After Facebook’s News Ban in Australia, Media Organizations Must Start Owning Their Audiences

In what was perhaps one of Facebook’s most aggressive moves so far, the social media giant last week blocked all news content and links from its platform in Australia. All news pages, and even some government pages, were wiped clean and news organizations were unable to deliver critical information to millions of Facebook’s users. 

Facebook’s decision to ban news came after Australia’s government proposed to make big tech giants legally obligated to pay news companies for the content they host.

And while there has been some reconciliation between Facebook and the Australian government resulting in the recent restoration of news content, there’s a greater issue at hand: Big tech giants could abandon countries at any time, without any notice. 

In fact, a similar event happened back in 2014, when Google closed its news aggregation services in Spain

If there’s one takeaway we can learn from this issue, it’s that news media companies need to stop relying on big tech platforms to engage their audience and start building thriving, digital communities of their own. If they don’t, they risk losing the bulk of their traffic overnight.

The Dangers of Not Owning Your Audience

By allowing a third-party platform, like Facebook, to act as a middleman between your brand and its followers, you have no direct ownership over your audience. This scenario creates several challenges for your company.

First off, if you don’t own your audience members, you have limited access to their data. Having access to this first-party data will be the single most important thing for media brands in the coming months and years. Not to mention you can’t prevent your content from showing up near misinformation or falling prey to trolls on other platforms — and that can significantly damage your brand’s reputation.

Don't outsource traffic to social media

Meanwhile, you’re at the unpredictable whims and algorithms of a third party, which can disconnect you from your audience in the blink of an eye. That was certainly the case for Australian media companies when Facebook wiped news from its platform without hesitation.

Web traffic to Australian news sites began to drop significantly just hours after the ban,” reports Business Insider.

Media companies that initially thrived on the platform and had most of their website traffic travel through Facebook can no longer tap into that audience. 

With news making up only 4% of Facebook’s content, it doesn’t make sense for media business leaders to put their trust in a platform that has no loyalty to news companies.

Where Media Organizations Need To Go From Here

There’s no question that news companies need to stop relying on Facebook for growth and revenue. So what can shell-shocked publishers that depended on Facebook for traffic, or other big tech platforms for that matter, do to become self-sufficient?

The answer is surprisingly simple: They need to start rebuilding their communities on their own digital properties, where they have complete ownership over their visitors, their data and their revenue. Organizations that take control of their audiences can also encourage visitors to depend on their digital properties instead of social media for trusted content. 

“The long-term task for news [organizations] and journalists is to convince the public – especially young people – that it’s worthwhile to actively seek out professional news and journalism as part of their daily online lives, rather than simply reading whatever comes across their feed,” states Diana Bossio, a lecturer for media and communications at the Swinburne University of Technology.

If media companies can form strong, direct relationships with their digital community members on their own properties, they’ll be well on their way toward generating sustainable revenue.

Why On-Site Engagement Tools Can Help Media Companies Reclaim Their Independence

Between 2019 and 2020, consumers worldwide spent an average of 145 minutes on social media each day being, well, social. 

And this isn’t surprising: Engaging social experiences encourage people to connect and participate in ongoing digital conversations. But that doesn’t mean you need to rely on social media to engage your audiences socially.  

To encourage loyal audiences to form a direct path to your website or app, you can adopt moderated social engagement tools right on your digital properties. From built-in conversation and live chat widgets to live blog tools and personalized social feeds, there are several ways media organizations can embed social experiences into their websites or apps. 

Viafoura data reveals how social engagement tools help media companies activate and retain their audiences. Not only do engagement tools drive between 30% and 50% of all user registrations on Viafoura’s customer sites, but engaged users spend three times longer on media websites compared to unengaged users as well.

audience engagement tools increase ROI

With the help of Viafoura’s audience engagement solution, media organizations even saw up to a 50% retention rate for engaged users after two months of visiting a site.

audience engagement increases ROI

Conversation-based tools give users the addictive experiences of social platforms without sacrificing any of your company’s data, revenue or reputation to a third party. 

Facebook’s ban on news in Australia had countless media organizations feeling betrayed and abandoned by the tech giant. And just as this wasn’t the first time a big tech company trampled over media organizations, it certainly won’t be the last. 

By investing in building communities on your owned and operated digital properties, you can help your media company rise above the whims of tech giants and take control of your most valuable asset — your audience.

You Got a Registered User, Now What?

Conjure up an effective plan to keep your registered users interested and active in your community.

If you’re reading this, odds are yet another user registered to access your on-site engagement tools and content. While that’s wonderful news, don’t celebrate just yet. 

With third-party cookies crumbling due to data privacy regulations and browser limitations, the valuable data you get from a registered user is climbing. But here’s the catch: you need users to do more than just register for your services. You need them to stay active and profitable on your platform. 

Our data scientists  have found that registered users — who are engaged regularly on platforms through social experiences — generate five times the return visits per week compared to non-registered users. 

So what’s the holdup? Conjure up an effective plan to keep your registered users interested and active in your community. If you’re not sure where to start, we’ve crafted a list of the necessary next steps below. 

1. Educate Them

While your registered users may have access to a premium experience, they may not be aware of all the bells and whistles held within your platform. For this reason, it’s important to go out of your way to teach them about all the great features and services that can enhance their experiences, even after registering. 

As part of the Globe and Mail’s user onboarding process, education is a critical piece of the revenue-generating puzzle. More specifically, their five-step onboarding plan includes educating the end user on all features and services available. 

Want to increase awareness around your own platform’s content? Consider using on-site engagement tools to push notifications about new content to your users. Enable email or desktop notifications to encourage return visits, allowing your users to stay up to date with your latest and greatest pieces. 

If knowledge is power, the ability to control your users’ knowledge is a superpower.

2. Continue to Engage Them

Just because someone registers for your on-site engagement tools and content doesn’t mean that they’re loyal to your brand. In order to earn their loyalty, you need to continuously engage them throughout their entire lifetime as a registrant, and even afterwards. 

Use tools like live conversations, community chats, real-time blogging and ratings and reviews to create a socially immersive experience for your registered users. These social opportunities will spark loyal habits in your community, where they return to your site regularly. Everybody wins. 

“Based on a number of academic and business studies, we know that frequency of visits — one measure of loyalty — is correlated with a propensity to buy or renew a subscription, and it drives your advertising business,” says International News Media Associations researcher, Grzegorz Piechota.

So put the proper engagement tools in place to entice users to return to your platform frequently.

3. Track Them

84% of consumers want to be treated like actual people during their online experiences, not just another number on a dashboard. In other words, users want brands to cater to their individual needs. 

But how can you know how to cater to each user if you don’t have a good understanding of their unique behaviors? 

Here’s a quick tip: study their patterns as they move across your site so you can personalize their experience

Dig in to your on-site engagement tool metrics to understand what topics and content your registered users are gravitating towards. Based on your findings, you can customize their experience by serving up highly relevant content.

“It’s clear that the way to win customers is through cohesive and authentic interactions,” states an article on Ad Age. “That means the entire experience has to be fueled by data.”

4. Encourage Paid Subscriptions

For many organizations, a registered user doesn’t necessarily translate to a paid subscriber. You may have users who have registered just to use your on-site engagement tools. Although that may not be your endgame, it is a step in the right direction: towards a paid subscription.

For those of you who are aiming to boost paid subscriptions within your platform, highlight exactly why a paid subscription is valuable. Take it a step further by enhancing your conversion strategy. This involves targeting highly engaged users with personalized subscription offers.

As you track the behavior of your registered users, ensure that your engagement tool vendor is keeping an eye out for drops in engagement. You vendor should be able to notify your paywall provider of disengaged registrants, who can then send them special offers to remain engaged and to subscribe. 

Now go ahead and transform your ordinary registered user into a loyal, profitable community member. The sustainable community you’ve always dreamed of is but a few steps away. 

 

RELATED: You’ve Lost a Subscriber, Now What?

Browser-Based Push Notifications: A New Channel

It’s very powerful. It could become bigger than email. There’s no spam traps; it goes exactly to the people who signed up for it. You could move hundreds of thousands of people a day to a piece of content.”
— Joe Speiser

Many media organizations have used app-based push notifications, but few have discovered the potential of browser-based push notifications.

Real-time push notifications are not competing with email but enable you to enter into the space of personal forms of communication, effectively competing with SMS and other personal alerts.

Entrepreneur Ariel Seidman captures this well: Now that you can reach users through the browser on desktop and mobile, media organizations “can tap almost two billion people on the shoulder.”

And the timeliness and attention required for a push notification is completely different than an email newsletter or digest that readers may not read for a couple of days.

“It’s very powerful,” confirms Joe Speiser, Co-Founder and CEO of LittleThings. “It could become bigger than email. There’s no spam traps; it goes exactly to the people who signed up for it. You could move hundreds of thousands of people a day to a piece of content.”

Browser-based push notifications drive more return visits

They prompt people to engage more with a news organization by returning to an app or website. And the data confirms people who receive push notifications return more than those who do not receive notifications.

In a recent study, The Engaging News Project found more than 56% of respondents who receive push notifications said they went to the news organization’s website.

The Washington Post launched Chrome notifications in September, reporting 200,000 signups, which amounts to a 10% opt-in rate and a 30% click-through rate.

Media organizations can communicate 1:1 with their readers through this new channel and shape the kinds of discussions they want to have around their content. “The more time we put into these direct channels, the more people are opting in,” confirms Anthony Sessa, VP of Product & Engineering, Mic. “It’s our feed. We get to control that feed and it’s not a black box like the Facebook algorithm. We can drive the conversation the way we want at the time we want.”

Providing readers with the effortless option to receive personalized alerts ensures they will receive breaking news or targeted content even when they are not on site. With the ability to reach your audience directly, you can take an active approach to driving traffic, and increasing click-throughs, and time-spent on site.

Free Webinar on Demand

Focused on growing your online community? Looking to grow and monetize your audience? Watch our webinar: Best Practices for Developing your Onsite Community.

Watch Now
Exit mobile version