chalkbeat's guide to engaging with readers

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Chalkbeat’s engagement strategy

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Post on 20-Jul-2015

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Chalkbeat’s engagement strategy

How do we define engagement and how does it fit into our overall strategy?

Across Chalkbeat, we aim for growth in four areas:

READERSHIP ENGAGEMENT

IMPACT ORGANIZATIONAL STRENGTH

Engagement is the work of maximizing our readers’

opportunities to access, learn from, interact with, contribute to, and act on our

journalism.

What does the engagement team do?

Who is part of the engagement team?

AnikaSarah G.

Potentially bureau community editors in the future

Audience research

Editorialengagement

Distribution &Partnerships

Impactmeasurement

Who is our audience and what do they care about?

How can we make our content more interesting and engaging? How can we build conversations and community around our content?

How can we make sure the people who need to see this story see it?

Is our work succeeding in giving people the information they need to make better informed decisions about education?

The engagement team is working to answer these questions:

● Design a reader survey

● Use digital storytelling tools (like interactive maps and quizzes) to make content more engaging

● Design or improve your newsletter strategy

● Figure out what content is having an impact

More specifically, we can help you...

To engage authentically with our readers, our engagement work has to be baked into our

journalistic process.

And “engagement” can’t just be a box we check off after we’ve

written a story.

How can you incorporate “engagement” into your daily work?

Your process as journalists is roughly broken down into these three steps:

Reporting Distribution ConversationThe reporting you do to produce content

How you get readers to read your content

How you build conversation and community around content

These questions help inform how we think about engagement at every step of the process.

Reporting Distribution ConversationThe reporting you do to produce content for readers

How you get readers to read your content

How you build conversation and community around content

What sources are you looking for, and how could we get creative about finding them? (This could be specific people, or communities of people.)

Who would be the most interested in this story?

Is there conversation that might (or should) happen after a story is published? If so, what should we do to facilitate or be a part of that conversation?

Is there an opportunity for — and would there be benefit from — letting the community know what you’re working on as you’re still reporting? Is there any danger in doing that?

Who do you think most needs — or would most enjoy — the story you’re telling and information you’re providing?

How can you build a community of people around this topic or story? What’s the value for them?

What can we produce that highlights our readers' voices, answers their questions and makes content more interesting and fun to interact with?

How can you make sure readers will see what you produce and will interact with it?

What can the audience DO with your story, or in response to it?

Of those questions, I think these are the most important to ask before beginning any story:

1. Who would be the most interested in this story?

2. How can you make sure they will see what you’ve produced?

3. What can readers DO with your story, or in response to it?

What types of goals can you set around engagement?

These are examples of engagement goals and strategies that you could set for REPORTING.

Bureau goal Strategies

Improve the visual presentation of data. Use digital storytelling tools like a timeline or infogram or interactive maps

Find ways to teach readers about a particular story or topic in a more engaging way.

Experiment with stand-alone quizzes and quizzes embedded in stories

Produce one project that involves teachers sharing their experiences or stories about the Common Core

Crowdsource teachers for bad vs. good examples of a Common Core-aligned question/problem and the standard it corresponds to

Improve diversity of sources. *Utilize CRM to input sources and keep track of how many times you’ve quoted someone

These are examples of engagement goals and strategies that you could set for DISTRIBUTION.

Bureau goal Strategies

Grow number of newsletter readers -- Promote newsletter in blurbs at the end of articles.-- Do weekly social media campaigns to encourage signups

Increase daily presence and engagement with users on social media

Implement the lineleader system, ensuring that one person every day is responsible for pushing content out on social media

Ensure that the people who need to see a story see it Email at least three places from distribution list after publishing a story

Grow readership among teachers Partner with local teacher groups, teacher unions and teaching programs to distribute Chalkbeat stories

These are examples of engagement goals and strategies that you could set for CONVERSATION.

Bureau goal Strategies

Highlight readers voices on a regular basis Once a week, ask readers a question and do a roundup of their responses.

Encourage productive conversation in the comments section

End articles with a guiding question for readers, respond to readers and ask follow up questions, monitor comments section for off-topic/inappropriate comments

Learn from readers how Chalkbeat can be improving its coverage and serving them better

Hold a reader feedback meeting or send our surveys to gather reader responses

Promote conversation between educators about teacher evaluations

Hold a workshop event when teachers are asked how would they evaluate their own ability to teach well

What tools and resources can help you achieve those goals?

Reporting Distribution Conversation Pitch worksheet: Questions to ask when pitching a series, a project or an event.

Distribution checklist: A checklist of things to do after publishing a story

Twitter/Facebook tips: A basic how-to guide and some tips + tricks

Digital storytelling tools: How to create more engaging content.

Distribution lists: A comprehensive resource of people to distribute your work to in your state

Highlighting reader voices: Best practices on how to feature reader voices and build conversation and community around them

Resources you can use to help achieve your engagement goals.

*Coming soon: A guide to events, How to tap into online communities

How will we know if we’re successful at engaging with

readers?

● Goal setting/measures of success

● Weekly reports

● Sarah as a resource

● Your feedback!

● MORI progress

News doesn’t exist without readers.

In summary…