Seattle Times Social Media PlanSocial Media Technologies & Implementation Certificate
Social Media in BusinessBill Higbee Laura Williams Hayat Nierenberg Linda Jacobson
June 7, 2011
“The old newspaper model is dying… It’s a collision of two worlds and this new world wants to crack it all open.”
Bruce Hedlam, Media Desk Editor – New York Times
AgendaProject Requirements and Team Challenges Social Media Model – OGSTFacebookMobile Social MediaNext StepsSummary and Parting ThoughtsBack Up & Supporting Documentation
Project RequirementsRecommendations to help with social media efforts - Specific to Traffic
Challenges for Seattle Times: Changing with the industry Maintain Quality - Trustworthy and knowledgeable source of news
information Limited Resources
Challenges for UWSMC Team: Narrow scope of project to deliver tangible benefit to Seattle Times Vast Social Media presence that is currently successful
Total Monthly Traffic = 1.72M* 10% Target = 172k from Social Media Resources*
*Seattle Times –Competitive Analysis
Social Media Model - OGST
Tactics
Facebook: Compare against industry / regional leaders for best practices and innovative activities
Mobile Solutions: Compare against industry / regional leaders for best practices and innovative activities
Strategies
Conduct a comparative score-card against the competition and provide recommendations for improvement
Optimize current social media usage to generate more traffic while not suffering engagement
GoalsObtain 10% of internet presence traffic from Social Media
Objectives
Achieve Seattle Times revenue, profitability, and growth goals while embracing the internet’s impact to the newspaper industry
I love your paper! Now I want to Like you, too… But how?
•Links to Seattle Times social media sites are nearly impossible to find.
•It’s easy to spot how to follow the New York Times on different social media sources.
?
The Bivings Group of the Facebook presence of the 100 newspapers in the US with the largest print circulation.
How well are U.S. Newspapers
Using Facebook?
… And the Seattle Times?6,207 Fans 6 likes per Facebook post* 4.4 average number of
comments per link*Well below the average
*Average of last 10 Seattle Times Facebook posts
Competitors Best PracticesNewspaper Social Fact Highlights Best Practices
Washington Post Top of List – Effective audience engagement
Averages 41 likes and 55 comments for every post on it’s fan page wall
• Two custom tabs (Capital Hill & Stories) Editors use • HootSuite to schedule posts
The Chicago Tribune Ranked 9th in the US in terms of circulation, but is #2 for Facebook engagement
• Custom Welcome landing page• Specific FB newspaper sub sections pages. • Active Discussion tab
The Arizona Republic
The Arizona republic is ranked 3rd on this list despite having a 40% lower circulation than the first-ranked Washington Post.
Collaboration with AZcentral.com
San Jose Mercury News
8th in circulation within the US, but 5th on this list due to its consistently active Facebook fans.
• The fan page will feature simple status updates (sans links) • Variety in fan communication (Ask the readers questions or just wish them a good morning).
RecommendationsMake it easy to find!
Accessible from Seattle Times homepageProvide a listing of all fan pages associated with the Seattle
TimesKeep up the current pace of postings
Topics should be discussable; leave breaking news to other Social Media streams
Audit the information on the pageRemove dead links or pages that have not been tended to
News Apps for Mobile Phones
Mobile News App Analysis
“Mobile Web users expect you to be there. Empower them with information, and they’ll talk about how great your company is. Don’t, and they’ll tell their friends you don’t have a clue.”
Josh Bernoff & Ted Schader, empowered
The Good NewsConsumption of News via mobile apps, especially local news, is growing.•Nearly half of Americans are using their cellphones and tablet computers to get local news and information•The Millennial age group (born between 1977 and 1994) are particularly strong app users: they are almost twice as likely as the average adult to have read a magazine via an app and 73% more likely to have read a newspaper via an app in the last 30 days.
Brand Building OpportunityMobile News apps and in-depth enterprise or
investigative-reporting packages build the Seattle Times brand by demonstrating innovation, progressiveness and leadership
Apps are a great way to “hook” target audience and cross-promote, drive audience to other Seattle Times ‘destinations’ and connect with Facebook, Twitter, Web site.
News apps meet the needs of a growing segment
Best PracticesExamples of best practices
LA Times Hollywood Star Walk, Festival of BooksNew York Times The Scoop: NYC App for iPhone (A guide to
New York City from the staff of The New York Times featuring their favorite restaurants, bars, events and experiences), The New York Times Crosswords, The New York Times Sudoku, Learning English With The New York Times
The Philadelphia Inquirer Phrequency for iPhone and Android (Philly-centric music, food, art, style, and nightlife)
The Seattle Times Husky Football
RecommendationsPush the envelope, leverage new technology and create
innovative, progressive ways to interact with the news via mobile apps or Web sites (such as News.Me, The Daily)People are using their phone to check weather, sports
scores, to find local restaurants, business, coupons, traffic conditions or public transportation, local community info
Promote your niche apps (such as Husky Football and Husky Basketball)Make them discoverable
Key Takeaways for Seattle TimesDedicate time to social media
Audit what you haveDetermine where you want to goDevelop a plan
Dedicate Resources to Social MediaTo complete the plan
Be patient – this is not going away, it’s important… Your new job is to be nimble, flexible, open, to be able to
move in various ways… move where the audience is. This is going to keep happening, Facebook will go away, Mobile will go away… How do you stay current?
Summary & Parting Thoughts Continuously evaluate the competition for opportunities to improve – most notably,
Washington Post, etc, etc, as they are industry leaders Utilize Social Media to Push the news to where people are vs only using it to Pull them to
you Consider which type of news fits the specific medium (for example, the aforementioned
Facebook “good news” recommendation) Push Social Media internally… Get your staff (all employees) to be regular Social Media
Users. Train them (brown bags, etc). Promote to them. Get in the game Show Hootsuite example from Washington Post+
Conduct an audit of Social Media resources If find open links (areas without content) then pull them until they are utilized (e.g. Polls/Quizes
and XYZ…) Integrate Social Media into an overall, cohesive Marketing Plan.
Show research from Mala presentation showing % that use SM as part of overall plan vs those that don’t
This might also help with resource constraints as it’ll be viewed as “part of Seattle Times” rather than “this new fad…”
Source: http://www.bivingsreport.com/2010/2010-best-us-newspaper-facebook-fan-pages/
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Local-mobile-news/Part-1/Local-news-apps.aspx
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