Unnecessary use of social media: Occupy Wall Street = Good, "Likes" on a Post = Bad.

Do you like Facebook? Who doesn't?! But as much as news organizations are trying to incorporate social media into their practices to keep up with their readers and viewers, sometimes it can get obnoxious and unnecessary.

Let's take a look at the proper uses of social media in newspapers:

The Washington Post today offered an article about the local version of the Occupy Wall Street protests, called Stop The Machine. Like other recent articles about the movement, Facebook is mentioned as a tool for protestors used to organize the movement and rally support. Printing about Facebook is completely relevant and understandable in this context.

In example number two, however, it is not. Take a look:

The picture, found on Failbook.com offers a clear example on when NOT to include Facebook in an article.

How is the number of "likes" on a Facebook post AT ALL informative, relevant, and worthy of precious and expensive ink?! I'm guessing the paper recently forced its senior reporters to sit through a "social media training class" and this is what came out of it.