Today is the three-year anniversary of UNC student body president Eve Carson‘s death, and Friday I asked readers on Twitter to share their memories of her or how she influenced them using the hashtag #EveToday. The response has been overwhelming, with an outpouring of Tweets all day long that is still continuing. I compiled the Tweets using Storify so that people could read through the dozens of messages at once. It struck me as I did so how much social media has changed the way we communicate even in the three years since she was killed.

In March 2008, I was still two months away from joining Twitter. I posted no updates about her death on Facebook, shared no links to any of the many stories I wrote about her death and only RSVP’d to a memorial service held a few weeks later. The Daily Tar Heel wasn’t on Twitter or Facebook either but let readers to submit messages to a Memorial Wall. In 2008 and in 2011 we tailored our approach to where our audience was, which is what we should be doing. Asking for #EveToday-style Tweets in 2008 would have yielded us few, if any responses. Our audience simply wasn’t on Twitter then, or even in 2009. Even last year I’m not sure if we would have gotten quite the reaction we did today. People are simply much more comfortable with social media and using it throughout their life.

I welcome this evolution. I remember feeling very cut-off from the rest of the UNC community when we all department for Spring Break days after she was killed. There was no easy way for us to mourn together. Reading through the Tweets today was comforting, an instant reminder that out there, hundreds more felt just like me – saddened by her death and inspired by her life.

Today when I went to update The Daily Tar Heel’s Facebook page I was prompted to upgrade the page to access new features. I was initially wary. When are changes to Facebook ever good?

But unlike past changes, the pages upgrades make sense and solve previous problems. It’s much easier to manage a page now and there are completely new ways for page owners to interact with their fans and spread their message. Here are the top three things I love about the changes:

1. Greater page autonomy. Previously, your page was tied to each admin’s personal account. Now, I can switch between my personal account and each page I manage. I can “like” other pages as the page and not as myself, which is helpful because I don’t care to see updates from 100+ UNC pages in my own wall. On the DTH’s news feed though, this is great.
   



2. Better tracking. When I’m logged in as the page, I get notifications any time someone likes the page or a post or comments. I could see all of this information in aggregate before, using Insights, but the notification makes it easier to tell on a daily basis how fans are reacting to the page.
   



3. Easier sharing. Before, if I wanted to share another page’s post on the DTH page, I had to get the URL of that post and post it to the DTH page as a link (whereas if I wanted to share on my on wall, all I had to do was press “share” and add a comment to post). Now, I can “share” and post to the DTH wall. Because it’s easier, I can see myself sharing others’ posts much more frequently and similar to how I retweet from @dailytarheel.
   

Other things I like: The ability to RSVP to events as the DTH, handy for keeping track of things happening later on I might want to share with readers; the ability to change our category (was previously Brands & Products and is now Media/News/Publishing); and the ability to show who is managing the page (a feature I haven’t turned on yet, but am interested in). I also like that I can post on other pages as the DTH, which I’ve already done to share a link to one of our stories. I can see this feature helping us connect with a new audience.

Dislikes: I wish the page showed thumbnail photos of our fans instead of just a number, and I wish I had greater control over the photos that line the top of the profile page (for instance, the ability to pick an album to draw those photos from). Otherwise, I’m really excited to see how this will make page management easier.

Are there any new features I’ve overlooked that I should take advantage of here?

I’m always looking for new and improved ways to interact with readers on The Daily Tar Heel‘s Facebook page. Jarrard Cole pointed out how the Wall Street Journal has started giving readers more instructions with certain posts – asking them to “like” the post if they agree with a statement or comment on why they disagree. It’s an idea they got from ESPN, @wsj Outreach Editor Zach Seward says.

I tried it yesterday on the DTH page and was quite pleased by the results. The post had more impressions and higher engagement than our wall posts generally attract. The comments were more thoughtful than usual, too.

One wall post doesn’t say much about the tactic’s overall effectiveness, but it’s definitely something I’m going to continue trying.

In the last month, Facebook’s made several main changes to how the site works in its goal to create “a Web where the default is social.” The changes have upset users and increased fears of diminishing privacy. Here’s what you know about the changes and what it means for you:

Connections and community pages

The change everyone seems to be noticing first are the connections that are revamping people’s profile sections. Facebook gives you two options: either link the information you’ve already listed for current city, hometown, education, work and interests, or leave those sections blank. If you chose to link, those interests get connected with pages to indicate that you “like” it.

This linking was accompanied with the introduction of community pages. Community pages are based around topics and include Wikipedia information on the topic where available, in addition to what’s being said by your friends and by all Facebook users. They’re similar to the previous pages that people and businesses could create, which have stayed the same. (Check out The Daily Tar Heel’s official page and community page for an example of the differences between the two types of pages). The major difference between an official and community page is that community pages won’t generate updates in your News Feed.

What the change means: Any page you connect to is by default public to all users, regardless of any previous privacy settings you have established. You can restrict whether the pages show up in your profile, but anyone who visits or is connected to the page themselves can see that you have “liked” the page. In response to this, many users have chosen to leave their profile interests blank. You can use the “Bio” section of your profile to describe yourself in free-form instead.

Why people are concerned: Facebook isn’t giving users much of a choice. You either opt in and accept that your connections will be universally public, or you opt out, leaving your profile blank.

More on the change: Facebook’s Help Center FAQ on community pages and profile connections

Instant personalization and social plugins

You’ve probably seen the effect of these changes when browsing almost any major website (Facebook says 50,000 have already been installed). Both instant personalization and social plugins are designed to extend the Facebook experience and make it easier to connect interests across a variety of programs.

Social plugins come in the form of “like” buttons, feeds that show what your friends are up to and ways to comment directly to your Facebook Wall, all from a third-party website. You must be logged in to see the recommendations, and you’ll be prompted to log-in if you’re not. With Facebook’s instant personalization program, any visits to Microsoft Docs.com, Pandora or Yelp are personalized based on your public Facebook information (you can opt out by updating your privacy settings on Facebook).

What the change means: It’s easier to share what you’re reading and looking at with your Facebook friends, and it’s easier to get recommendations from your friends by seeing what they’re up to as well.

Why people are concerned: None of your profile information or data is shared with the third-party sites, but Facebook is able to see what websites you’re visiting and what articles you’re reading. Like with connections, any privacy settings you establish only apply to your Facebook profile. So clicking a “like” or “recommend” button on a website is public to anyone.

More on the change: Facebook’s FAQ on personalized web tools

Note: This post was originally written for Daily Tar Heel readers.

Because The Daily Tar Heel’s strategy next year involves social media more than ever, we felt it would be helpful to establish a policy to guide reporters on how to use it. My goal was to create a policy that emphasizes the value of social media while sets some standards so as not to embarass the paper.

In general, we plan to trust our reporters to know what is acceptable and what is not. We’re going to accompany this policy with training at the beginning of the year on how to use social media.

10 rules for using social media:

1. Use your own name and photo. If you using your account for DTH reporting, identify yourself as a DTH reporter in your profile.
2. Tell your editor if you plan to tweet as a DTH reporter. Likewise, let your editor know if you plan to livetweet something.
3. In general, do not post something online that would not be appropriate to run in the paper or on dailytarheel.com.*
4. You must disclose yourself as a DTH reporter to potential sources the same way you would if you were meeting face-to-face.
5. Do not disclose political affiliation on profiles and do not write about your political preferences in updates.
6. Do not criticize a colleague’s work.
7. Promoting your work via social media is encouraged.
8. In the interest of transparency, staff meetings are considered open unless otherwise stated.
9. It is acceptable to “friend” sources, but do it evenly. For instance, if you cover the Chapel Hill Town Council, if you wish to follow one member on Twitter, you should follow all of them.
10. Respond to people who contact you via social media. If you aren’t the appropriate person to answer their questions, refer them to whoever is.

In making this list I looked at several professional papers’ guidelines on social media. Most missed the mark with the limits that they placed. I want to make it as easy as possible for readers and sources to contact DTH reporters and place a high premium on transparency. My experience with social media is that it’s expanded my reporting capabilities and made me more responsive to our readership, and I wouldn’t want to limit other reporters.

Feel free to comment with suggestions/improvements. I’m also interested to hear if other college papers have social media policies or are looking to create them.

*Added after a suggestion from Jason Spencer.

Public Policy Polling’s most recent poll (conducted Sept. 27-28) shows that younger N.C. voters aged 18-29 haven’t decided who to vote for beyond the presidential race.

The number of undecideds is higher among that age group than any other in the gubernatorial race between Republican Pat McCrory and Democrat Bev Perdue and in the senatorial race between Republican Elizabeth Dole and Democrat Kay Hagan. In that age group, 18 percent say they don’t know who they’re supporting for governor, and 14 percent don’t know who they’re backing for the Senate. By comparison, the undecideds in the presidential race at that age is only 5 percent.

Tom Jensen, who runs the poll, writes that overall the numbers suggest about one-third of the electorate is up for grabs in the next four weeks. And since so many young voters are up for the taking, that could bode well for the candidates who can attract that youth vote.

Several are campaigning this weekend to that end. There’s a Students for McCrory Web site and students were Pit-sitting for him at UNC-Chapel Hill on Friday.  N.C. State’s The Technician reports that McCrory is campaigning at a barbecue before Dole tailgates with students before the N.C. State football game Saturday.

The ultimate arbiter of all things youth – Facebook – breaks the candidates’ Internet support down as follows (as of Oct. 3):

McCrory – 1,951 supporters

Perdue – 811 supporters

Dole – 896 supporters

Hagan – 1,416 supporters

Hagan, for what it’s worth, has the broadest Facebook support by far. In addition to her supporters, there are Republicans for Kay Hagan, UNCC Students for Kay Hagan, Duke Students for Kay Hagan, NCSU Students for Kay Hagan and a Kay Hagan for US Senate group with 1,025 members. She also updates a Twitter account (62 followers). Whether any of this translates to numbers at the polls remains to be seen.