ABC News inks partnership with Yahoo News

The top news site on the web, Yahoo News has teamed up with ABC News in a strategic online alliance that will make ABC the premiere news provider on the portal (promo video). The most visible element of the partnership is the launch of a new site, GoodMorningAmerica.com (which resolves to gma.yahoo.com), an online experience [...]

East Coast earthquake social media resources

Update: Twitter reports it had 5,500 tweets per second at the height of today’s quake. It notes that this rate (which it calls TPS) is higher than when Bin Laden was killed and is on par with the number of tweets during the Japan quake. Update: It’s certainly looking like the earthquake has only done [...]

Guest Post: Google Plus pulls TV station account

UPDATE: +BreakingNews, one of the first brands to join Google Plus, has had its account pulled as well. It had 20,000 followers when it was shut down. +CoryBergman and +StephanieClary are posting the Breaking News updates on their personal accounts until Breaking News is re-established on Google Plus. This is a guest post from Kimberly [...]

CNN streams its air live online, mobile

CNN has rolled out a new video player this morning with the ability for authenticated TV viewers to watch the cable news network and HLN live online and on CNN’s iPad and iPhone apps. Here’s a screenshot of Anderson Cooper airing on an iPad: Before watching, users have to confirm they’re subscribers of a participating [...]

Guest Column: Early Google Plus media experiments

This is a guest post from Kimberly Wilson, who founded SocialNewsDesk, a company that specializes in social media solutions for newsrooms. You’ll find her on Twitter @kimberly_wilson. Most people still haven’t gotten a Google+ invite. Even fewer companies are there. And Google+ has all but begged brands to hold off on creating profiles for their [...]

BeeTV integrates social TV into new apps

Social TV company BeeTV is bringing together TV viewing, checkins and social conversation into a new iPhone app, and it also released an improvement to its existing iPad app. BeeTV HD integrates with Facebook and Twitter enabling users to see what their friends and other social webbies are saying about the show. The interface is [...]

Los Angeles, social media prepare for “Carmageddon”

Los Angeles, home of notorious traffic jams, is preparing for a potential doozy. People are calling this weekend’s closure of 10 miles of the 405 “Carmageddon.” What’s happening is 10 miles of the very busy highway will be shut down to traffic as part of a reconstruction project. The big question is whether the work [...]

Roku brings Facebook pictures and videos to the TV

Roku, the streaming video player, is adding the ability to see Facebook videos and pictures right on your TV. There are already several channels you can see on Roku, and Facebook Photos has been one of them. Now the channel is getting a big upgrade and it’s another example of internet video coming to the [...]

SocialGuide debuts daily social TV rankings

There’s a new form of ratings in town, and it has nothing to do with the Nielsens. SocialGuide ranks shows based on their popularity in the social media sphere by day, week or month. Along with Trendrr and Bluefin Labs — two other companies offering social TV data — it’s a new way of looking [...]

Detroit station taps #backchannel to make ‘good news’

Don’t just complain about sad news – do something about it! That’s what viewers of and staffers from WXYZ in Detroit did, using the power of social media in the community. Using the Twitter hashtag #backchannel and Facebook, a group of more than a hundred people gathered to help clean up Detroit. The group partnered [...]

Twitter reactions to Myspace sale

With Myspace going at a fire sale price of $35 million, you can bet there is a lot of reaction online. Sean Percival (@percival), Myspace’s now-outgoing VP of Marketing, posted this candid Tweet: Michael Jones, the CEO of Myspace, tried to put a positive spin on things with this Tweet: Then there’s this observation from [...]

Google takes on Facebook with new social media service

Google is introducing a new social media site, one that takes aim at privacy concerns about Facebook. The Google+ Project is in invitation mode only — and it’s not accepting any more for the moment — but a tour of the site provides a good overview. For starters, it provides a way to set up [...]

CNN to tap social media, QR code in live debate

CNN and local partners WMUR and New Hampshire Union Leader are holding a Republican presidential primary debate on Monday, and CNN is pulling out the social stops to let “voters play a starring role.” During the debate, users will be able to pose questions on moderator John King’s Facebook page, Twitter using the hashtag #CNNdebate, [...]

ABC News publishes digital Osama bin Laden book

ABC News is out with a digital book about the death of Osama bin Laden. “TARGET: Bin Laden – The Death and Life of Public Enemy Number One” was written by a who’s who of ABC News journalists. The downloadable book includes archival ABC News video from 9/11 and video from the compound where bin [...]

Guest Column: How to use Facebook Profiles and Pages

Jason DeRusha is a Minneapolis broadcast journalist and longtime web denizen. He’s also in our masthead (top line, 10th from the left). He’s a Friend of LR and has advice here in a primer on how he decided to differentiate his Facebook Profile from Facebook Page. There are big differences, including protecting your privacy. You’ll find Jason on Twitter @DeRushaJ -Safran

I’ve been an early adopter of Facebook and Twitter, creating profiles before I had any thought of how I was going to use them professionally. I jumped in because it was fun.

But as a news reporter at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis, it didn’t take long before random viewers started “friending” me on Facebook. I’ve never really separated my personal and professional life and that approach has served me well. I shared my love for food and wine online, and today I have a side job writing restaurant reviews for a regional magazine (Minnesota Monthly).

When my number of “friends” started approaching 3,000, I created a Fan Page and urged people to become a fan. But this is Minnesota: people want to be your friend not your fan. I had about 1,200 “Likes” as of a couple weeks ago.

So when my personal profile hit 5,000 friends, I took action. I decided to convert my personal profile into a Fan Page. If you’re a journalist on Facebook, and you don’t have a fan page, I highly recommend doing it. Hopefully you can learn from what I’ve experienced.

BENEFITS OF A PAGE:

• No 5,000 friend limit: You can have as many people following you as are interested. And all your friends are automatically converted into “Likers” of your page.

• No more managing Friend Requests: People click “Like” and they get my updates. Done.

• No more Facebook messages: I get DMs on Twitter, email on my work account, email from a gmail account and email from my personal website. It’s nice to not get messages from Facebook.

• People who Like my page still see my updates: Facebook has really upgraded Pages. Fans still see status updates in their news feeds. They still comment. They can now tag my page in their photos.

• Facebook Insights: If you click the insights link on your page, you can see who your fans are, what age and gender they are and where they live. It’s a cool tool….

Report: Social media brings loyalty and engagement

News sites are trading in on running short term, irrelevant ads to mass audiences, a process that is devaluing journalism and ignoring the most devoted audiences who are visiting via social media. That’s just one of many conclusions in “The Story So Far,” a report produced by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia [...]

Google, Drudge, Facebook the major drivers for news sites

Social media and search are emerging as the driving force behind how people visit media websites. A report by the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism shows us how people find online news. The study looked at the top 25 news websites. Among the project’s findings: Google is the primary driver of traffic. It accounts [...]

Using QR codes to interact with a TV audience

We’re all trying to figure out about QR codes – those boxy, digital things that look like a bar code for the digital age. QR codes enable the user to get much more information about a product or story. Check out the example to the right. You’ll need a QR code reader for your mobile [...]