Facebook is taking further steps to make the site appealing to journalists: Vadim Lavrusik will join the company as journalistic program manager later this month, a note posted on the site by Lavrusik announced. Lavrusik leaves his community manager position at Mashable, where he has written about Facebook as a journalistic tool extensively.

At Facebook, Lavrusik will be in charge of building programs that help journalists use Facebook in their reporting and of improving the site's functionality as a platform for social journalism. He will also maintain the recently launched Journalists on Facebook page and organise Facebook Journalism meetups, the first one taking place on April 27th at the site's headquarters in Palo Alto, California.

The recruitment of Lavrusik is the latest indication that Facebook is serious about its attempt to establish itself as an acknowledged journalistic tool and platform. Unlike some other social media services such as Twitter and Tumblr, Facebook is still regarded more as a way to stay connected with friends and family than as a tool for reporters, as CNN noted. "A lot of journalists don't have a professional presence on Facebook yet," Lavrusik told CNN. "They think it's another thing they have to add to their workload ... It can actually make your job easier."

Earlier this month, Facebook launched a new page Journalists on Facebook, designed to promote the site for reporters and function as a resource for them. The page has currently 44 351 people liking it.

Dan Gillmor, a digital-media professor for the Knight Center at Arizona State University, pointed out to CNN that there are many reasons for Facebook to encourage journalists to use the site for professional purposes. Ideally, both parties would gain from this: cultural influencers such as journalists using social networks provide image value to the companies, while reporters get a new array of tools for their use. "The more people who use these platforms for their work, the better it is for the platforms," Gillmor said.

Sources: Facebook, Mashable, CNN