SOCIAL MEDIA

Why should readers "like" you on Facebook? I'm sure editors have many good reasons. 1) Quality content. 2) Opportunities to share content. 3) Voting on polls. 4) Great galleries and videos. Those things are likely all true, but how does a single reader know that you have any of those things?

A newspaper in Texas is placing reporters' Twitter handles underneath bylines in an effort to drive more eyeballs and engagement to the social media site. It's an interesting idea and I see some real value in the move.

For years, newspapers have been moving away from the words "staff reporter" under a reporter's byline, replaced with the reporter's email address.

Media companies are quickly learning that effective Facebook posting takes more than just throwing a link into a status update.

On Friday, I wrote about how some media companies are starting to use a fill-in-the-blank approach on Facebook. And others, for a while, have been using questions and polls, as another way of engaging folks on Facebook.

The New York Times uses quotations quite effectively on Facebook.

More and more media companies are getting clever with their Facebook posts, all in an effort to engage more of their "friends" to participate with their social media site.

One somewhat new technique includes asking social media users to fill in the blank to a sentence or question.

A Tweet today by the Washington Post shows how careful content producers need to be when using social media tools.

The Post, teasing a UGC story about who might be the Washington Redskins starting quarterback this season said this in their Tweet, which was posted early Thursday morning: "Your 2011 Washington Redskins starting quarterback is …."

See, this is personal for me. I was born in Annapolis, Md., lived in Maryland for 10 years and a good chunk of my family is there. And as a kid growing up there, you don't really have much choice, but to be a Redskins fan.