Categories: OLD Media Moves

How the WSJ uses Facebook to cover Facebook

Elena Zak of 10,000 words writes about how The Wall Street Journal is using a Facebook page to cover the initial public offering of the social media site and interviews Journal social media editor Brian Aguilar about the strategy.

Zak writes, “‘The story lends itself to Timeline because it extends over such a long period of time,’ said Aguilar. ‘This new Facebook page lets us bring that same WSJ coverage to Facebook users directly while spurring discussion around the company’s valuation.’

“It’s surreal to go through the timeline and see how many times in the last eight years Facebook has been on the front page of The Wall Street Journal.

“The page is its ‘own property,’ according to Aguilar. The team created a completely new Facebook page to avoid having updates on the IPO overwhelm its main WSJ page. It also gives readers the ability to choose to subscribe and get updates about Facebook’s IPO or not.

“The page is powered by a custom news feed featuring WSJ’s latest Facebook IPO-related news, Aguilar said. He also mentioned that the team is using Twitterfeed’s automated publishing service to push regular updates to the page. Editors monitor the page, keeping an eye out for any new developments.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.