on Twitter, Facebook and in the MSM of contagious news about the Canadian-born superstar.

Some north-of-the-border outlets were skeptical today about the document’s authenticity. But per a report on Canadian Press, the cheeky analysis earned Tweedle top marks from her teacher Dr. Robert J. Smith:

The study is a real modelling exercise, with the phenomenal growth in Bieber’s popularity — as evidenced by Twitter mentions and Google searches — used as a stand-in for the way an infectious disease spreads. Tweedle’s original work helped earned her an A-plus in Smith’s class…

“Obviously it’s not formally a disease, but it has the hallmarks of a disease,” Smith says about The Fever. “And so it behaves the way a disease would…”

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No. 3? You don’t have a plan.

Whether you’re looking to increase followers, drive clicks back to your website, or just get people buzzing about your stories, you need to have a plan for any social media platform you join. A good strategy will help you avoid wasting resources or, worse, breaking your company’s social media policy.

Chris O’Brien, business and technology columnist at the San Jose Mercury News, said his paper’s policy “is like a one-page, basic ‘use your head’ philosophy.” Don’t appear to be biased if you are a beat reporter. “Keep in mind that you are representing the organization out there,” he explained.

Are you using social media wisely? Find out in The Biggest Mistakes Journalists Make in Social Media.

This article is one of several mediabistro.com features exclusively available to AvantGuild subscribers. If you’re not a member yet, you can register for as little as $55 a year and get access to these articles, discounts on seminars and workshops, and more.

Due to all of the confusion by the local media regarding the hometown hockey team, the savvy Los Angeles Kings created a infographic going forward for the remainder of the NHL playoffs.

Their social marketing department definitely deserves a huge raise after pissing off Western Canada and poking fun at all these erroneous TV reports.

The Hollywood Reporter has rolled out “The Hollywood Reporter Social Reader,” a free Facebook app dubbed “the first social reader for entertainment news.”

Fans of THR will be able to view a majority of their web content without having to leave Facebook.

“People love to share and talk about anything that has to do with Hollywood and the entertainment industry,” THR editorial director Janice Min said in a statement. ”The Hollywood Reporter Social Reader offers readers a seamless way to share and discuss the entertainment content they love.”

It’s just another confirmation of the brave new multimedia world we live in. On the heels of the first of two weekend performances at Coachella by Tupac Shakur comes the news that Dick Clark will remain a key component of the social video game Retro World.

In an interview with Forbes contributor John Gaudiosi, Entertainment Games CEO Gene Mauro reminds that Clark is both host of the game and someone who can also be selected by players as their avatar. The executive expresses his sincere condolences at the top of the interview about the death of Clark and says working with Dick Clark Productions was a rewarding experience:

“My impression was that Mr. Clark had amazing media intuition and he understood that games, social in particular, are an important mass market trend. That man knew pop culture and media trends better than anyone…”

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If you have not yet heard the story of nine-year-old East LA viral star Caine Monroy and his arcade made entirely out of cardboard, Mike Flacy’s blog post at digitaltrends.com is a perfect primer.

So often when it comes to flash mobs, the goal and-or end result is a negative one. But in the case of the Facebook-fueled crowd that gathered last fall at the Monroy family auto parts store while dad strategically whisked Caine away to a nearby Shakey’s, it was the opposite:

After getting permission from Caine’s father, [LA filmmaker Nirvan] Mullick started shooting the film about Caine’s Arcade and offered to generate community interest in the imaginative cardboard creations… Mullick used Facebook to create an event page designed to bring a flash mob to Caine’s Arcade on October 2, 2011. The event was also posted on Hidden LA, a Facebook page that highlights lesser known events within Los Angeles and has over 200,000 fans. After Hidden LA drew attention to Caine’s Arcade, the post attracted the local NBC News affiliate as well as the Reddit community.

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With television networks finding new ways to incorporate social media into their broadcasts, it’s important to have a solid digital footprint.

In the case of KABC, they are leading the country in the number of Facebook likes (344,145) and Twitter followers (78,053), according to Lost Remote. This is the first time a TV station has led both categories.

“As a news organization, we see social media as a way for our viewers to talk to us, and not just as a way for us to talk to them,” KABC’s vice president/news director Cheryl Fair told Lost Remote on the secret to such strong numbers. ”Listening is important. Since starting our Twitter feed in 2008, we have made it a commitment to reply to comments and questions as often as we can. People will frequently Tweet us to let us know about what’s happening near them and to ask us for details. That carried over to our relationship with our viewers on our Facebook page.”