Opinion

How newspapers can use Facebook to build their audiences

Mark FurlerIt’s not just about the number of ‘likes’ says APN’s Mark Furler but the way the platform is used that can increase a paper’s audience.

Facebook fans can be a fickle lot. Feed them garbage and they will quickly spit you out. And so they should.

Just as media companies have to continually evaluate the needs of an audience, social media champions need to see what people are really talking about.

News editors talk about the water cooler test. If people are going crazy about State of Origin, that has to be part of the conversation. If there is a local star on X Factor or The Voice, that’s in the mix.

And there has to be variety. You can’t hit people over the head with hard, depressing news day and night. They want light and shade. They want to laugh, to be inspired.

The Sunshine Coast Daily has grown its Facebook page to almost 100,000 followers by engaging with its audience day and night.

The page can drive as much as 30 per cent of the traffic to the Daily’s website – especially during big, breaking stories.

When major things happen, people appreciate being alerted straight away – and they want to contribute to the unfolding story. A prime example was during a flash flood in March 2012 which saw roads into Mooloolaba awash during a 30-minute intense downpour. Not even police could report where roads were cut. But the Daily’s Facebook fans could – and within 10 minutes they made 50 posts – which formed the basis of the breaking website story.

The Daily’s Facebook page kicked off in 2008 and accumulated about 54,000 fans in the first three years. But it really took off in the past couple of years as reporters, editors and social media champions used it during major news events.

Some of the Daily’s best news photographs have come from fans in the right place at the right time.

Weekly photo competitions – where users get the chance to have their scenic local picture become the cover photo of the site – result in the contribution of awesome photos.

Ensuring our fans feel part of a community has no doubt contributed to APN’s Facebook growth to 175,000-plus fans.

With more than 97,000 followers, the Coast page has far more clout than The Courier Mail, which has 30,000 fans, while Sydney’s Daily Telegraph has just over 63,000 likes.

But of course it’s not just about the number of followers. APN’s Facebook network’s ‘talking about this’ figure has increased by a staggering 548 per cent in the past year (June 2012 to June 2013). That’s engagement.

A lot of our success has resulted from training given by APN Australian Respond Media social media coordinator Alexia Purcell to social media champions across our local sites.

Instead of simply posting a link to a story on our websites, she has focused on creating conversations around that item – whether a local news story, event write up or lifestyle piece.

We make posts on local and national news and events, we create conversations with debate topics and status questions, we embed videos and post photos and call for photos to be shared with us.

Surprise, delight, inform and keep people talking – that’s the secret to success in social media.

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