December 8th, 2010
Can you really engage a community by telling them to “follow” and “like” you?
By Scott Leadingham
Sometimes the most obvious answers are the hardest to find – or at least require an “aha!” moment before they’re revealed.
That happened yesterday as I was writing an e-mail message to Quill subscribers and SPJ members about the new digital e-magazine version being available.
At the end I initially wrote: “Follow us on Twitter and Facebook,” giving links to SPJ’s accounts on those networks.
I’ve been thinking a lot about “community engagement” lately, no doubt fueled by following numerous community engagement managers and social media editors on Twitter. (Steve Buttry and Craig Kanalley to name just two.)
It struck me there: What about true community engagement is embedded in terms like “follow us” and “like us”? In short: nothing. I can’t think of a time I’ve felt deeply connected to or an equal part of a group by being told to “follow” or “like” something else.
So, I changed the construction in the e-mail to:
If you’re so inclined, join Quill and SPJ in discussing and reviewing journalism news and conversations on Twitter and Facebook.
If news outlets really are becoming greater partners with their audiences – if community engagement isn’t just the buzzword of the year (which I don’t believe it is) – then perhaps it’s time to re-examine how to interact with community members on the most basic level. Sure, having tweetups and hosting live-chats are essential and incredibly rewarding. But what message are you sending by telling audiences that they’re “followers” and that THEY should “like” YOU?
News and information sharing is a team effort. It takes a village to raise a child, we’re told. And it takes a collaborative community joining together to report, share and discuss the stories that are important to them.
Scott Leadingham is editor of Quill magazine. If you’re so inclined, you can join him in discussing, sharing and commenting on journalism and media issues on Twitter: @scottleadingham.
Tags: Community engagement, Craig Kanalley, Quill magazine, SPJ, Steve Buttry
December 8th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
How about asking them instead of telling them. Good journalism engages its readers rather than telling them.
December 8th, 2010 at 12:12 pm
The question is a great one, and reading this convinces me you’re right. Engagement is much more than friending or following. The key will be not to think we’re done just because we’ve accumulated audiences. It’s when the audience become participants, empowered to own and inspire conversations across brands and platforms, that we know we’ve done our jobs.
December 8th, 2010 at 1:47 pm
You’re absolutely right, Scott. If the best way you have to get an audience is asking them to follow you or “like” you, you’re in big trouble.
At the end of my newspaper column — when I get around to writing one — I invite people to “join me in a discussion about journalism and the newspaper” at my blog. And back in ’04 when I started that blog, I got some great advice: don’t spend much time asking people what they think about this or that. They won’t answer. If you want to ask people about something, you either have to let them know what you think first or explain in some depth why you’re ambivalent. I’ve done it both ways, and it’s true.
I don’t know that the meaning of the words like and follow are all that important. But my sense is that people want to know what you’re going to offer. If you deliver what they want or need — great links, interesting commentary, robust interaction — then the people who want or need you will follow and like you. But if you’re bland, don’t have much to say or pander, then you’re screwed and no amount of liking or following will help you.
(I don’t follow any “social media experts” outside of Greensboro because they rarely fill my needs, even though I get followed by them nearly every day. (And interestingly, unfollowed by them when they see I don’t reciprocate.)
December 8th, 2010 at 3:01 pm
Great post. That reciprocation is what journalists have such a hard time with. Being interested as well as touting our own interestingness. Listening as well as talking, and being willing to adjust what we’re doing based on what we hear. I call what we do Wizard of Oz journalism. (In a “pay no attention to what’s happening behind the curtain” sort of way — I wrote about that here: http://rjiblog.org/2010/09/15/so-long-wizard-of-oz-journalism-lets-make-margaritas/)
We have to be authentic, interested (and interesting) individuals to build real relationship, not just amass a following. Readers/users/community members are too savvy to be happy with just following. They expect to be part of the process, and to be heard.
December 9th, 2010 at 12:22 pm
As I mentioned in Twitter, you made some great points here. To extend on my Twitter post — I believe that readers are so used to just reading what we write and not doing much beyond that. I think they tend to adopt that same attitude via social media as well.
I think the key thing is to state clearly to readers that you want to engage with them. And to do so more than once. Reaching out to engage with readers won’t always lead to a response, but that doesn’t mean that readers don’t appreciate the effort. And eventually some of them will bite