Download - Chalkbeat's guide to engaging with readers
Across Chalkbeat, we aim for growth in four areas:
READERSHIP ENGAGEMENT
IMPACT ORGANIZATIONAL STRENGTH
Engagement is the work of maximizing our readers’
opportunities to access, learn from, interact with, contribute to, and act on our
journalism.
Who is part of the engagement team?
AnikaSarah G.
Potentially bureau community editors in the future
Audience research
Editorialengagement
Distribution &Partnerships
Impactmeasurement
Who is our audience and what do they care about?
How can we make our content more interesting and engaging? How can we build conversations and community around our content?
How can we make sure the people who need to see this story see it?
Is our work succeeding in giving people the information they need to make better informed decisions about education?
The engagement team is working to answer these questions:
● Design a reader survey
● Use digital storytelling tools (like interactive maps and quizzes) to make content more engaging
● Design or improve your newsletter strategy
● Figure out what content is having an impact
More specifically, we can help you...
To engage authentically with our readers, our engagement work has to be baked into our
journalistic process.
Your process as journalists is roughly broken down into these three steps:
Reporting Distribution ConversationThe reporting you do to produce content
How you get readers to read your content
How you build conversation and community around content
These questions help inform how we think about engagement at every step of the process.
Reporting Distribution ConversationThe reporting you do to produce content for readers
How you get readers to read your content
How you build conversation and community around content
What sources are you looking for, and how could we get creative about finding them? (This could be specific people, or communities of people.)
Who would be the most interested in this story?
Is there conversation that might (or should) happen after a story is published? If so, what should we do to facilitate or be a part of that conversation?
Is there an opportunity for — and would there be benefit from — letting the community know what you’re working on as you’re still reporting? Is there any danger in doing that?
Who do you think most needs — or would most enjoy — the story you’re telling and information you’re providing?
How can you build a community of people around this topic or story? What’s the value for them?
What can we produce that highlights our readers' voices, answers their questions and makes content more interesting and fun to interact with?
How can you make sure readers will see what you produce and will interact with it?
What can the audience DO with your story, or in response to it?
Of those questions, I think these are the most important to ask before beginning any story:
1. Who would be the most interested in this story?
2. How can you make sure they will see what you’ve produced?
3. What can readers DO with your story, or in response to it?
These are examples of engagement goals and strategies that you could set for REPORTING.
Bureau goal Strategies
Improve the visual presentation of data. Use digital storytelling tools like a timeline or infogram or interactive maps
Find ways to teach readers about a particular story or topic in a more engaging way.
Experiment with stand-alone quizzes and quizzes embedded in stories
Produce one project that involves teachers sharing their experiences or stories about the Common Core
Crowdsource teachers for bad vs. good examples of a Common Core-aligned question/problem and the standard it corresponds to
Improve diversity of sources. *Utilize CRM to input sources and keep track of how many times you’ve quoted someone
These are examples of engagement goals and strategies that you could set for DISTRIBUTION.
Bureau goal Strategies
Grow number of newsletter readers -- Promote newsletter in blurbs at the end of articles.-- Do weekly social media campaigns to encourage signups
Increase daily presence and engagement with users on social media
Implement the lineleader system, ensuring that one person every day is responsible for pushing content out on social media
Ensure that the people who need to see a story see it Email at least three places from distribution list after publishing a story
Grow readership among teachers Partner with local teacher groups, teacher unions and teaching programs to distribute Chalkbeat stories
These are examples of engagement goals and strategies that you could set for CONVERSATION.
Bureau goal Strategies
Highlight readers voices on a regular basis Once a week, ask readers a question and do a roundup of their responses.
Encourage productive conversation in the comments section
End articles with a guiding question for readers, respond to readers and ask follow up questions, monitor comments section for off-topic/inappropriate comments
Learn from readers how Chalkbeat can be improving its coverage and serving them better
Hold a reader feedback meeting or send our surveys to gather reader responses
Promote conversation between educators about teacher evaluations
Hold a workshop event when teachers are asked how would they evaluate their own ability to teach well
Reporting Distribution Conversation Pitch worksheet: Questions to ask when pitching a series, a project or an event.
Distribution checklist: A checklist of things to do after publishing a story
Twitter/Facebook tips: A basic how-to guide and some tips + tricks
Digital storytelling tools: How to create more engaging content.
Distribution lists: A comprehensive resource of people to distribute your work to in your state
Highlighting reader voices: Best practices on how to feature reader voices and build conversation and community around them
Resources you can use to help achieve your engagement goals.
*Coming soon: A guide to events, How to tap into online communities
Our policies on building conversation:
Comment policy
Social media policy
● Goal setting/measures of success
● Weekly reports
● Sarah as a resource
● Your feedback!
● MORI progress