ANC, the ABS-CBN News Channel, reached another mile­stone last Tuesday (Oct 19) af­ter its followers on twitter broke the 100,000 mark, making it the most followed and most influen­tial Filipino news organization on the popular international social-networking site.

This only shows that ANC (#ANCalerts) is the preferred source of more Filipinos from all over the world for breaking news and news updates in the Philip­pines and the world. ANC Chief Operating Officer Glenda M. Gloria said this new achievement further solidifies ANC’s presence in social media, which is said to be where the fu­thet growing number of people who get and exchange informa­tion online.

“ANC was the first TV channel in the Philippines to convert Twit­ter and Facebook into a second channel,” says Gloria. “We were also the first to have its own social media team, which is composed of young, aggressive and news-savvy producers and writers.” Because of its social media presence, more young profession­als and students are now tuned to ANC, a market that Gloria says ANC had not been successful in penetrating before 2008.

As one of the country’s first and staunchest advocates of citi­zen journalism, ANC has already built a strong following among netizens. On its Facebook page, around 34,000 of its 41,076 fans actively participate in the ANC 24/7 wall, while post views reach an average of no less than 500,000 a month.

In July 2010, meanwhile, ANC joined other global news channels such as BBC and CNBC, which are regularly advertised by Twitter on its front door. It also tops the list of the most influential Philip­pine news accounts on Twitter.

On October 4, a regular news day, @ANCAlerts had a unique reader reach of 92,422 but a total reader reach of 5,818,350 based on re-tweets. ANC’s election day coverage, on the other hand, also got the biggest number of unique visitors among all the election newcasts that were live streamed on abs-cbnnews.com on May 10.
Through social media, the Phil­ippines’ first 24-hour global cablenews channel hopes to empower Filipinos from across demo­graphics to get involved in dis­cussions on the nation’s issues, to report on the situations in their areas, as well to keep abreast with the latest events in the country.

It has also incorporated so­cial media in its programs like the newly-launched “The Brew” featuring Twink Macaraig, Nadia Trinidad, and Gang Badoy, and “Tease” with Ginger Conejero.

ANC airs on The Filipino Channel (TFC) via satellite in the U.S., Middle East, Europe and Australia. Follow ANC (ANCalerts) on www.twitter.com and www. facebook.com. You may also visit www.abs-cbnnews.com/anc for important news and updates.#