USA Today Joins the Social Networking Craze

Although the creation of social networking sites brought about many new services for consumers, it created an enormous challenge for current information services. Consumers found it was much more entertaining to view news through message boards, blogs and friends rather than having to look at newspapers outdated Web sites.

This consumer revelation is why USA Today has just relaunched its site with all the fun and attention-grabbing aspects that social networking sites offer. According to Media Post, the new site has added blogs, videos, content sharing and recommendation tools. To create the new social network feel for the site, USA Today recruited the proprietary social media services of Pluck Corp.

The Austin, Texas based company manages the new site's blogs, photo-sharing, reader comments and forums. Jeff Webber, the site's senior vice president, feels that with the services of Pluck the new site will be able to help create a community around the news and will enable readers to become engaged and informed. There is no doubt that this change will benefit USA Today. It's listening to what consumers want and delivering its content in a new and entertaining way, which will hopefully increase circulation.