Don't be old Tim. Don't be old.

     I remember it clearly.  I was sitting at my computer and listening to a handful of the 20-somethings complaining about our boss having no understanding of social media.  I nodded my head in agreement to prevent being grouped in with the "old guys" running the place.  Truth was I had no idea what they were talking about!  It was that exact moment that I began my quest in 2008 to get on Twitter and engage.

      The days of broad messages on mass media trying to reach a mass audience are essentially gone.  While television advertisements are still an important part of the portfolio, social media focuses on one key tactic—engagement.   

      The ability to interact directly with individual consumers and target messages for smaller groups of consumers has revolutionized mass marketing.  Three social media tools, in particular, grab my attention when it comes to recruiting and engaging viewers of my political show;  Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

       

     When I joined Twitter (see my work account here) in 2008, it was still gaining steam.  I was a complete idiot when it came to the actual engagement part.  I was concerned that no one was responding  to my tweets.  That was when I discovered this tab called “mentions” and I realized I had not responded to roughly 30 people who had asked me questions a month earlier!  You could term that one-way engagement and a one-way ticket out of the social media hall of fame!  Through the years, I have learned new tactics, learned from my mistakes and managed to gain more than 4000 followers.  I’m convinced it played a major role in the Washington Post naming me as one of the top state political reporters in the country.  Twitter allows you to follow and categorize the list of people you follow.  It’s instantaneous and allows a conversation back and forth in a matter of seconds.  People can favorite or retweet your 140 character messages.  In the eyes of consumers it appears as an endorsement, essentially.  In addition, it allows you to interact with people who have concerns directly.  I use it to float ideas for the show and find new guests.  Twitter now allows pictures and videos which can be very effective in reaching more people.  Using hashtags allows people to find your tweets through a simple search.

                Facebook is a different tool  but with a number of similarities in interacting with audiences.  In my experience, it seems the political world is much more attracted to interacting with reporters on Twitter.  Nonetheless, we created a Facebook page for our show.  We are not as good posting original content on Facebook as Twitter and only have 339 “subscribers” because of that fact.  It takes much more time to monitor the longer conversations on Facebook and we essentially produce a show with only two people.  You have to utilize your resources in a very efficient manner.  Facebook is very effective in reaching audiences simply because of its popularity and they are likely to spend more time conversing with fellow viewers.  It allows customers to view, comment, and share in a larger fashion than other social media sites. 

                For this exercise, I chose to pick a new social media tool I was not already using.  Despite my love for social media, I never signed up for Instagram until this week.  I never understood why I wanted a social media site that focused on pictures when I could post them on Facebook and Twitter.  I mean how many ways do I need to post a photograph, right?  However, it was interesting after inputting my information it automatically asked me if I wanted to connect with my contact list and within about a half hour I already had 38 followers and have five comments on the picture I posted of the television studio.  You can also cross post Instagram pictures on Facebook which helps get a better bang for your buck, sort of speak.   Social media audiences are attracted to images.  There’s plenty of evidence (see here and below) that adding photographs or links to your posts helps increase clicks and views, so this should be a great benefit to my social media portfolio. 

                It’s a brave new world of reaching audiences, and it takes a much broader approach.  Despite stretching my resources (time) over multiple platforms my engagement with viewers has never been so personal.  It’s fun for me and hopefully leads to more loyalty among my audience members as well.  Let’s be honest, as much as the news is the star in the mind of a journalist you still have to be liked by your audience!