An interesting update via the BBC Internet Blog on Friday regarding the broadcaster’s approach to social media. Social media executive, BBC Online, Nick Reynolds shares the executive summary of research conducted by Unthinkable Consulting into accountability and social media use.

The findings of the research were given to the BBC in April and as such some of the recommendations made are already being worked on. But it makes for interesting reading – both in terms of what the BBC should be doing with social media, in particular blogs and user comments, and what other news organisations can learn.

Key recommendations include:

• “We recommend that blog authors respond at least in part to popular comment threads where new points or questions are being raised. We also recommend greater empathy and consistency from hosts.”
• “There needs to be a culture change inside the BBC such that it becomes an accepted and expected part of the job of senior editorial management to read online social media output associated with their linear brands, as well as being aware of the competition.”
• “We recommend that the BBC should consider to what extent  conversations which are now conducted on bbc.co.uk could be conducted externally instead. Regardless of the outcome, the BBC also needs to  spend more time reading and engaging with online commentary around itself and its brands.”

Read Nick Reynolds’ full post at this link…

View the executive summary: