The brief: Facebook trends articles + how social media is 'taking over' the news
Not too much in today's brief, as I've been up in Birmingham all day working with our the Trinity Mirror Regional teams on their video editing skills - but here's two links which caught my eye.
Facebook trends articles in news feeds
Anyone who publishes content onto Facebook will know the importance of getting into their fans' news feeds. Why? Well because simply this is the navigational device for Facebook and the first screen you see when logging into Facebook. A good step forward for publishers though as it looks like Facebook are bringing out trending articles which feature in news feeds - a bit like the way music will show what friends are listening to and how people discussing the same thing e.g. 'Christmas' will show in one place. This is a good step forward by Facebook and shows for publishers why it's even more important to engage with Facebook than ever before, to help drive more traffic.
Infographic warning: How social media is taking over the news
This infographic is a bit misleading, it's been shared round a fair bit today but as Kate Day from the Telegraph tweets it misses the point about how traditional journalism often still is the source.
Over 50% of people learned about breaking news via social media rather than official news source, it proudly trumpets. Yes, but from official news sources on Twitter?
It takes the Osama Bin Laden tweet as an example of how Twitter broke the story. But it was through re-tweeting and amplification from traditional news sources and journalists in the US, who had big follower numbers, who verified the story, that it then spread like wildfire.
The end quote on the graphic "Fast doesn't always mean factual. Even if you use social media as a news source, always double check your facts with a trusted news source" reminds me of a doctor's warning about trying some drug from Boots. "If symptoms of social media addicition persist, please see your doctor."