These are slides for my presentation on engagement at ONA Camp Phoenix.

1. Why Engagement
Is Good Business
ONACamp Phoenix
November 8, 2014

2. Read more about it
• stevebuttry.wordpress.com
• slideshare.net/stevebuttry
• @stevebuttry
• stephenbuttry@gmail.com

3. 3 types of engagement
• Engage community in our journalism
• Engage community in marketing efforts
(news & biz collaboration)
• Help business customers engage w/ our
community

4. What is engagement?

5. What’s the payoff?
• Better journalism
• Increased traffic (ad impressions)
• More time w/ content (more value)
• Expand audience
• Improve brand

6. Live coverage
• Berkshire Eagle murder trial: 25K
engagement hours
• News-Herald: Jan-Feb: from 7 to 24 live
events, 35K to 83K engagement minutes
• Dorner manhunt: 4.7M minutes
• Gettysburg 150: 5 days, 35K+
engagement minutes daily, peak of 96K+

7. Liveblogging situations
• Breaking story
• Meeting
• Event (festival, march, concert, trial)
• Daylong (Election Day, weather)
• Sporting event (can use fans, bloggers,
HS journos)
• Live chat

8. Community network
• Community supplements your coverage
& fills gaps
• Community network can drive traffic to
your sites (offer widgets)
• Opportunities to sell advertising in
community blog network

9. 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?

10. Don’t forget the promotional &
commercial value of good
journalism

11. 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

12. Tips for being conversational:
• Monitor @ mentions & reply (answer
questions, thank for links, address critics)
• Make link posts conversational
• Reply & RT
• RT competition, community bloggers
• Ask questions

13. Social media = journo tool
1. Livetweet events &
breaking news
2. Search
3. Crowdsource
4. Monitor community
conversation
5. Curate
6. Hashtags
7. Lists
8. Embed tweets in
stories
9. Photos & videos
10.Verification

14. Promotion also matters
• Posting photos increases engagement on
Twitter
• Posting links (that pull in good photos)
works best on Facebook (for now)
• Experiment & watch metrics to learn best
times & ways to post

15. Market your content
• Community Facebook groups, pages
• National niche groups, pages
• Hashtags that reach interested audiences
• Comments on related blogs
• Emails (or social media messages) to
bloggers, influencers
• Check Klout for influencers

16. Contest possibilities
• Holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving,
Christmas, Valentine’s, Mother’s Day,
Father’s Day, July 4)
• Seasons (fall colors, winter photos, etc.)
• Children, pets
• Sports
• Treasure hunts

21. Contest tips
• Photo contests rock
• Facebook works (brings new likes, helps
you in news feed algorithm)
• Which is better – judging or voting?
• Experiment, learn, laugh
• Don’t forget the print product

22. Contest sponsorships
• Get advertiser(s) to provide prizes
• Event at sponsor’s business
• What else?

23. engagement

30. Business opportunities
• Social media agency for local businesses
• FB, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat accounts
offering local bargains
• Local search
• Transactions for local businesses

31. Content for hire
• Blogs for local businesses (your site &
theirs)
• Expert content for businesses (stories,
videos)
• Live content for businesses
• Apps for local businesses
• Commissioned obits, life stories

32. Protect your integrity
• Separate content-for-hire staff
• Set standards (accuracy, corrections)
• Label content on your site as sponsored
• Continual conversation about ethics
• Be explicit about protecting editorial
integrity
• Who can’t be customers?

33. Read more about it
• stevebuttry.wordpress.com
• slideshare.net/stevebuttry
• @stevebuttry
• stephenbuttry@gmail.com