Straits Times sets up Facebook fan pages for Reporters
29 November 2010 by josiemelati • 3 CommentsThe Straits Times has jumped on the Me Too Me Too Facebook band wagon and created separate fan pages for their journalists, fragmenting their fan base across 12 different communities including the Official one for Straits Times.
I’ve provided the links to the pages as well as a snapshot about the writers here:
Official ST fan page: http://www.facebook.com/TheStraitsTimes – 10,600 fans. Not much engagement here beyond hourly status updates RSS feeds off their Twitter page http://twitter.com/stcom
HOME
Jessica Cheam – housing and environment correspondent
Chua Hian Hou – covering techology related news
Salma Khalik – health correspondent
Liew Hanqing - news desk correspondent / investigative journalism
WORLD More like regional. I wonder why ST decided on ID and TH as focus points and not MY or the US/EU/UK
Lynn Lee – foreign correspondent in Indonesia
Nirmal Ghosh – foreign correspondent in Thailand
LIFE!
Ong Sor Fen – deputy editor of life! section arts and food
(Basically the only fan page I’ve joined)
PHOTOS
Samuel He – photojournalist
Neo Xiaobin – photojournalist
DIGITAL LIFE
Grace Chng – editor of Digital Life
I suppose being tech-savvy she’s read http://digitaldeath.tumblr.com
URBAN
Fash Hag – Urban’s Gossip Girl. Created as a Facebook friend profile i.e. only 5,000 friend limit – yikes, you’re doing it wrong.
Urban – Official fan page
While I do understand the case for giving ST readers a different POV of the news and applaud ST’s step into social media-sphere, I’m not sure if fan pages for individual beats are the way to go.
For starters, some of the fan pages have been created in the names of the journalists. FB101 tells you that it does not allow fan page communities to have their names changed which basically renders the community dead when the employee leaves the company.
Marketing campaign related case study: Great Singapore Treasure Hunt powered for StarHub by DDB Group Singapore/Tribal. 23, 900 fans left to fester because the campaign is now over and no forsee-able revival.
Speaking from experience of community managing a couple of brand pages at a go (it’s basically hell), I’m looking forward to seeing how ST goes about sustainably engaging their fans in the long run.
I hope they prove me wrong.
by Ng Tze Yong
1st December 2010
3:06 am
Thanks for the write-up, Josie.
FYI, Fash Hag is a profile rather than a fan page because that enables her to leave comment on the fan page of Urban, the print magazine her columns appear in. (Fan pages can’t leave comments as profiles can, as I’m sure you know).
We were debating about this for a while but finally, we thought a profile would suit an avatar like Fash Hag better. Yes, the 5,000 friend limit is a concern, like you pointed out. We’re hoping Facebook lifts that restriction some time soon!
Your second point about us losing the reporter’s fan base once they leave SPH – that’s true but I feel it’s also an unavoidable trade-off coz ultimately, personality-centric accounts still rule on social media. We’re also actively cross-referencing all FB sites under the ST umbrella, to put our eggs in different baskets.
We’re cooking more plans over here in the ST newsroom, so stay tuned and looking forward to you sharing your thoughts with us =)
by josiemelati
12th January 2011
3:14 am
Hey Tze Yong,
Thanks for finding the blog and giving the time to write a comment explaining ST’s social media strategic decisions. You’re right about personality-centric accounts, no one wants to feel like they’re talking to an automated response robot. As of this point, I’m glad to find that content and postings are still coming in actively on the pages and I thoroughly enjoy Ng Sor Fen’s musings on food.
Good luck to ST – looking forward to more of your presence on social media!
by FUCK THIS ASSHOLE
27th September 2011
8:07 pm
This can be a really great website, too dangerous I’m an asshole.