He's on Twitter, on Facebook and on Linkedin, but unlike many prominent journalists who position themselves for public attention, Byrne's principal attribute online is to engage the audience to help make BW a better property. It can almost be annoying, he's so inquisitive.
Byrne gave a lengthy interview to blogger Ben Lamothe at Econsultancy, and it's a strong insight into how to make social media work for your conventional organization. It's by no means an automated walk in the park; Byrne is forever Tweeting, posting and linking his users into his content and the decision-making behind it. He's incessantly asking readers to evaluate and inform, and he is generous in posting their ideas and refraining from negative judgment.
While a number of organizations measure time spent, unique visitors or page views as gauge of their success, Byrne has a mixture of indices to quantify engagement. He says the organization now rates a 34 and aims for 100. It's a good read for those of us working, or watching, the evolving newsroom.