The social media factor in gulfnews.com

It wasn't long before Gulf News married social media. With approximately 3,000 Facebook and 15,000 Twitter followers, gulfnews.com is slowly talking social media, with news sharing literally a click away.

"Gulf News is relatively young in the Facebook environment; it was launched earlier this year. The newsroom of today has evolved from the days when editors decided what the reader would receive the next morning and have now added an element of participatory journalism," says Anupa Kurian, Readers Editor, at Gulf News.

"Interesting phrases, such as ‘crowd sourcing', are fast becoming a mantra of sorts for media houses looking for ways to push up their growth curve from a plateau. The readers now dictate news coverage."

Biju Mathew, Web News Editor, adds, "We realised the potential of social networks in interacting and delivering information to our readers well in advance. Micro-blogging website Twitter was just what we needed for instant news delivery."

"On the initiative of our editor-in-chief, our Twitter account recently had a face lift and streamlined information delivery. We're constantly striving to increase our presence on social networks and our interaction with our followers. In time that too will happen."