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

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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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.

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

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