Social media 'offers opportunities for online news providers'

Online news providers are increasingly reaping the rewards of taking advantage of social media, experts have suggested.

According to the American Journalism Review, news websites are making greater use of social networks such as Facebook and social bookmarking tools like Digg and StumbleUpon to drive traffic to their websites.

As well as increasing page impressions, social media campaigns can also result in brand enhancement, outgoing NYTimes.com senior vice-president and general manager Vivian Schiller said.

Meanwhile, executive editor of Washingtonpost.com James Brady suggested that it is possible to focus too much on search engine optimisation and not enough on the emerging trend of news sharing among members of the public.

He added: "There is more opportunity in social media for a niche story to be successful ... If you know you have a good story, why not share it?"

Facebook was the sixth most visited website in the UK during September, according to comScore.