Engagement Workshop

Denver, COMay 1, 2013#DFMengage

Introductions• Name• Newsroom• What you do• Recent engagement success/challenge• What would make today a success for

you?

Plan for the day• Engagement overview• ScribbleLive• Post planning meeting• Daily engagement• Engaging w/ bloggers• Thunderdome

engagement• Interactive graphics

• Social conversation• Contests• Photo engagement• Time management• iPad• Hangout• Pinterest• Brainstorming

Throughout the day• Choose 1 or 2 things to try this week• Choose 1 or 2 things to try next week• Choose 1 or 2 things to dig in deeper

with us in follow-up• Write down follow-up questions• Slides and links on my blog

What is engagement?

Tools of engagement

Ways of engaging• Community blogs• Seek community content (words, photos,

videos)• Curation, aggregation• Contests• Don’t forget the newspaper!• Face to face

Dan Petty

In the Post meeting• Crowdsourcing opportunity?• Curation opportunity?• Seek videos, photos from community?• Look for existing videos• How would you tweet?• How would you start Facebook

conversation?

Finding new bloggers• Google (blog search w/ community

names)• Check local blogs’ blogrolls• Ask the bloggers about others• Check links of local tweeps• Help set up people with blogs

Host some group blogs• Community clubs• Community religious organizations• Youth sports teams• Neighborhood groups• Music (marching bands, church choirs,

garage bands, youth recitals)• What else?

Social media• Community orgs w/ FB pages• Community FB groups (if they’re open)• Community orgs, voices on Twitter• Community orgs w/ YouTube channels• Community orgs on Instagram, Flickr• Community Pinboards

Engagement within DFM

Creating and building communities across the network

Sooo… What’s the point?

• Engagement is not only important to our audience outside the newsroom, but also within our newsrooms.

• If we build relationships and communicate more, we will get a better understanding of who our audience is across the network – which makes sharing content and packaging a lot more easy, streamlined.

The first steps

• I created Facebook groups, closed to DFM staffers only, as a place to share ideas, talk with colleagues, spotlight great content available for use and share metrics.

Facebook communities

• We want producers, reporters, editors (everyone!) to take advantage of DFM and partner content. Our hope is that creating these networks and communities around niche topics will encourage that. Created, so far:– Health– Entertainment– Tech– Travel

What we hope to achieve…Sharing cool content, starting a

conversationPromoting Thunderdome or local

content

These are just examples but we have lots of ideas … The Facebook groups aren’t meant to replace Mission Control as a sharing vehicle, but to encourage conversation

and cross-network collaboration, promote content and act as a water cooler (of sorts).

We’re also hanging out• We also recently launched what will be monthly, super

casual Google Hangouts to chat about news and features.– Karen Workman (news-side representative) and I meet casually

with a group of staffers filling a variety of newsrooms roles (generally not high-level editors).

– We want it to be like running into one another in the breakroom.

What do we talk about?• Prior to the hangout we send a tentative agenda that is

completely allowed to change.• The chat lasts 30 minutes with Karen and I each taking 5 minutes:

– Spotlight a story that was shared to Thunderdome from a local property

– Spotlight original Thunderdome content– What’s coming up?

• Then, we ask the folks on the call to share their successes and talk about upcoming projects – opening the door for possible collaboration and increased sharing across DFM.

• Following the chat, we send notes with lots and lots of links to stories discussed.

What did we talk about?

• We got feedback to Thunderdome Boston explosions coverage and heard from the network:

– Mainline Media (PA) has the US Open coming up in May. Andy Stettler says his team will be live tweeting. Sounds like awesome golf coverage is expected.

– The Morning Sun (MI) had a huge win with their March Madness pet contest — Lisa Yanick Jonaitis said one of their posts was viewed about 68,000 times, which is just amazing. Next up at the Morning Sun is a "Can you spell this?" for adults playing off the upcoming spelling bee.

– In York (PA), Scott Blanchard is spreading the word about coverage of Gettysburg anniversary. Some stories and columns are available and Blanchard says it'll look at the “stuff that could make someone's visit there be great or make it suck.”

– The Bay Area News Group(CA) had a rocking reaction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame bracket. The bracket had had a grand total of 282,057 page views. It picked up retweets and Facebook posts from Duran Duran, Depeche Mode and others. It also had 42,124 Facebook recommends. Ann Tatko-Peterson said “This is the prime example of how we can use social media to drive traffic back to our websites.”

After the first hangout, what’s next?

• The first group included folks from:– The Register Citizen (CT)– Bay Area News Group (CA)– Mainline Media, York Daily Record (PA)– The Morning Sun, The Oakland Press (MI)– The Denver Post (CO)– Thunderdome

• We hope we will have two hangouts a month, one with a core group and another with a rotating group to get more voices.

Interactive graphics

Aimee Heckel

The Social Media Conversation

Great for promotion, but also …• Great for reporting• Find story ideas• Crowdsource• Join & spur the conversation (reply,

retweet, ask questions)

engagement

Photos engage better than updates

engagement

engagement

Be conversational (not just promoting content)

engagement

Why converse w/ no link?• Question invites conversation• Engagement w/ question boosts

views/engagement on subsequent links• Builds brand, gain followers• Do you enjoy conversation w/ people

always calling attention to themselves?

Engagement tips:• Engage with comments • Post and/or share from personal pages

(selectively; don’t be a spammer)• Crowdsource on community pages (not

just yours)• No AP photos

CT Twitter study:• Newsroom accounts mostly heads & links• @5thDistrictCT conversational (links to

competition, RTs, replies, great info)• @5thDistrictCT = 2x to 10x more referrals

per Twitter follower

Tips for being conversational:• Monitor @ mentions & reply (answer

questions, thank for links, address critics)• Make link posts conversational• RT competition, community bloggers• Ask questions

Monitor community conversation:• Save searches for key names, hashtags• Save location searches for breaking-news

terms (fire, emergency, siren)• Make lists (HootSuite, TweetDeck

columns) of key community users• Reply & RT

Encourage staff to be conversational:• Be personable (can do that w/o stating

opinions)• More than just links• Listen to community; reply & RT• Livetweeting events

What’s your social-media voice• All about me?• Join other conversations?• Appropriate to content (light, serious)?• Who would your social-media voice be

(think of a character)?

Crowdsourcing tips• Say what you know, what you need to

know• Don’t ask for help; invite people to tell

their stories, share their photos• Reach broader audience (hashtags, ask on

FB pages of groups w/ interests)

Engagement throughcontests

Why do contests?

Contests are fun. The audience loves to see something they did in print.

Contests drive traffic.

They encourage the readers to interact with the newspaper, showing readers that we are here and a part of this community.

They drive new readers and build our audience.

Jessica Benes, Reporter-Herald 2013

What kind of contest? Contests associated with holidays (Christmas, Valentine’s, Mother’s Day, Halloween).

Events (festivals, parades, trivia bowl).

Weather (snow, first day of summer).

Biggest fan or school spirit.

Best community stories (Ghost stories, Veteran’s stories).

Jessica Benes, Reporter-Herald 2013

What types of platforms/social media? Videos Photos Written stories Google forms Print newspaper Facebook Twitter Blogs Pinterest Instagram Storify Timelines

Jessica Benes, Reporter-Herald 2013

How do we handle prizes? Arrange prizes with a participating event or venue (free tickets or passes to an event). Use the tantalizing idea of the best photo making it into print. Post the photos in a Facebook album, on Pinterest and in a slide show on your website as the prize. Occasionally dip into the budget for a gift card (but that depends on the newspaper and budget).

Jessica Benes, Reporter-Herald 2013

Valentine’s Day Project Call-out for “Loveland’s greatest love stories” online and in print, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest.

13 submissions received.

Timeline of submissions designed.

Top five chosen by Reporter-Herald staff.

Reporter-Herald projects:

Jessica Benes, Reporter-Herald 2013

Valentine’s Day cont’d:Reporter-Herald projects:

Jessica Benes, Reporter-Herald 2013

Top five put to a vote by the community for one week. First place entry interviewed for a Valentine’s Day feature story.

Easter We asked for egg decorating “egg-sperts” to be part of a feature. We used how-to videos of those submissions to ask the community to submit their best-decorated eggs for a Facebook album, slide show, and to run in our News: By You section.

Reporter-Herald projects:

Jessica Benes, Reporter-Herald 2013

Photo curation Quick hitters like curating for photos seems to often perform better than longer contest projects. We usually ask for photos and place them in a Facebook album and slide show on our website. We have a vote for the best shots and print the top couple in our News: By You section of the paper.

Halloween Snow photos Easter eggs

Reporter-Herald projects:

Jessica Benes, Reporter-Herald 2013

Our thoughts on what has worked: Our community likes to participate when they don’t have to put in a lot of work.

Submitting photos. Participating in polls.

Big prizes are noticed, as are the promises of a child’s photo getting in the paper. Contests around big events/topics of the day like snow storms or summer festivals.

Jessica Benes, Reporter-Herald 2013

And what hasn’t: Trivia Bowl: Asked reader to call in with answers to eight trivia questions for the chance to win a free entry to participate in the Trivia Bowl. – No calls.

Might have been too small of an audience. Too much work, not a big enough topic.

Lifetree Film Fest: Asked to submit 3-minute films for a mini film festival in conjunction with Group Publishing Lifetree Film Fest. We received three entries.

Perhaps not enough time (we gave them 2.5 weeks). Not a big enough topic.

Tips from other newspapers: Peeps dioramas are a big hit. Reader’s Choice: Unlimited voting or not? You might end up putting something in the paper that isn’t great but had a lot of friends. Sex sells. We didn't get a tons of entries in our tax season Sexy Accountant contest, but tens of thousands clicked to see what sexy accountants look like. During National Poetry Month a few years ago, we sponsored a limerick contest; we got lots of entries, but most were badly rhymed couplets that weren't even limericks.

-- Richard Chin, St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Jessica Benes, Reporter-Herald 2013

Tips from other newspapers: Better response when we offer less of readers and offer bigger prizes. Giveaways do well like commenting on a post with a favorite beer or wine to win passes to related events. Built up buzz about “Restaurant week,” where people could “like” the event on Facebook to enter to win. A $400 prize was announced during a “happy hour event” to kick off the week (advertise-driven).

-- April Trotter, York Daily Record, Pennsylvania.

Jessica Benes, Reporter-Herald 2013

Brainstorm What has worked for you?

What are your ideas?

Jessica Benes, Reporter-Herald 2013

Jessica Benes Reporter-Herald, 970-669-5050 ext. 530.

Email: jbenes@reporter-herald.com.

Twitter: @JessicaBenes

Facebook, Pinterest: Jessica Benes

Blog: jessicabenes.com

Engagementtime management

Engagement saves time• Find sources quickly using social search• Find sources quickly by crowdsourcing• Posts are short (but still require thought)• Posts can be timed (but be careful)• Suggest what you should stop doing

Quick video• Surveillance video• Seek submissions from community• Vine, Tout• Search YouTube, Vimeo• Hangout (live on YouTube)

Using the iPadfor reporting

Aimee Heckel

Pinterest: Why bother?

• It’s a place to collect and organize images by topic.

• Pay attention to popular topics when building boards.

• Generate new interest in content you already have.

• Showcase user-generated images.

• Create an archive. Pins are sticky!

• Build a new audience.

How & why to use Pinterest

Pinterest by the numbers• 25% of U.S. women who use

social media are on Pinterest.

• Among U.S. women on social media, Pinterest is second only to Facebook.

• More women use Pinterest than instagram (16%), Twitter (15%) or Tumblr (6%).

• Women are five times as likely as men to use Pinterest.

• 48% of Pinterest users are 18-49 years old and 36% have attended or graduated from college.

Graphic: AdWeek | Demographics: Pew Research Center

Salt Lake Tribune demographics

Pre-Pinterest Post-Pinterest

Get verified

Showcase the diversity of your content

Build an archiveShowcase original content

Editorial Cartoons

Archival Photos

Local news & events

General roundup boards or dedicated ones for larger, more impactful events.

Don’t take yourself too seriously

Oddities

Local food, products & places

Animals always work

Local place Local event User content

Sports teams

*Mix new & archive ->

It’s all about awareness• You are putting your content out where your readers spend time,

giving them another view of the brand.

• Showcase content that gets short-shrift elsewhere - particularly content that is attractive to female readers.

• ROI for direct referrals isn’t much yet, so focus on easily updated topics and those that can be farmed out to desks.

• Build community engagement by following, repinning, liking and commenting on other boards.

• Kim McDaniel• Digital Director, Social Media Editor

The Salt Lake Tribune• kimm@sltrib.com

@sltrib or @tivogirlpinterest.com/sltrib

Contact

Next steps• What will you try this week?• What will you try next week?• What do you need to dig deeper on?• Who will you follow up with?• Slides and links on my blog (probably

tonight or tomorrow)