“OK, I get it, everyone loves their mother.” I do, too.
Late Sunday afternoon, these words, directed at my wife — on her second Mother’s Day — came flying out of my mouth. Her head turned, with our 1-year-old baby in her arms, with disbelief.
It’s Facebook, today, I told her. “I just can’t take it any more,” I said.
What was it that I just couldn’t handle for another minute? That it seemed that every one of my “friends” on the beloved social networking platform had posted a message about their mother that basically said the same thing: “I love my mom.” Earlier in the day , the messages were a lovely way to kick off a bright and sunny 2010 Mother’s Day. But by the time it seemed like I had read the same “I love my mom, she’s the best” Facebook post about 200 times over, I was done, ready to retire Facebook for the day.
Don’t get me wrong, Facebook is a great platform. I use it daily. My office uses it daily, too, to communicate messages to our newspapers and industry colleagues. It’s a powerful tool. And what actually happened on Mother’s Day was a really great thing. It was engagement. Engagement on speed. Facebookers were doing what the social networking platform was intended for: They were telling their friends what was on their mind. It’s just too bad that it seemed like their minds were all working the same way that day, making Facebook a pretty useless place to be.
People want a place to share their thoughts. They want to be able to tell people what they ate for dinner, how they’re feeling about that new assignment their boss gave them and what the temperature is outside. On Mother’s Day it was all about mom. As it should be.
And then it smacked me in the face: Facebook needed to direct its readers that day; it needed to give them a little push to get creative. We all love our moms, but what makes reader interaction interesting is when we’re enlightened, surprised or downright shocked by what we’re reading.
That’s not Facebook’s game. They’re not looking for an organized conversation. It’s like they like the chaos and the chaos often works, some 200 million registered users would be proof of that fact.
“OK, I get it, everyone loves their mother.” I do, too.
Late Sunday afternoon, these words, directed at my wife — on her second Mother’s Day — came flying out of my mouth. Her head turned, with our 1-year-old baby in her arms, with disbelief.
It’s Facebook, today, I told her. “I just can’t take it any more,” I said.
What was it that I just couldn’t handle for another minute? That it seemed that every one of my “friends” on the beloved social networking platform had posted a message about their mother that basically said the same thing: “I love my mom.” Earlier in the day , the messages were a lovely way to kick off a bright and sunny 2010 Mother’s Day. But by the time it seemed like I had read the same “I love my mom, she’s the best” Facebook post about 200 times over, I was done, ready to retire Facebook for the day.
Don’t get me wrong, Facebook is a great platform. I use it daily. My office uses it daily, too, to communicate messages to our newspapers and industry colleagues. It’s a powerful tool. And what actually happened on Mother’s Day was a really great thing. It was engagement. Engagement on speed. Facebookers were doing what the social networking platform was intended for: They were telling their friends what was on their mind. It’s just too bad that it seemed like their minds were all working the same way that day, making Facebook a pretty useless place to be.
People want a place to share their thoughts. They want to be able to tell people what they ate for dinner, how they’re feeling about that new assignment their boss gave them and what the temperature is outside. On Mother’s Day it was all about mom. As it should be.
And then it smacked me in the face: Facebook needed to direct its readers that day; it needed to give them a little push to get creative. We all love our moms, but what makes reader interaction interesting is when we’re enlightened, surprised or downright shocked by what we’re reading.
That’s not Facebook’s game. They’re not looking for an organized conversation. It’s like they like the chaos and the chaos often works, some 200 million registered users would be proof of that fact.
But to make themed conversation work you need a leader. That’s our game. Newspapers, the leaders in a community conversation, can develop creative dialogue and really get people to think about what their mom means to them.
My “friends” on Facebook this last Mother’s Day are proof — more proof than I honestly ever wanted — that people want to share their thoughts and memories. They just need a little push in the right direction about what to share to not make the conversation so darn boring.
Newspapers are starting to find avenues to make conversation around topics online and in print, a very engaging experience. During Mother’s Day, here are a few of my favorite callouts I came across:
• Share in five words what lesson your mom taught you that you still practice today
• What did you swear you never would do that your mom did, but you are now guilty of doing yourself?
• What’s the one thing that you never told her but you wish you had?
For the most part, participation was stellar for these callouts. Why? Because they were creative and targeted. We know readers want to share information. We just have to give them the right nudge of what to share.
I am “fans” of many GateHouse Media newspapers’ Facebook pages. Often, our editors do a good job of interaction on Facebook when something breaks in their community. Maybe that’s asking readers if anyone is at the fire downtown that just broke out or seeking comments about the decision the council made last night. Those calls for commentary work because the issues and topics are on readers’ minds. And that’s why everyone was talking about their mom on May 9 of this year. Because it was Mother’s Day. Newspapers, just like they do when big news happens in their community, should have been there to capitalize on it., with directed callouts and conversation.
All an editor had to do last Mother’s Day was say this: “Hey, folks, lots are sharing their memories of Mom, tell us right here what lesson she taught you that you use today in raising your kids.” And the benefit on your own site and in print is huge if you consider that you could take the best of those comments and repurpose them into those platforms. By doing that you’re increasing your local news count and offering themed and fun content for your readers. Everyone wins.
With Father’s Day a little less than two weeks away, now is the time to think about how you can engage folks who want to share information. What creative uses can you come up with to get people talking about good old dad? His worst Father’s Day gift he ever received, biggest shock about fatherhood he learned early on, what he remembers most about his dad?
I beg you to do this. Your readers will love it, your pages will be brighter and I won’t have to survive another Facebook “Mother’s Day” again.
David Arkin is the executive director of the News & Interactive Division for GateHouse Media. Contact him at darkin@gatehousemedia.com
