Social media platforms might seem like the newest way of doing business, but if you look back people have been socially networking since the dawn of civilization, way before social media sites. It was basically printed marketing materials that businesses used to connect to their customers. Well, this practice is still on but with an aggressive inclusion of Social Media Marketing too. Few newspaper brands have taken a step to embrace social media to enhance their newspaper’s content and increase revenue. With a few excellent ideas and strategic steps newspapers can employ social media to create a journey for readers & consumers rather than just a linear reading experience.
Possibilities and opportunities online for newspapers are huge and are surely marking a fundamental shift in the way they approach their audiences. Followed by this, it is clearly evident how some traditional media entities have embraced the social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter & blogs to some extent as important tools to use them to publish and curate news reports.
These social media platforms can evolve as valuable sources for story ideas and means of connecting directly with the communities and consumers across. All this makes perfect sense where social media stands as a medium for reporters to connect with the communities they cover.
An extra care must be taken to ensure that the entry of a newspaper brand does not degenerate into misuse and abuse. Social media is changing the way we conduct communication, business and personal perspectives.
Many journalists are also nowadays reaching out to social networking sites to assess what people are thinking about a particular issue etc. If we look back, few months before there were incidents like the Delhi gang-rape, the anti-corruption movement of Anna Hazare which had raised discussions, views and comments all over social media too. Even during Hurricane Sandy in US, people reached out to journalists through photographs.
Furthermore, there are a few social media strategy tips that would surely aid newspaper brands and organizations to enter, implement and execute their social media presence with ease.
Crafting a strong social media strategy for your newspaper will help you avoid drawbacks such as: posting content that consumers or community members don’t find engaging, posting during times that do not foster engagement and posting too much content.
What you need to consider in your Social Media Strategy Development Planning:
· Establish goals.
· Decide the tools that you will use to implement your strategy.
· Content type has to be well thought of.
· A keyword list has to be established.
· Set milestones and determine how you will measure the presence of your newspaper on social media.
· Ensure the social media strategy is successfully managed.
Followed by these tips you will have to plan the social media strategy for your newspaper.
· Set specific goals.
· Establish the strategies you will implement to attain your set goals.
· Create revenue generating content ideas and list of content sources.
· Design content that positions you and your newspaper as a thought leader.
Well, do keep in mind that videos and photos nowadays are a great content because social media has also become a lot more visually driven. So you might think of using photos and or videos whenever possible.
Newspapers- When Planning a Social Media Campaign need to look into these:
Targeting: one of the most useful ways to reach your target demographic is to pay attention to your consumer’s needs. Keeping a regular track of their search preferences online or what they ‘Like’ on Facebook, what they share is also a great way to target the intended audience as your print campaign might be tailored to meet their online interests.
Feedback – Effective advertising attracts consumers to your site or business, but ultimately the final approval comes from the consumer. In order to fine tune your campaign you need to receive feedback online. Therefore, setting up an online feedback makes it suitable for customers to share their opinions. Print ads that link this online URL for feedback will help direct your clientele and ensure that they are able to point out the pros and cons of your promotional items.
Creativity: Most newspaper brands realize that a perfect balance of online content and physical information is necessary, but most of them aren’t sure how to achieve the balance. Trial and error and the ability to be creative both on and offline helps them achieve the balance. Experimenting with both of these mediums renders a better understanding of which areas are effective and which ones require more effort.
Cross- Promotion: Balancing the online and offline medium is essential. For example: if you send out a leaflet or a brochure, make sure you mention a link to your social media pages etc. and similarly if you are running a promotion use both the elements of your ad campaign. This way you can attain greater attention to your print items as well as your online resources.
QR Codes – A term that has quickly become viral in the business world, QR (quick response) codes are implemented by a variety of brands for their ad campaigns. These codes allow users to download information instantly to their smart phones. These can be incorporated on business cards, brochures, direct mail, or other print pieces.
The creation of online content has led many newspaper brands to also embrace external content curation.
Even editors are striving to provide value to their readers by recommending articles from other sources to follow, as well as by sharing links posted by their community. On Twitter, newspapers can identify that being seen as an authority in their field is more important than just tweeting their own content.
Retweeting external links that they find relevant to their community and using Twitter lists to suggest additional accounts worth following must be done occasionally. Newspaper publications are using social media to harvest ideas based on feedback from their social media communities to efficiently craft future issues.
By asking questions across social profiles, monitoring comments and measuring response rates, brands can measure their readers’ pulse more accurately than ever. Social media is also being used as a direct source of content. The possibility of being featured by a favorite newspaper publication entices fans to contribute online. Newspaper brands can encourage photo submissions via contests or prompt fans to respond to Facebook polls.
Beyond adding depth to upcoming issues and digital content, these newspaper dailies have opened a regular dialogue and established a lasting relationship with their readers.
Newspapers are invaluable sources of content that builds influential connections and collective knowledge.
Social media is powerful enough to organize revolutions, so why not integrate them in your advertising and marketing campaigns. Social Media platforms are incredibly effective when used properly and one of the most powerful ways to integrate in the campaigns. You can simply link your print campaigns by including links to your social media pages to also provide latest news and information to your customers regarding your company.
In a nutshell, researching on the target audience, presenting a strong brand identity across all platforms, bridging the gap between generations, cultivating testimonials from social media sites, promoting the social media profiles with a call to action, creating print marketing worth sharing and tracking the effectiveness of the media are a few things that would mark the success of your brand.
Lets throw some light upon how a leading newspaper is actively progressing on Social Media through campaigns, engaging content, fruitful strategies etc.
Its Economic Times, India’s Leading Business Newspaper which offers Business News, Financial news, Stock/Share Market News, Economy News, Loans & Banking.
Economic Times
This leading newspaper aims to be the most trusted business & financial news and information provider irrespective of medium (Print, TV, Online, Mobile) & language (English, Hindi, Gujarati) of delivery. The Economic Times is India’s No.1 Print English Business Daily with www.economictimes.com as the No. 1 Business News website in the country.
The Economic Times also has Vernacular Editions, Mobile Site and Portfolio Management Tool.
The Economic Times Facebook page gives its readers a great insight into the latest news, updates and content that consumers/readers relate to and look for.
The Economic Times Twitter operates with the handle of @EconomicTimes and the newspaper ensures that tweets on regular basis appear on the handle and keep its readers and consumers updated.
Economic Times’ YouTube channel basically links to the ET NOW channel.
ET NOW is the 24-hour business news channel in English by Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd.; it brings to television the unmatched resources & expertise of The Economic Times, Indias no. 1 business daily and the top business media brand in the country. The strategic alliance with Reuters enables the highest quality of global perspective to news on ET NOW. Breaking stories that matter &with cutting-edge analysis, insider perspectives & skilled advice. Click this to check their YouTube channel.
Economic Times – The Power of Ideas
It aimed to encourage anyone and everyone with a business idea to realize their entrepreneurial dream.
It is a platform where ideas were polished and nurtured with personalized guidance from mentors before being taken forward to investors for funding. This ET initiative was taken in partnership with the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India and IIM-Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship.
And incase they didn’t have any idea they were motivated to try the app. This app motivated and triggered ideas into those with no ideas at that time!
Check out their Facebook page to explore the campaign!
They also came up with contests for this Power of Ideas campaign initiative.
A very creative display of their ad campaign on their website was also linked to social media. Click here to check out their creatives.
ET Against Half Knowledge
Economic Times took a firm stand with its latest campaign, against half knowledge. The initiative positions ET as one that provides incisive and analytical coverage of developments, and therefore, a source of complete knowledge.
The campaign contextualizes ‘Half Knowledge’ situations in people’s daily lives. It has broken out with print and digital media, which will be followed by outdoor, radio and television.
The facebook page is ET Against Half Knowledge that highlights the pitfalls of Half Knowledge, followed by enticing content shared on page. The page has acquired more than 42K fans and shows a good engagement in terms of fan responses.
This tab basically urges the readers and consumers to share their instances or acts of Half Knowledge kind. Readers are supposed to post their confessions anonymously wherein the best post gets featured on the ET Against Half knowledge Page.
This tab on Facebook asks its users to share anecdotes of Half Knowledge moments, the close encounters one has had with the Half Knowledge. The post with highest ‘Likes’ won prizes everyday.
ET Against Half Knowledge campaign had also come up with a few TVCs to better explain the cause. Check out this television commercial on YouTube.
Doodles
An amazing thing that was a part of the content strategy of this campaign was Doodles. These doodles were brilliantly designed and which normally had content that spoke about myth busters, brand failures due to Half Knowledge etc. Visit Facebook page to have a wonderful tour of these doodles.
A Website has also been designed for the cause which is divided into three categories:
· Curse of Half Knowledge
· Bursting Half Knowledge
· Rise Against Half Knowledge
One can join the movement by taking a pledge against Half Knowledge. People can also take the quiz, share stories and quotes on Half Knowledge exciting prizes everyday. All these user submissions have also been integrated with social media.
The Economic Times Young Leaders
This initiative by The Economic Times is India Inc’s first ever initiative to recognize and acknowledge the leadership potential among young executives. This initiative was taken to foster a culture of managerial excellence across India Inc. by identifying and nurturing promising leadership talent at the youngest levels. The initiative aimed at providing a forum for young managers to test themselves against their peers at a level that is unprecedented.
The Economic Times Young Leaders encouraged:
· Networking with the country’s best young managerial talent;
· Self-discovery of one’s own leadership strengths and limitations on globally-validated and industry-endorsed standards;
· Meeting with some of India’s blue-chip CEOs;
· The ultimate high of featuring in the coveted The Economic Times Young Leaders ranking, thus gaining recognition as one of India’s top talent.
Click the image to check their Facebook page
The content that was shared included success stories of leaders across the world and case studies. The complete initiative of this campaign was to bring out the leadership quality in young entrepreneurs and motivate them to succeed. It was largely appreciated by readers and gained a great engagement level throughout.
Click here to browse through their Website
Surely its a wonderful effort by a newspaper to embrace social media to its full potential and leverage its identity. The Economic Times stands as an example for other newspaper brands to take a step into social media and succeed.
Newspapers need to adapt the latest trends in order to stay ahead of the competition. How do you think can they integrate the online features into a print campaign? Do you think social media can pave way for newspapers to enhance their online presence? Will planning and research help newspapers find a proper balance of print and online techniques to reach the target audiences effectively?