using new and emerging media to reach your audiences · using new and emerging media to reach your...

Using new and emerging media to reach your audiences

Presented by

Stephanie PhilbrickCommunications ManagerVictoria Law Foundation

Wednesday 15 March 2017

• Established in 1967

• Focus of helping the community understand the law

• Better information

About Victoria Law Foundation

Different new and emerging media

• In brief: - Website design - Electronic direct mail (EDMs)

• More fully: - Social media as new media - Different social media platforms

• A quick look at: - Analytics

What we will coverNew and emerging media

Website design

Current best practices for website design include:

• Visual cleanness – lots of white space

• Easy navigation

• Well designed information architecture

• Suggesting additional content that may be of interest to the user (algorithmically driven)

Website designSome guiding principles

Electronic direct mail

• Electronic direct mail = EDM

• Integrated digital outbound contact with a customer or subscriber base

• Not a one-off email approach, but ongoing contact

Electronic direct mail More than a fancy name for email

• Can be highly effective at maintaining engagement and brand awareness

• Can also alienate existing audience members

• Many brands give in to the temptation for self-promotion content

• Tips to prevent this: - Keep content relevant to the needs of your audience- Be careful about frequency – don’t be seen as spam - Ensure that EDM content always offers genuine value to the recipient

Electronic direct mail More than a fancy name for email

• MailChimp – free and premium options

• Campaign Monitor – free and premium options

• Some website CMSs feature their own EDM management modules

• Some website CMSs support integration with the above external services through application programming interfaces (APIs)

Electronic direct mail Commonly used online services

Using social media to reach your audiences

Social mediaWhat are we talking about?• Websites, apps, or other online platforms that allow individual users to share their content and to interact

• Essentially, online self-publishing tools

• Are used by individuals and brands alike

Social mediaWhy are we talking about it?• These online spaces have thrived

• Offer a way of brands meeting audiences where they already are

• Allow true one-on-one communication with audience members

• Different platforms differ in capabilities and user-base

• A very cost-effective way of keeping a brand’s existence and visible and work top-of-mind

Social mediaSome familiar guiding principles Before hitting that post button:

• Be clear on your communication objectives

• Know who your audience is

• Convey key messages clearly and concisely

Social mediaSome familiar guiding principles Brand identity is everything

• Have a consistent look and feel

• Develop a brand voice

Social mediaSome newer guiding principles • Expect to engage one-on-one sooner or later

• Have a plan for if things go wrong

• Aim to understand each platform as a unique space with its own tone

• Add value – aim to be seen as a provider of valuable content

• Don’t spam your followers! They’ve been hard won

Social mediaMeasuring successHelpful success indicators to track include:

• For social media accounts - Number of followers/page likes

• For individual posts - Rate of engagement (through likes/comments/shares) - Reach (organic and total)- Trends in which content types and topics are performing best

Facebook Twitter Instagram LinkedIn Youtube

Social media platformsOverview: the biggies

• Mature platforms • Established user bases • Offer premium ($) marketing options for brand accounts

Snapchat Pinterest Who knows?

Social media platformsOverview: newer contenders

• Smaller or less mature platforms

• Still evolving and finding permanent user bases

• Less well developed brand marketing options (if any)

?

Social media platformsFacebook

Who’s on there? • General public (high market penetration) • Brands and businesses

Why? • To stay in touch with family and friends• To share content they’ve seen • To use Facebook Messenger

What types of content? • Text-only posts• Photos (hosted natively on Facebook) • Videos (hosted natively on Facebook)


What content works best? • Posts with text that include either an image, a video or a website preview

• Video content engages users much better if subtitled • Any post that occupies visual space in the user’s feed


Pros Cons

• Flexibility in content type • Audience segmentation and targeting • Ubiquity and market penetration of platform • New technological capabilities • Ease of use

• Limited organic reach – budget required to be effective

• Early signs of user discontent – something to stay aware of

Social media platformsTwitter

Who’s on there? • Some general public, but much lower market penetration than Facebook

Other key groups:• Journalists and news media • Politicians• Policymakers• Advocates It’s the above groups that make Twitter a critically important platform


Why? • To stay in touch with news as it happens• To remain aware of cultural conversations • To share news and other content they’ve seen


What types of content? • Text posts (limited to 140 characters)(Can now “thread” multiple posts for longer text content)

• Photos• Video content


What types of content work best?

• Posts with text that include either an image, a video or a website preview

• Video content engages users much better if subtitled • Any post that occupies visual space in the user’s feed • Don’t forget to hashtag


Pros Cons

• Consistently the most “newsworthy” of platforms

• Organic reach • Relative flexibility in content type • Ease of use • Relatively wide and transparent organic reach

• Character limit is both a blessing and a curse• Audience segmentation and targeting is very

limited compared to Facebook

Social media platformsInstagram

Who’s on there? • General public (growing market penetration), especially from younger demographic groups

• Brands and businesses

Why? • Became mainstream as a “lifestyle” platform – foodie culture• Has become more broad • Lifestyle-type content remains dominant

What types of content? • Images with caption text• Short videos with caption text



• Posts that are picked up by “trending” – exposes posts to a much wider audience

• Use hashtags to increase post display• Any posts that have been “geotagged” from a particular location,

particularly during events


Pros Cons

• A very good way of reaching younger people • Appeals to more visually inclined people – may

be under-represented on other text-focused platforms

• Only effective as a platform if you have ready, frequent access to visual content

• Algorithm limits organic reach – can’t be assured of how widely posts will be seen (likely to become worse under Facebook ownership)

Social media platformsLinkedIn

Who’s on there? • Individuals (high market penetration)• Employers• Industry bodies

Why? • Career networking and opportunities• Recruiting

What types of content? • Text-only posts (no limit in length)• Images with caption text• Web links



• Posts with text that include either an image, a video or a website preview

• Video content engages users much better if subtitled • Any post that occupies visual space in the user’s feed


Pros Cons

• Unparalleled as a channel for reaching individuals within particular professions or sectors

• Only effective as a platform if you have ready, frequent access to visual content

• Posts from “company” accounts are limited in organic reach

• Brand integrity issues with LinkedIn as a platform

• User discontent

Measurement and analytics

What are we talking about? Analytics

• Measurement! Just measurement

• Quantitative reporting modules that provide traffic and user data on online presences

• Examples: - Google Analytics- Social media platform-specific analytics- Website CMS inbuilt analytics modules- EDM inbuilt analytics modules

Google Analytics

• Objectively viewed as the “best” option

• Capable of centralising data from multiple presences if used to maximum benefit - Website: requires basic code to be embedded in order to track traffic - Social media: tracks posts most effectively that include a URL (weblink)- EDMs: tracks individual links in EDMs if set up through link-shortener

• Highly customisable dashboard allows supports deep data tracking and longer-term analysis

Platform-specific analytics

• Can be less reliable and independent; some platforms may inflate data

• Learning and maintaining a different package for each platform and medium can be time-consuming and inefficient

• If Google Analytics is an option, it is strongly recommended over individual platform packages

Wrapping up

In conclusion

• EDMs, if well executed, will keep existing audiences engaged

• Social media offers fantastic opportunities for connecting with different audiences in new ways

• The pace of change in the digital world is a real and enormous challenge

Thank you

using new and emerging media to reach your audiences · using new and emerging media to reach your...

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