US: chicagotribune.com increased traffic after joining social media world

Social channels like Facebook, Digg, Flickr, Twitter and Youtube could help newspapers like the Chicago Tribune become "more approachable", according to The Huffington Post. After its entry into social media, the Tribune saw an instantaneous surge in traffic and an 8% growth in pageviews.

"Essentially, social media gives us a year-round, real-time focus group to monitor conversations and keep us in tune with what consumers are thinking," said Bill Adee, associate managing editor for innovation who also leads the Tribune's social media team

The Tribune came up with Colonel Tribune, a "web ambassador" whose purpose is to allow the social media team to "reach out and interact with online communities that congregate around similar interests", wrote the Post.

The Colonel was recently informed through Twitter about a bomb threat and building evacuation in Chicago's Daley Center. The paper's Metro writers looked into the story and it was soon published on the site. The story was then printed on the third page of the Metro section the next day.  

Source: The Huffington Post

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