The value of an engaged news website audience

A few thoughts sparked by an article ‘Guardian part 2: What are engaged users REALLY worth?’ by the Wannabe Hacks:

Speaking from the point of view of a local daily newspaper website… All visitors have value, but they visit for different reasons. and they have become a disparate bunch, Twitter followers, Facebook likers, registered commenting site visitors etc. Different strategies are needed for each group.

Big reasons for staying/returning to the site: quality and relevance of content to visitor’s interests – as it always has been. Good quality journalism has long term value, celebrity stories have high short-term value.

Many people visit but never comment or interact on news websites, should we force these people to register? If they are a large but loyal number then I think the potential loss of audience is too great. If your publications voice is only being heard by a small minority how can consensus or influence be maintained?

Clamoring for the largest audience must be tempered with not overlooking delivering what your target audience want, be that subject or geographically based. If you’re not doing that then you’ll have little chance of moneting the audience.

The data on registered users though has huge long-term value, knowing what they look at, where they came from, their journey through your site, enables tailoring related content and commercial offers to them and justifying changes to your site structure.

There’s nothing wrong with commercial elements alongside quality content, but if it has relevance to the user, then there’s clearly more revenue potential and everybody wins!

In short, a very difficult area, a fine-line to be trodden through making enough money to pay for quality of content and product whilst keeping a strong, loyal audience and not driving them away with over-bearing commercial strategies.

In terms of skills, SEO and understanding how content works in a digital environment is vital to all editorial staff. Being able to judge how and when to add keywords and phrases into headlines/intros, compacting a story into a Tweet and other web-based copywriting and sub-editing is a hugely valuable skill-set.

Twitter for news journalists: why and how

Communication to the Stars by Striking Photography by Bo on flickr.com

Making it part of a constructive and nutritious newsroom strategy

Updated, 22 March 2012: Twitter has become accepted by journalists as an opportunity for two-way communication, newsgathering and crowdsourcing, and as a key distribution tool in a fast-moving digital environment. But remember, Twitter is just a tool, like your phone, pen and paper or editorial content management system. It is not a guaranteed saviour of journalism, the answer to newsroom prayers or going to write a story for you – but it can definitely help, especially in an increasingly ‘digital first‘ news publishing environment.

As with any source Twitter information needs verifying, here are some tips from mediahelpingmedia.org, here Alex Murray gives an insight into BBC News’ verification processes, and here Mary Hamilton‘s nine ways to use Twitter responsibly following the UK riots of August 2011. It’s also worth remembering that even in 2012, with a proliferation of smartphones with seamless social media apps and after several high profile events having brought Twitter into the mainstream, whilst the numbers are growing steadily, not everyone is using it, and to varying degrees depending on location, probably only a small proportion of a local audience is tweeting. The key is having a realistic expectation and clear strategy that will dictate levels of success, as Paul Bradshaw puts it:

the tools should come after the strategies, and the strategy should come after the objective

So set some clear objectives on what you want Twitter to achieve for you, find out the most efficient and effective way of using it and then dive in, making sure to take a step back once in a while to see if your strategy is working and what and how others and peers are using social media tools. Plus the next time you go for a media-related job interview, it may well crop up as a question. So here are some tips and quotes I collated for my own local newspaper newsroom team:

• Sign up to Twitter: as an individual journalist, and be aware that what you say and do represents and reflects you and your news organisation.
• Remember: this is a professional, public-facing account backed by your news organisation’s brand.
• My advice on separate accounts for work/non-work tweeting has mellowed: get your own personal account if… what you do out of work is very specific/niche/completely different from your day job, and worth its own Twitterverse. Just make it clear it’s your own views and not those of any employer! Otherwise the odd personal comment or showing some personality does no harm. Read more advice in my curated discussion on storify: “Journalists on Twitter: 1 profile or 2?“
• Username suggestion: @yournameNewsOrg – needs to be short but memorable, doesn’t have to be strict, but make sure shortening any words doesn’t spell anything odd or inappropriate! – Read my related post on ‘Journalists on Twitter: 1 profile or 2?‘
• Add professional bio details, who you are, your news title, location, your local patch, what areas of content you cover.
• Inject some of your own personality into your Tweets, it will help people to ‘warm’ to you as a real person as opposed to just a reporter.
• If you make a mistake in a tweet, start a new one with “Correction:…”
• If you’re replying to someone, having their @profilename at the start means only followers of both of you would see it, if it’s something of mass-interest, use a full stop at the beginning to publish it to everyone, “.@localPeeps blah blah…”

Here is a good starting point listing Twitter basics: 10 Must-Learn Lessons For Twitter Newbies - http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/

What’s in it for you

Push: gain a following of interested, local people, share your stories and  ideas for stories. Pull:get feedback/comments/images and video, request help/opinion/information on upcoming stories and ongoing/upcoming events. It may take a while to get a substantial followering: stay enthusiastic, this will give you time to get used to the process, and find your own style.

Feb 2010: New director of BBC Global News Peter Horrocks commented: “Aggregating and curating content with attribution should become part of a BBC journalist’s assignment; and BBC’s journalists have to integrate and listen to feedback for a better understanding of how the audience is relating to the BBC brand. If you don’t like it… then go and do something else, because it’s going to happen. You’re not going to be able to stop it.” Source: Mashable.com

How to manage/tools

Make the process of updating Twitter quick, (here’s what I do): install Firefox or Chrome browser – quicker and more advanced than Internet Explorer, sign up to a bit.ly account (you can use a Twitter account), this will shorten long URL, and enable you to track how many people are clicking on your links.

Then when you want to send an update about your story, click on a link directly from Firefox to open your bitly account, ready for adding your message, it will automatically make and insert a short bit.ly URL of your story. Or use the AddThis Firefox extension or AddThis Google Chrome extension to create your Twitter ready short URL. There may well be sharing buttons on the page asthese are common on news websites.
Tools such as TwitterLocal, Trendsmap and Nearby Tweets help you find tweeps in your community. Try desktop, mobile or web-based apps: Tweetdeck, Seesmic, and Twitterfall (web) – ‘specialising in real-time tweet searches. New tweets fall into the page’.

See also by me:  Useful free Android apps for journalists - and: must have iphone apps for journalists by Anthony De Rosa, Ten fantastic apps, tips and tools for recording audio on journalism.co.uk

Tips on using Twitter and suggested tools: some quotes and notes –

• busy journalists facing too many demands in shrunken newsrooms can’t afford to let anything steal away too much of their day
• first a caveat: You need to invest some time learning to use Twitter and connecting with followers, primarily people in your community and colleagues who share your professional interests
• Some days Twitter will provide great value and be worth spending some time
• Tweet a few times each day. Your tweets don’t have to take much time, but they help you engage with colleagues and your community
• Check your “mentions.”
• Search your real name.
• Using this search and the mentions… engage any time someone is talking to me or about me, without constantly watching the whole stream
• Use Twitter as a news source
• Use a mobile Twitter app
• I would suggest snaptu.com, quick and straightforward to use if you’ve not an iPhone or Android enabled phone – richardkendall
• You can browse some tweets or fire off a quick tweet while walking to of from your car, while waiting for a meeting to start or riding an elevator or lift! – richardkendall
• paper.li  - organizes links shared on Twitter and Facebook into a newspaper-style format
• Twitter lists. Twitter lets you sort the people you follow
• Advanced Twitter search tips and example operators

More reasons why you should get tweeting

From Twitter for newsroom leaders « Pursuing the Complete Community Connection – Steve Buttry

• tweeting links to fresh content, crowdsource stories and story ideas and note how it boosts traffic
• Use your real name, either in username or in your profile.
• Remember you are representing your company/organisation and anything you say reflects upon you and that organisation - richardkendall
• Search hashtags and keywords when news breaks, connect quickly with eyewitnesses
• Use Twitter and CoverItLive together to provide live coverage of events, e.g. live sport
• Build and help to grow the community,  follow people in your community check their followers/retweeters to find more, benefiting all your followers -richardkendall
• Don’t underestimate the power of lists to organize and prioritize the folks you’re following
• See also: Advanced Twitter techniques for journalists « The Buttry Diary

Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger on: Why Twitter matters for media organisations, some quotes:

• Twitter is a “highly effective way of spreading ideas, information and content
• “increasingly, news happens first on Twitter
• “reporters are now habitually using Twitter as an aid to find information… requests for knowledge… witnesses to specific events
• “alert your community of followers. In marketing speak, it drives traffic and it drives engagement”…

Sarah Booker adds key points including:

• Monitor the activities and discussions in your community.
• Connect with colleagues and share ideas with them.
• “Crowdsource” stories by asking for story ideas or information.
• Quickly find people who witnessed or experienced an event.
• Drive traffic to your content.
• Improve your writing as you learn to make points directly in just 140 characters.

Further reading/viewing:

• Articles, insights and discussion on social media and journalism from BBC’s Social Media Summit – #bbcsms, May 2011
• Managing A Great Social Media News Team – Poynter.org
• Twitter Guide Book – How To, Tips and Instructions by Mashable
• The Art of Writing Great Twitter Headlines – Copyblogger
• Live-tweeting Best Practices | Twitter Developers
• 10 ways journalists can use Twitter before, during and after reporting a story | Poynter
• Ignore the naysayers: Twitter is what you make it, Shane Richmond (@shanerichmond), telegraph.co.uk
• 6 Tips to Run a Successful Group Twitter Chat –  Social Media Today
• How has social media changed the way newsrooms work?, Kevin Bakhurst, BBC News
• Newsroom integration: the past taking over the future?, Kevin Anderson, journalism.co.uk
• Trusting Tweets, a guide for journalists - mediahelpingmedia.org
• Twitter advanced research techniques 1: searching twitter, Colin Meek (@colinmeek) and Judith Townend (@JTownend)
• Twitter Journalism: search and verification
• Tweeting 101: A Twitter Cheat Sheet – webworkerdaily.com
• Tips on tweeting live by Mary Hamilton @newsmary
• Twitter for journalists: beyond gathering and distributing content
• How journalists can master Twitter (blogger’s cut), a great guide by Paul Bradshaw, from April 2008
• Technology is not a strategy, it’s a tool – part 2, Paul Bradshaw
• Making the most of Twitter, guardian.co.uk tips
• 2009 As Seen Through Twitter Hashtags, Mashable.com
• The rise of Twitter as a serious platform for discourse, ReadWriteWeb
• Twitter Postings: Iterative Design, Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox
• How to: know when to use photos from social media, journalism.co.uk
• 10 Tips « Crowdsourcing: A Fieldguide from WNYC
• It’s time for journalists to promote a better ‘Twitter style’ – by Online Journalism Review’s Robert Niles
• @Sreenet’s Twitter Guide for Newbies & Skeptics
• @Sree’s Social Media Guide – a work in progress - a good, wide and ongoing collection of social media tips and best practices, May 2011
• Who Should Journalists Follow On Twitter? – 10000words

This post was originally published on 16th February 2010. I’ve been constantly tinkering and updating ever since as the web and social media never sleeps and is in a state of constant change.

Image used can be found here: Communication to the Stars by Striking Photography by Bo on flickr.com

Thoughts on local news Websites

Homepages are where a site sells itself to its audience. A showcase of the best and most potentially interesting content on offer, and like the front page of any website it should be a good indicator of the content within.

Too many commercial elements are likely to distract the visitor (particularly animated/flash adverts) whereas the homepage should be the shop window, showing off all the best and freshest content, pulling them deeper into the site.  Advert overload will dilute the effect of each ad anyway, not so appealing to potential advertisers.

Relevance is the next key: is the content relevant and of interest to the visitor, the content is far more likely to gain further page views, time spent on site and engagement. Play to your strengths, don’t concentrate on areas where competitors are stronger. Do what you do best and link to the rest.

The website needs to make money for it’s owners but bombarding visitors with too many commercials on home or landing pages (and technically every page could be a landing page) is just distracting the visitor from what they came for, and therefore annoying.

Contextual (i.e. relevant) ads on articles or deep content pages are more likely to get noticed partly because visitors will spend more time focussed on those pages, whereas on homepages they will be scanning for their next link.

The power of choice lies with the audience as with so many media/leisure options (like on demand TV, radio, games), therefore Web users are used to being in control or voting with their feet and clicking off somewhere else – the Web after all is built on links.

Local news sites need to keep their focus on their strength – quality and depth of  local content, based on their knowledge and established brand. They should know their market and be in the best position to deliver.

THE question: to charge or not to charge

If newspapers are going to charge for online content, they need to offer a variety of options for their audience, both micropayments and subscription models: to find out what people are willing to pay and maximise options whilst there are few general examples of this strategy outside of niche or high value content.

Otherwise publishers could end up alienating either those that would have subscribed or those that just want to dip in and out. Why limit your audience? Guardian director of digital content Emily Bell said recently:

“If companies are going to try this route, they will have to accept a great dip in audience figures and consequently levels of interaction.

they are a stupid idea in that they restrict audiences for largely replicable content…Our strategy is entirely around reach and audience engagement – both if which would be irreparably damaged by paywalls.”

What’s wrong with people that aren’t regular visitors – get them in and then keep them a while with sticky content. But maybe those that remained would be keener to be involved having invested, creating a stronger potential community?

That’s one problem with free access sites: they don’t necessarily encourage loyalty, that relies on consistently churning out good content or having killer features, and that does cost money.

Newspaper readers have paid for their product, so there is cause to  make the most of it, but online where access is free, people can browse where and when and for how long they please, as Steve Busfield said on guardian.co.uk’s Organ Grinder blog:

“one has to presume that the newspaper readers buy their print copy and spend at least half an hour a day reading a wide array of content. They are engaged, regular, paying. Web readers are valued too (otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this blog), but they are not paying the bills.”

The story continues…