They’re there, but are they YOURS? AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT They’re there, but are they YOURS?

THE HEART OF THE MATTER The essence of media is knowing your audience and engaging them in something they love

IS YOUR AUDIENCE ENGAGED? AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT -- Catch-all term to describe the many ways that journalists can connect with their community of readers or viewers Engagement is a looping process in which you and your audience can interact with each other in various ways

WHY AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT MATTERS The audience helps spread content you create Liking Sharing Retweeting Favoriting Audience comments on your stories They share their own stories

AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT, LIKE SOCIAL MEDIA, HAS CHANGED JOURNALISM JOURNALISM IS NO LONGER ABOUT CREATING A STORY - YOUR PRODUCT, PUBLISHING IT AND MOVING ON. IT’S A PROCESS THAT THE AUDIENCE CAN TAKE PART IN FROM START TO FINISH.

USER-GENERATED CONTENT Audience creates content of their own that can add to your story Photos Videos Shares with you in reference to the story that you created Gives you story ideas or content to get your started Has a conversation with you while working on a story Shares your story once it’s done

HOW DO YOU ENGAGE AN AUDIENCE? To effectively engage your audience, you must determine who they are You must decide who within your organization will do what Large student media organizations will have an engagement team, small organizations will have an individual to: Be responsible for creating posts for social media Respond to comments on social media and on the web Ask for user-generated content and then distribute that content

YOUR WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA The website should be a touchstone for the social media Run a Storify widget (a small version of a large piece of software) with curated content Have live links to all of your social media Pictures, pictures, pictures Everything that you put out should point back to your website and your website should point to your collective social media AS WELL AS individual social media accounts for your reporters

HOW DO YOU DISCOVER YOUR AUDIENCE? You have to go where your desired audience is How do you find out where they are? Polls Online polls Hallway polls Face-to-Face polls Go where your desired audience already is School website School Twitter School Facebook

GETTING THEM TO YOU Once you find them, find out how they are communicating Twitter - use #hashtags so that your tweets can be seen by people who aren’t following you already Find the #hashtags that people are already using on big stories or start your own, BUT be sure to promote them: Newspaper and news websites Announcements Radio Club meetings Posters with QR codes that lead directly to follow links Once you find them, find out how they are communicating

They’re there, but are they YOURS? AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT They’re there, but are they YOURS?