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High water and floods have plagued some of GateHouse Media's news areas this spring, and the Harrisburg Daily Register in Illinois has been keeping readers up-to-date on road closures and barricades on Facebook and on its website. Check out how the paper used social media to keep readers informed.
WHAT THEY DID: The Harrisburg Daily Register in Illinois has responded to readers' requests for donations to help displaced families, offering information and then updating it later with more specific information. Plus, it used basically press release info to direct people to a website listing road information. A reader congratulated the paper for its "awesome coverage" of the flood. And the paper congratulated its 2,000th Facebook fan. Editor Terry Geese said the paper is committed to being the hub of the conversation on Facebook. As he put it, instead of going to your friend's wall to comment on the flood, we want you coming to us.
TAKEAWAY: If you're just getting started on Facebook, be use to check out Harrisburg's Facebook page. This is a staff of four at a daily paper, and you can see the commitment to using social media as another avenue of communicating with readers. For Facebook best practices, be sure to check out our Facebook webinar coming up. The session will be led by GateHouse national trainer Sarah Corbitt, and she'll talk about building a fan base and what you need to know about building social media to drive traffic to your website.
GateHouse Media News & Interactive Division staff post best practices on social media uses, as well as information on the newest technology newspapers can use in the social media space.
