Recently, my coworkers and I were discussing how much social media has changed since the early 2010s. One mentioned that she launched a Twitter account for a magazine around 2009. In about a year, she said the account reached 25k followers, with her doing nothing much more than sharing article links.
Oh, how times have changed! Now, growing a social media following requires a much more strategic approach. Social media managers have a myriad of things to consider – algorithms, paid promotions, influencer partnerships – the list seems endless. It’s understandable to feel overwhelmed, but when I do I usually find that it’s because I’ve lost sight of the basic foundation my strategy is built upon. Here, I've put together five key questions you should ask yourself when crafting a social media strategy for your newsroom.
1. What do you want to achieve?
Before you even start creating content, it’s essential to outline your objectives. This question seems super obvious on the surface, but it’s so frequently overlooked! What's your North Star? Are you looking to increase your audience reach, drive traffic to your website, boost brand awareness, or foster engagement with your content? These are different goals that require distinct strategies. For example, if your priority is to maximise the visibility of your content, you should focus on increasing impressions.
One caveat here: when it comes to newsrooms, it's not always the best idea to see social media as just a way to bring in more website clicks. Platforms like X are actively deprioritising link posts in their algorithm, as they want people to stay on the site instead of clicking off of it, and just this month X removed headlines on link posts. So instead, it's more useful to think of social media as an extra way to tell stories, supplementary to the article that already exists on your website.
2. Who are you talking to?
Understanding your target audience is important for marketing in general, but for social media it's mandatory. You absolutely must create content that resonates with your audience's interests, addresses their pain points, and speaks their (literal and figurative) language.
Determine their demographics, interests, and behaviours – to this end, analytics is your best friend. I like using a tool like Meltwater, but I also rely on analytics native to each platform. Your numbers will tell you not just who is engaging the most with your content, but will also help you answer the important questions: which posts do they engage the most with, and what do they all have in common? The format, the topic, or the visuals? Once you find these answers, tailor your message to meet your audience’s needs and preferences.
This approach will not only boost engagement, it will also foster a stronger connection between your brand and your readers.
3. Where can you find your people?
Okay, you now know who you're talking to – but are you meeting your people where they are? Different platforms have different strengths and personalities. Visual-heavy stories might thrive on Instagram, while breaking news updates could be more at home on Twitter. If you're a magazine catering to young people, TikTok will probably make more sense than LinkedIn. Not all social media platforms will align with your newsroom's goals and content, and strategically choosing the right social media platforms to focus on keeps your efforts directed toward platforms where your target audience is most active.
4. How do you keep the content flowing?
Plan, plan, plan:
- Build or maintain a system to keep your social media team in the loop about upcoming articles, investigations, and other projects.
- Maximise success by providing your team with enough lead time to plan and execute social campaigns around key events. At Context, we plan our content at least a week in advance, but more if it’s a special series or campaign. A breaking news publication might have to plan their content everyday, but you can still prepare a calendar marking special events, meetings or holidays that your team plans to cover.
- Develop an editorial calendar that outlines the types of content you'll post, the posting frequency, and any upcoming events or themes.
- Once you’ve made a schedule, stick to it. A general rule of thumb: whether you’re posting on your feed every day or every four days, consistency is key.
5. Do your resources match your planned output?
I hate to break it to you, but it doesn't matter how much of a superstar your social media manager is – no one on their own can successfully manage 14 different accounts across 4 different platforms with the same high quality of work on each of them. Be realistic about how much your team can execute. In my experience, it’s better to have a great presence on 1 or 2 platforms, than a lacklustre presence on 5.
6. What can your own reporters do?
If you take a look at the big picture in the world of news consumption on social media, you'll notice that it's becoming more personality-driven. People are increasingly interested in connecting with real individuals, not just faceless brands. On platforms like LinkedIn, the spotlight has started to shine brighter on individual voices rather than corporate ones. Plus, calling back to point 1, algorithms have become quite picky when it comes to links, as platforms want users to spend as much of their time on the platform as possible.
Newsrooms already have a great resource at hand when it comes to fostering more personal connections: reporters! Encourage your reporters to get in on the action. Incentivize them to not only like and share content, but also to put their own work out there on social media. It gives your news stories an immediate personal touch, and that's what today's audience often craves – that authentic human touch in their newsfeeds.
A social media strategy isn’t static – and crafting one doesn’t end when you answer these 6 questions. In an ever-evolving social media landscape, a strategy requires constant reevaluation and adaptation – I will be speaking more about this in my next post, so tune in!
Social media strategy for newsrooms has many points in common with social media strategy for any brand, but the unique audiences and resources (like reporters) definitely give it its own character. How are you tailoring your social content to your particular audience? I want to hear all about it in the comments!
