Tools in a journalist’s work – Facebook, RSS, heatmap – part 3

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This is the third entry on the tools in the work of a modern journalist. Today a bit more about Facebook, RSS feeds and Gemius Heat Map tool.

Facebook, fan and group pages

On one of the world’s largest social networking sites Facebook, we can not only set up our private account, but also thanks to it, manage a countless number of company profiles, events, social campaigns, etc. It gives great opportunities for all editorial offices and more. Almost every major company that aspires to be network-friendly has its own special profile on this website. Not without reason, because, according to SocialBakers.com data, over 8 million Poles have already registered on Facebook, and this number is still growing. From January 2012 to the end of April, almost a million people opened their accounts. This is a huge target group that we can reach and many companies are trying to use it by building their websites.

On a large number of websites, we can find buttons for integrating portals with Facebook, such as “like” a given article, post, photo, or share it on your profile. The table showing thumbnails of photos of all people who have declared that they like a given company, brand or product is very well known. It is not without reason that it displays our friends in the first place, hoping that we will also be tempted. If that happens, our friends will also see it.

Belonging to different groups and websites of favorite bands, actors, films, newspapers gives us, above all, very quick access to the latest information, competitions, exclusive details and gadgets that we would not find in any other way. On Facebook, the principle of equal-to-equal conversation applies. The site always says about itself in the plural, and about fans per you (eg we liked your photo Łukasz very much). This allows for convenient two-way communication with the representative of the other party and even greater attachment of the person to the entity we represent.

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Skillful website management is of great importance in marketing and PR. In the case of newspaper websites, a large number of fans translates into a large number of visits to the portal and a significant increase in statistics. A large part of the editorial office is not limited to keeping only one official profile of their title. I myself manage over a dozen local websites, which have a total of over 30,000. fans. Of course, all profiles are used to promote your own materials and actions related to their subject.

Facebook
fot. Niall Kennedy, CC BY-NC 2.0

It is also worth mentioning the most popular websites of brands, companies and media today. In the media category, he definitely runs the Demotywatory.pl website, which can boast over 1 million. 300,000 active fans. Radio “Eska” is in second place with the result of 630 thousand. fans. Filmweb.pl is third with 522,000 fans. It should be noted that these are active profiles, i.e. administrators talk to users, run contests, have built an appropriate atmosphere, which, firstly – attracted people using Facebook, and secondly – directed them to their websites.

Anyone can set up a special brand profile or websites. However, great attention should be paid to the way in which such a profile is maintained. It cannot be treated by the managing person as a blog where everything that comes to mind is added, not caring about the syntax and quality of the message itself. When a lot of fans gather on a particular page, our mistakes will be scored by them and they will do everything to accuse us of incompetence. A lot of administrators can be provoked and plunge their brands into black PR.

One of the many examples of ill-considered actions is the conflict between the popular (even more thanks to this scandal) fashion blogger Eliza Wydrych from Lublin and the company Schaffashoes.pl. Eliza received various products from the company related to the subject of her blog – expensive suitcases, shoes, clothes. Instead, she was to publish photos of these items on her blog, additionally writing a review about them. On May 23, 2012, the Schaffashoes company announced on its Facebook profile that it had established cooperation with a new blogger.

In one of the comments, Eliza Wydrych responded, who decided in a public forum to ask the administrator about her outstanding remuneration. In response, she received a comment in which the profile leader publicly listed the number of items and their value that she received from the company, which she should be satisfied with.

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Eliza Wydrych wrote, referring to the previous arrangements with the company’s representative:

“It’s not about listing how much I got from you and bidding. In general, the word “I got” is wrong, because it was a barter cooperation, and these things were the payment for the work done. Maybe other bloggers agree to exploitation, I don’t. This situation is funny, especially since Jagna [name of the person responsible for the company’s contact with the blogger / ed. author] agreed to the new arrangements and I just had to wait for the courier. “[1]

The famous blog devoted to technical novelties and social media – Antyweb.pl reached the content of the e-mail, which Eliza Wydrych received on Facebook after the whole situation. What the company wrote to the blogger shocked the public opinion. The letter reads:

“Ladies and Gentlemen, in connection with the libelous comments published by you on the Schaffashoues company profile on the Facebook social network, we would like to inform you that the above case was transferred to our company’s lawyer. At the same time, we would like to inform you that your blog has been presented to the Tax Office competent for your place of residence in order to determine the amount of taxable property benefits obtained. At the same time, we would like to inform you that we are preparing documents confirming the transfer of your property and a letter to the above-mentioned tax authority, which includes a request to verify the amount of income declared by you in the settlement for 2011. Yours faithfully, Petersen Polska. “[2]

The way the company tried to solve the problem of public debate with the blogger caused outrage and an avalanche of critical comments on the company’s Facebook profile. Internet users agree that the reason for the conflict is irrelevant, and the way to fight it, in the literal sense. Sylwia Anna Makulska comments:

“The shop applied a blow below the belt. The best defense is attack? Certainly not when it comes to reputation. Bottom and embarrassment. I will never use your services in my life and I will heartily advise against my friends. And the person responsible for this situation should slowly write the statement. [3] Oscar Novak wrote bluntly: “Minus 1000 to store reputation. I did not know it before, but I do not think that without changing the name (and most of all PR managers, in particular FB) he would be able to recover from something like this. Pettiness, throwing words like “extortion” at the blgoerki, a statement about an internal contract (if any actually was) pulled out on the forum … [4]

RSS feeds

Almost every major website allows its readers to use RSS feeds. As Wikipedia defines: “RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is used to publish frequently changing content such as blog entries, news”. Thanks to this, a person equipped with a special reader (usually an overlay for a web browser) always has up-to-date information from favorite websites at hand when they appear there.

RSS
fot. Jack Amick / CCBY NC

However, these are not complete materials, only the title, short description and photo. To read the full text, click on the message and you will automatically be redirected to the source of that message. This is a great way for journalists to track multiple pages (e.g. competing newspapers, thematic portals) in one place, so that we will be informed immediately of any change. The Google search engine, thanks to the iGoogle project, allows you to set various gadgets, including RSS readers, on the personalized first page of the search engine. This way, you can have all your favorite titles close at hand without having to browse multiple pages at once.

 GemiusHeatMap

GemiusHeatMap is a specially designed tool – an overlay that applies a color filter to a particular page, displaying the actions of Internet users. It shows, for example, which places on a specific page they click, their frequency and which elements attract the most attention. This allows you to check if we have chosen a good photo or a title that encourages you to press the mouse button and read the article.

Gemius website advertises its product with the slogan “Find out where on your website is really hot …” [5] Thanks to the overlay, we can quickly check the popularity of individual texts on the website, constantly supervise and modify materials omitted by readers, and it also shows almost immediately what is the impact of the way the link is presented on our website (what is the effect of color, bold, location, and adding a photo on the reader’s desire to press it.

 

[1] Wydrych E. comment published on https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150983846676133&set=a.419431711132.218990.385116541132&type=1&theater

[2] Kamiński M., Mamy kolejny kryzys w polskim social media, http://antyweb.pl/mamy-kolejny-kryzys-w-polskim-social-media-tym-razem-e-sklep-kontra-blogerka/,

[3] Makulska S., comment published on Schaffashoes profile on Facebook,

https://www.facebook.com/schaffashoes

[4] Novak O., comment published on Schaffashoes profile on 

Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/schaffashoes

[5] gemiusHeatMap, https://www.gemius.pl/pl/badania_heatmap_korzysci,

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Jakub Markiewicz
Jakub Markiewiczhttps://jotem.in
Hi, I am the author of the Jotem.in blog and series of thematic portals since 2013. I have nearly 15 years of experience in working in the media, marketing, public relations and IT. If you are interested in cooperation, you would like me to write about something or test a product - let me know.
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