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What is your newsroom’s/department’s identity on social media? ​Before you begin, you should sketch out a newsroom/department persona, which will be confidence-inspiring for you and for your audience. Your newsroom/department persona can, but need not be, the same as the persona on radio or on the website, but you should nonetheless try to identify a number of relevant common denominators in the manner you address the audience and the content.
A bitingly satirical programme will gain from having a similarly biting tone even on social media, rather than just posting neutral broadcast details about today’s or tomorrow’s programme.

A newsroom/department needs be fundamentally credible on both radio and Facebook, even if the type of content differs (audio on radio, captioned video on social media, for example). If the tone and content differ dramatically between these new and old platforms however, your audience will probably get confused and irritated

CONTINUITY

Journalism on social media benefits from continuity. It is easier to establish sustainable procedures if the newsroom/department publishes regularly and not just now and then, when time is available, and on the initiative of individual employees. The audience will follow and engage more with accounts where it knows that there will be regular updates every day or several times a week at approximately the same intervals.

​Long breaks between posts can make the audience feel unsure as to whether the newsroom/department is still active.  Here, the newsroom/department needs to agree on a minimum level and then increase it if resources permit, and if the strategy turns out to be functioning as the newsroom/department had intended.

CONTENT

  1. Prioritise. First select which social media platform(s) you want the newsroom/department to be present on. The major platforms have different features that make them more or less suitable for different types of journalism and content (see Best Practice) – but bear in mind that your resources must be adequate to produce good content and engage in dialogue with the audience. So don’t start up accounts on more platforms than you can handle and choose a platform that your newsroom/department prioritises.

  2. Streamline the content. Do not mix different types of content for no reason, just for the sake of it. Keep to attractive text and photos (if that is what you do well) and learn about new terms and expressions properly before you start using them in your published content. Make sure you have the staff available and you have thought out the strategy thoroughly in advance, and remember that the absence of a consistent line confuses the audience. 
  3. Choose the right platform for the right content. A newsroom/department that wants to cultivate dialogue with its audience on everyday matters might give priority to interesting posts with text and photos on Facebook, while a foreign newsroom might focus on documentary photos and longer reportage on Instagram. This is not to say that you can’t mix different types of content.
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  4. ​Think continuity. Don’t let different amounts of time elapse between posts for platforms you have prioritised. Regularity lets the audience know when they can expect new content – they get to know you and feel at home with you.

TARGET GROUPs

Analyse the newsroom’s/department’s target groups. If you have existing accounts, you can start by investigating the group already following and interacting with you. Using the Facebook statistics tool for example, you can find useful information about your audience such as gender, age and place of residence.

Social media also offers great opportunities for finding new target groups. Through newsroom/department Facebook groups for example, you can divide the audience into segments and identify people who are particularly interested in a specific area to cover (birdwatching, yoga, electronics and so on). For example, a local newsroom can search for and find audiences in different cities and towns using the Facebook search function and via local interest groups.
 
The newsroom can also choose the platform based on demographics. If you are looking for a younger audience, Instagram or Snapchat might be the right platform to prioritise. Swedes and the Internet (Internet Foundation in Sweden, IIS, 2018) provides good insight into online trends.