Image by shawncampbell on Flickr. Some rights reserved.

Twitter announced on its blog this week that it had launched the ability for users to set up a “weekly email digest”, offering “the most relevant Tweets and stories shared by the people you’re connected to on Twitter” to your inbox.

Find out more on Twitter’s blog.

Tipster: Rachel McAthy

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link– we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – safety advice from women journalists on the frontline
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – journalism hashtags
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – how to use forums effectively
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – analysing Twitter accounts
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – driving online engagement from offline activity

Online noticeboard n0tice has launched a Facebook sharing app, allowing users to “amplify activity” and spread posts virally.

The Guardian set up n0tice as a platform to utilise developments in social, local and mobile. It allows hyperlocals to brand their own noticeboard and keep 85 per cent of the revenue generated by charging for small ads.

A blog post published today states that n0tice’s new Facebook app allows users to automatically post content to their Facebook activity stream.

n0tice will automatically update your Facebook page when you follow people and noticeboards, star things you find interesting, or post reports, events or offers to n0tice.  The app does not share passive actions to your Facebook page such as what you are reading on n0tice.com, only explicit actions that you trigger such as following, posting, reposting, and voting.

The n0tice app for Facebook will help spread things you are doing on n0tice further around the world and help others to discover what’s happening.

• Guardian’s n0tice launches advertising platform
• Hyperlocals can now create noticeboards using the Guardian’s n0tice
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – try creating a crowdmap with n0tice
• Guardian hyperlocal platform n0tice now open to all
• New Guardian community platform n0tice invites more users

Image by shawncampbell on Flickr. Some rights reserved.

This week’s jpod looks at how Al Jazeera English programme The Stream, the new ITV News website and NME.com are embracing social media contributions.

Journalism.co.uk hears examples of how the social media community can set the news agenda, participate in the story, and how news organisations are using the passion and enthusiasm of the audience to shape output.

There are also examples of how a reader comment can turn into a headline and how the outlets are harnessing live activity streams.

Journalism.co.uk technology correspondent Sarah Marshall speaks to:

• Malika Bilal, digital producer and co-host of The Stream
• Jason Mills, editor of web development at ITV News
• Luke Lewis, editor of NME.com

You can hear future podcasts by signing up to the Journalism.co.uk iTunes podcast feed.

• #jpod – Celebrating Local Newspaper Week: Innovations in digital at the regionals
• #jpod: How journalists are embracing Facebook subscribe
• #jpod: How journalists and publishers can best use Foursquare
• #jpod: How journalists can best use LinkedIn
• #jpod: Lessons in digital storytelling from Storify and the Guardian

Image by Dreamer, via Wikimedia Commons

Community management is a key part of an online news outlet’s operation, and in this week’s podcast we speak to two people at the heart of community operations at the Times and Financial Times, to offer a unique insight into engagement strategies for subscriber communities.

Ben Whitelaw, communities editor at the Times and Rebecca Heptinstall, community manager at the Financial Times, discuss how subscribers use comment facilities to interact with journalists, the ways to recognise the value of subscriber through greater interaction and involvement in feedback and what community engagement really means both on the news website and on social media platforms.

For more on the topic of community engagement, this previous podcast looks in more detail at managing reader comments and here’s a feature on how the New York Times is using social media for “deeper” engagement.

And here is a link to the FT’s LinkedIn Readers’ Group referred to by Rebecca in this week’s podcast.

You can hear future podcasts by signing up to the Journalism.co.uk iTunes podcast feed.

• #jpod: Lessons from the NY Times and Guardian in managing reader comments
• #jpod – How the social media community can shape the news agenda
• #jpod: How journalists are embracing Facebook subscribe
• #wef11 audio: Jim Brady of Journal Register Company talks open newsrooms
• #jpod – SoLoMo: a look at the Guardian and Northcliffe’s innovations in social and local

Tool of the week: Muck Rack

What is it? A site that aggregates Twitter and social media feeds for thousands of professional journalists.

How is it of use to journalists? Journalists often break or share vital information first through social media. Muck Rack allows you to monitor trending topics among journalists in real-time. Its aim, according to Muck Rack’s creators, is to deliver “tomorrow’s newspaper to you today”.

Launched in 2009, Muck Rack now draws content from thousands of journalists who use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other sources to break news on a daily basis.

Built around a central directory of verified professionals, Muck Rack now boasts an extensive directory of top journalists from around the world which can be searched by name, publication or even beat.

Professionals only need a valid Twitter account to apply for verification, although the process is heavily vetted to ensure certain standards are met such as relevance of tweets or posts and consistent activity.

The site also emails out a daily analysis of what journalists are saying called the Muck Rack Daily, which is pored over by its editorial team.

Muck Rack dovetails well with previous Journalism.co.uk tool of the week Press Pass, which organises journalists by beat, media outlet or region.

• Tool of the week for journalists – WhenToTweet
• Tool of the week for journalists: Press Pass, to search for journalists on Twitter
• Tool of the week for journalists: Geofeedia, to locate real-time photos, videos and tweets
• Tool of the week for journalists – TimeKiwi, to create social media timelines
• Media Release: Journalists rate social media as a professional tool

In this week’s podcast we collect together practical advice from those working in digital journalism on the best techniques and tools journalists can use to verify content posted on social media platforms.

The experts emphasise that wherever possible journalists are encouraged to make contact with sources of content directly, such as by phone, but there are also additional checks journalists can make as part of the verification process.

Advice featured in the podcast ranges from how to effectively monitor platforms, how to investigate both the content and source of material and then, once it has been reported (with clear reference to the level of verification achieved), what to do if material later turns out to not be as it first seemed.

Interviewees include:

• Claire Wardle, director of development and integration, Storyful
• Malachy Browne, news editor, Storyful
• Fergus Bell, senior producer and UGC lead, Associated Press
• Paul Bradshaw, course leader of online journalism MA at Birmingham City University, visiting professor at City University London and publisher of Online Journalism Blog and HelpMeInvestigate
• Craig Silverman, founder, Regret the Error, now published on Poynter

Background reading/resources on verification:

• Paul Bradshaw, Online Journalism Blog: ‘Content, context and code: verifying information online’
• Craig Silverman, Columbia Journalism Review: ‘Best Practices for Social Media Verification’
• Peter Verweij, Memeburn: ‘Seven top tips for verifying tweets’
• Craig Kanalley, Media Helping Media: ‘Trusting Tweets, a guide for journalists‘
• Journalism.co.uk: ‘#media140 – Al Jazeera’s early start reporting revolutions’

During my interview with Craig Silverman this week, we spoke about the use of crowdsourcing in verification. His comments on this are in the audio below, in which he also refers to some of the advice shared with him by Andy Carvin from National Public Radio:

You can hear future podcasts by signing up to the Journalism.co.uk iTunes podcast feed.

• Regret the Error editor starts business column
• App of the week for journalists: Storyful, for curated social media stories
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – Twitter verification
• Tool of the week for journalists: Geofeedia, to locate real-time photos, videos and tweets
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – advice on verifying news tips on Twitter

The Economist has today announced that it has clocked up one million fans on Facebook.

The fans come from 180 countries, with the largest number living in the United States, followed by India, the UK, Pakistan and Canada, the Economist states in a release.

Last week Nick Blunden, global publisher, digital editions told the Guardian’s Changing Media Summit that “people want to belong and we can monetize that”.

It’s about building relationships on Facebook and monetizing outside.

On the subject of charging for access to content, he said that people will pay for the experience of “being informed”.

Today’s release states:

The Facebook community regularly discusses, debates, comments and share posts, with those regarding world leaders and international events generating the most responses. One of the most popular posts of all time focused on the Economist’s 2009 “The Man Who Screwed An Entire Country” cover and received over 130,000 likes in just a few days.

The Economist states that it “reaches over 3.5 million people through all of its social media properties, including 2.1 million individuals on Twitter and 400,000 users on Google+” and a “growing global circulation” (now 1.5 million including both print and digital), according to figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation.

The news outlet is now asking readers how they consume the title’s content.

To mark the milestone, the publication has asked its Facebook community to tell or show how they consume Economist content. Fans have been posting their experiences and photos, which include reading indoors, outdoors, by the pool, floating in the dead sea, on tablets and even reading in diapers for one young adopter, aged 13 months.

• #paywalls12 – The Economist: ‘We have doubled content in two years’
• NPR publishes results of extensive survey on Facebook
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk: timing your Facebook posts
• Economist launches apps for iPad and iPhone
• Reuters: Google+ gets 25m users in four weeks

The Financial Times has the largest number of followers on Google+, while the Daily Mail and Telegraph websites get the most Google +1 recommendations from readers, according to a release from analytics software firm Searchmetrics.

Searchmetrics has looked at the Google+ presence of 13 national newspapers which have “a combined total of 544,545 followers”.

This compares with a total of 1,284,674 followers (fans) on Facebook, currently the world’s biggest social network, for which all 13 newspaper sites maintain official pages.

The social network, which was launched nine months ago, has more that 100 million user accounts, according to Google.

At the time of the Searchmetrics study, which was carried out on 19 March:

372,159 people were recorded as following the Financial Times’ page on Google+ (or having the newspaper’s page in their Google+ ‘Circles’) beating the Guardian’s page which came second with 75,255 followers. The Independent came third with 60,195 people having its page in their Google+ circles.

In the release Searchmetrics points out that the Times, the Sun, Daily Express and Daily Star have not created a Google+ page for their news sites.

Searchmetrics found stories and content from the Daily Mail website received the most recommendations from people using the +1 button, with approximately 10,493 +1s a week on average.

Second came the Telegraph website with around 5,822 +1s a week and third was the Guardian with around 3,367 +1s a week.

While the Financial Times has the most followers it averages around 670 +1s a week, probably due to its metered paywall.

The most frequently +1′d article on Daily Mail site was “a story (with images) about how the majority of runway models meet the Body Mass Index (BMI) criteria for anorexia”. It had been +1′d 837 times.

This contrasts with the Mail’s most “liked” story of 2011, which saw more than 62,458 people click the Facebook like button. This story was headlined “the 9/11 rescue dogs: Portraits of the last surviving animals who scoured Ground Zero one decade on”. See our story on the top 10 Facebook stories of 2011 (we used Searchmetrics to gather the data).

Marcus Tober, Searchmetrics’ CTO and founder said in the release:

Google+ is still a relatively young social network but Google is very positive about its future and we’re already seeing a large number of people on the site, so it’s important for newspapers and other big brands to get in early and have a strong presence on the network.

Frequently +1′d articles from national newspapers:

DailyMail.co.uk, 12 Jan 2012, 837 +1s
‘Most runway models meet the BMI criteria for anorexia’, claims plus-size magazine in powerful comment on body image in the fashion industry’

Telegraph.co.uk,  18 Nov 2011, 1110 +1s
EU bans claim that water can prevent dehydration

Guardian.co.uk, Comment is Free, 25 Nov 2011, 1,142 +1s
The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy

• Media release: StumbleUpon is most important content sharing site for Mail Online
• Google +1 button is coming to AdWords – but how useful is it?
• Google’s +1 button now acts like Facebook share
• Google turns up to social sharing party with +1
• New study measures social media success of national newspapers

The Guardian’s Facebook app has been downloaded eight million times since it was launched six months ago, seeing around 40,000 downloads a day.

Speaking at the Guardian Changing Media Summit, Tanya Cordrey, director of digital development at Guardian News and Media, said the news outlet has been “blown away by the results”.

The “frictionless sharing” app works by readers opting in to share all articles they read with their Facebook friends, generating more traffic for the news site with “no editorial curation”.

She later explained that the Guardian has generated more money through ad revenue from the app than the news organisation spent on building it.

Six months ago months ago Google provided 40 per cent of the Guardian’s traffic. The launch of the Facebook app resulted in a “seismic shift” with social exceeding search as a driver on several occasions in February (see above photograph).

Cordrey predicted:

It’s only a matter of time until social overtakes search for the Guardian.

She said that the audience becomes more global everyday, providing “an amazing opportunity to learn about this new audience”.

It’s the audience we want to learn about rather than the platform [Facebook]

Readers are in “habitual grazing mode”, Cordrey said, traffic peaking in “the middle of the afternoon”.

Addressing those who believe the app has implications for privacy, Cordrey said “we are acutely aware of the critics” but readers are not being driven away or removing content they have read from their Facebook timeline.

“Once people have it, they use it,” Cordrey said, explaining “only a tiny percentage of people” have taken up the option of hiding their reading habits.

Earlier in the day Karla Geci, strategic partner development for Facebook said that it would be “just weird and awkward to read a whole article inside of Facebook”, saying Facebook’s role is enabling “distribution and discovery” rather than taking traffic away from publishers.

Asking herself if frictionless sharing “is creepy”, Geci said:

People are quite interested in being an influencer in their circles. Sharing what you are reading is something you did any way.

• Facebook: Guardian app has 3.9m monthly active users
• Hearsay, a non-Facebook way of social news sharing
• Guardian’s Facebook app delivering 1m extra hits a day
• ‘We wanted to make ourselves more Facebookey’, says Guardian
• Citizen journalism site Blottr launches Facebook app

Sky News’s digital news editor Neal Mann, known to 43,000 people on Twitter as @fieldproducer, has announced he has decided to leave the broadcaster.

Mann announced on Twitter on Friday night:

I’ve decided to leave Sky News. I’ve had a brilliant 3 years, but the time has come to discover what else is out there.

— Neal Mann (@fieldproducer) Mars 16, 2012

Another Sky colleague, former social media correspondent Ruth Barnett, is also leaving to become head of communications for Android app producer SwiftKey. She wrote on Friday:

But this isn’t over any alleged Twitter rules row, just a decision to seize an opportunity to learn new skills and take an exciting risk.

— Ruth Barnett (@SkyRuth) Mars 16, 2012

Sky News introduced new guidelines for journalists about the use of Twitter last month, including the line: “Do not retweet information posted by other journalists or people on Twitter. Such information could be wrong and has not been through the Sky News editorial process.”

Reuters’ Anthony de Rosa commented at the time:

These new rules will hamstring Neal and make it difficult, if not impossible, for him to continue to do what he did to garner so much appreciation from people like me. I suspect Sky will come to their senses and realize the error of their ways. If not, they’re going to lose one of their best ambassadors in Neal, and I would suspect many people working at Sky may wonder if they’re working for an organization that is writing policies that will drive them into obsolescence.

• #followjourn @fieldproducer – Neal Mann/journalist #fieldproducer
• Sky News’ @fieldproducer ranked most influential UK journalist on Twitter
• #jpod: How journalists are embracing Facebook subscribe
• Sky News Twitter restrictions – where do you stand?
• FT.com: Social media editors and community managers – a new two-way dialogue

A new feature announced by Facebook last week was Interest Lists: “an easy way for journalists and other people to curate feeds around their beat or topical coverage area.”

According to Facebook’s announcement journalists can create lists of pages and people around topics of interest, which could be a reporter’s patch or niche.

You will start to see updates that highlight posts from the list in your News Feeds and others will be able to subscribe to the List as well. This makes keeping up with news that interests you even easier.

See the full announcement here.

Tipster: Rachel McAthy

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link– we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

• Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – be ruthless with your RSS feeds
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It started with a tweet from BBC News channel controller Kevin Bakhurst

I’m told #SkyNews have stopped their journos retweeting information/tweets from journalists or people not working for Sky. Must be wrong??

The guidelines, seen by the Guardian, state:

Do not retweet information posted by other journalists or people on Twitter. Such information could be wrong and has not been through the Sky News editorial process.

Don’t tweet when it’s someone else’s story. Stick to your own beat. Always pass breaking news lines to the news desk before posting them on social media networks.

Guardian reporter Josh Halliday said last night:

Sky News battening down hatches on this one. Told new guidelines are non-negotiable – how long will they last??

A hashtag campaign soon got under way to #savefieldproducer – Sky’s popular digital news editor Neal Mann, who has more than 40,000 followers on Twitter.

He replied:

Been a busy day, for those asking me questions about social media policy,I can’t really answer because I didn’t take part in the discussions

In a Reuters piece headlined “Sky News longs for Victorian internet, applies dark age social policy”, Anthony de Rosa writes:

These new rules will hamstring Neal and make it difficult, if not impossible, for him to continue to do what he did to garner so much appreciation from people like me. I suspect Sky will come to their senses and realize the error of their ways. If not, they’re going to lose one of their best ambassadors in Neal, and I would suspect many people working at Sky may wonder if they’re working for an organization that is writing policies that will drive them into obsolescence.

The FT’s Ben Fenton says competitors are likely to benefit:

Just as you never get good search-engine optimisation if you don’t link to outside sites, so anyone who steadfastly refuses to be anything but a puff factory for their own brand will gradually loses friends.

This step will also be likely to offer a competitive advantage to other news sources, such as ITV News or the BBC, enlightened enough to see beyond the blinkers of brand identity.

The move, does, however have some supporters. Sunny Hundal, on the Liberal Conspiracy blog, writes:

The ban on RTs makes sense if you acknowledge their worry that disputed links or info by their journalists could reflect on Sky News itself.

Is it any surprise editors at Sky News feel that a RT not meant as an endorsement could be interpreted in that way anyway? After all, people still attack me for publishing editorials on LC even if I disagree with those views. Once a Twitter mob gets going it’s very difficult to calm it down.

Of course this also implies Sky News editors don’t want to give their own journalists too much leeway in using their judgement. But all the broadcasters have hefty rule books for journalists (I expect the BBC will follow Sky), so this isn’t that surprising.

And Fleet Street Blues says the new policy has some logic to it:

It makes no sense for Sky News to pay journalists to break stories through another medium. It makes no sense for them to pay journalists to amass personal social media followings by promoting rival news outlets. And it makes no sense for them to pay journalists to report through a medium outside its own editorial controls.

Sky News said in a statement last night:

Sky News has the same editorial procedures across all their platforms including social media to ensure the news we report is accurate.

Rupert Murdoch replied this morning:

I have nothing to do with Sky NewsWhat do you make of the new policy? Is it enforceable? What effect might it have on Sky’s reputation?

Gabrielle Laine Peters has put together an excellent Storify of tweets and opinion around the Sky directive. Here is her collated selection called Sky News new social media guidelines get Twitter buzzing.

Elana Zak has also used Storify to collage reactions.

• Digital news editor @fieldproducer leaving Sky News
• BBC Internet Blog: ‘Microblogging – the Editorial Policy Meeting’
• Media Release: BBC opens up editorial guidelines to public
• #followjourn @fieldproducer – Neal Mann/journalist #fieldproducer
• paidContent: WaPo’s social media guidelines in full

TheNextWeb has a post outlining some of the best ways journalists can make use of LinkedIn, such as by simply searching for contacts or looking at the financial results of companies of interest.

Journalism.co.uk has also recently compiled a list of ten tips for journalists on using the platform, and a podcast on making the most of the site which includes an interview with Krista Canfield, senior manager of corporate communications (consumer PR) at LinkedIn.

Tipster: Rachel McAthy

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link– we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – using LinkedIn for reporting and job hunting
• #jpod: How journalists can best use LinkedIn
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – making the most of LinkedIn groups
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – video interviewing
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – getting to grips with programming

Mashable has a very useful post which looks at how news outlets are using online tools to cover elections in the US, which offers some great ideas for journalists to take note of.

These range from hosting debates on social media platforms to produce interactive maps and “delegate trackers”.

Last year we also collected together five tools journalists might like to try when reporting election results, from visualisation tools to social publishing platforms.

Tipster: Rachel McAthy

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link – we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – how to use forums effectively
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – tools for beginner data journalists
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – apps and tools for ‘facilitating the reporting process’
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – visualisation tools
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – social media filtering

Many questions have been raised about what should happen when journalists with a strong online profile, in particular on platforms such as Twitter, leave a company, and whether their followers should … well follow.

In June last year this occurred when the BBC’s former chief political correspondent Laura Kuenssberg left for ITV, and there was much discussion online about whether or not she would take the thousands of followers of her BBC-branded account with her. Behind the scenes she says there was an “amicable” discussion with the broadcaster, resulting in her being able to transfer the account.

More recently in the US the issue has been returned to the spotlight after a mobile news site reportedly sued a former employee, after he left the company and altered his Twitter name.

While the news industry waits to see what the future of this case will hold, we speak to three journalists using slightly different approaches to their Twitter accounts to find out what is working for them and the importance of legal precedent in this area.

The journalists we hear from are:

• Laura Kuenssberg, business editor for ITV, who has a branded account: @ITVLauraK
• Joanna Geary, digital development editor at the Guardian, who has a separate personal account and branded, professional account: @joannageary and @GuardianJoanna
• Anthony De Rosa, social media editor at Reuters, who has a non-branded account: @AntDeRosa

Journalism.co.uk’s next news:rewired event will feature a panel debate on social media standards.

You can hear all our podcasts by signing up to the Journalism.co.uk iTunes podcast feed.

• @ITVLauraK: My Twitter followers don’t belong to the BBC, ITV, or me
• RWW: Who owns a fired staffer’s Twitter account?
• #followjourn: @ITVLauraK – Laura Kuenssberg/journalist
• Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – keeping your personal and work separate online
• News sites can now create a branded page on Foursquare