What journalists should do about Facebook’s new subscribe feature
Twitter’s been a perfect platform for journalists because it’s easy to publish publicly to followers rather than just friends. Now Facebook’s become a bit more Twittery, allowing anyone to follow your content.
Instead of calling it “following” as Twitter does, Facebook calls it “subscribing”, which should be a term near and dear to the hearts of any print scribes. Except unlike print subscribers, Facebook subscribers don’t pay.
If you’re a journalist, what should you do about it?
- Read this PFD guide by Facebook’s Journalist Program Manager Vadim Lavrusik
- Decide if you want to allow people to subscribe you — if so proceed to step 3
- Make sure your Facebook profile photo isn’t completely unprofessional (you can change it here)
- Go to Facebook’s Subscription Page and “Allow Subscribers”
- Make sure you have a Facebook username here (you’re URL will be facebook.com/username)
- Tell people about your Facebook profile URL
- Tell Muck Rack about your Facebook URL (and like Muck Rack while you’re at it)
