The Facebook algorithm change early in 2018 and its dramatic impact on traffic to news websites has many publishers rethinking their audience strategies.
We’ll cover the major referrers — search and social media — as well as ways of engaging more directly with your potential audience through tools like newsletters, podcasts and more. We’ll also explore the risks of depending entirely on social and search, and the new opportunities opening up in more direct approaches.
We’ll also give consideration to how to account for business models in your planning, as well as how to shift your strategy over time based on results and feedback. We’ll explore examples from a variety of publications, and spend some time in workshops applying those lessons to your own site’s strategies and objectives.
This intensive course in creating, planning and executing an audience engagement strategy is led by Adam Tinworth, a visiting lecturer in audience engagement and social media at City, University of London, whose students have gone on to senior audience engagement roles at The Telegraph, Mail Online, Metro, The Manchester Evening News, The Sun and the World Economic Forum.
The course will:
- provide the latest thinking in audience development;
- give guidance on both the psychological and technological underpinning for different strategies;
- deepen your understanding of when and how to use social and search;
- explore new avenues for audience development, as well as neglected older ones;
- look at how different segments of your audience can be addressed individually;
- explore the more direct — and owned — relationships you can have with your readers;
- provide space and time to start planning your own strategy, and
- give you access to ongoing updated resources online, extending the life of the course beyond the day in the room.
Getting there
This course will take place online over four 90-minute Zoom sessions on Monday 8 February, Monday 15 February, Monday 22 February Monday 1 March 2021. Start and end times of each session will be confirmed in an email the week before the course starts.
About Adam Tinworth
Adam Tinworth has more than five years' experience in training journalists in social media, SEO and digital journalism.
A journalist for 20 years and a blogger for 10, Adam now works as a consultant and trainer in digital journalism, social media and content strategy.
He is a visiting lecturer at City University on the journalism MA course.
