Follow @andybull

Ever been driving down a new road and suddenly found you’ve caught up with the construction team?

That’s the sensation I’ve been getting using Facebook in the past couple of weeks

The Facebook construction team is laying down the social media equivalent of hot tarmac as fast as they can, but public launch has been delayed, and the cars are backing up impatiently, wanting to use this new stretch of road.

A lot's changed on Facebook.

You may have heard about Facebook Timeline, which replaces the old style profile.

If you haven’t don’t  worry.

We’ll cover it.

And we’ll look at the new ways a journalist can use this new-style timeline profile in conjunction with a fan page – like the ones we built in Masterclass 34

The developments mean you now not only have a place for your journalism - your fan page -  but also a more personal space for you as a journalist - your new-style timeline profile.

Because, while you can still invite fans to like your page, you can also now invite people to subscribe to your updates on your new-style timeline profile.

And you can now divide your Facebook community into distinct groups – not unlike the Circles concept on Google+ –  and post different content to different groups.

If it sounds complicated, that’s because it is!

But it also gives us a lot more potential for using Facebook for journalism.

So we’ll run through all the new stuff, and demonstrate how it can be used.

Fortunately, none of those changes invalidate anything we covered in Masterclass 34's Getting started with Facebook section.

But, just to check you are up to speed, and ready for this masterclass on Building Proficiency with Facebook, here’s what we covered in Getting Started:

• Opening a Facebook account

• Setting up a profile page for you as a journalist and a separate Facebook page for your journalism. (One quick point: profiles are now called timelines)

• Posting content to Facebook – and what works best

• Gaining friends on Facebook, and finding people to invite to view your page

• Promoting your Facebook page with a content-rich widget on your website

• Posting content on Facebook – what works best

• Finding and researching stories on Facebook

If you need to fill in any gaps, and you are registered with MMJ, you can catch up on Getting Started here.

Here’s what we'll cover in the following modules:
 

• The new Facebook: creating a timeline as your public profile

• The new Facebook: using the 'share' feature

• The new Facebook: the 'Subscribe' feature

• The new Facebook: Profiles with subscribers, pages with fans

• Creating a rich content hub on your Facebook Page

• Using Facebook Page Insights to evaluate and improve your performance

• How Facebook rates you and your content using EdgeRank - and how to boost your post ranking

• Should you use Facebook as your main social platform?

• Exercises, projects and further MMJ resources

Next: Creating a timeline as your public profile

Follow @andybull

First, why use Facebook for your journalism?

When I’m teaching social media I find the first hurdle is that many journalists are suspicious of it as a publishing platform.

They get Twitter, but with Facebook they’re not so sure. It's just too social for them, too much about friends sharing stuff that's very personal to a small circle.

But I think it’s a great platform. Here’s why.

Facebook is beginning to move down the Web 3.0 route that underpins our interest, as journalists, in social media, and which is covered in depth in Masterclass 2 of MMJ.

I talked there about how readers were creating personalised news stands of the material they were interested in.

That's exactly what users are able to do with Facebook.

On Facebook, users can become fans of us, of our content, and welcome our Facebook publishing stream onto their own news feed page.

There, our content is delivered alongside material from their own social circle.

The result is a hybrid of personal communications from friends and material from organisations that an individual likes, enjoys, values, and wants to follow.

So Facebook is a very special place, and a very significant one for journalists to work in.

But we need to learn how to use it most effectively. 

I posted an introduction to Facebook here If you are a subscriber to MMJ you can check it out, to become a susbcriber, buy the textbook, in ebook or paper form, here

Next: Top tips. Guidance for journalists from Facebook