How is your team’s productivity measured?
Unfortunately listening to your readers isn't usually considered a productivity measure…
This week, Francesca sat down with journalist and audience specialist Sebastián Auyanet to redefine the purpose of community engagement—and why AI might be the key to unlocking it.
Here are 3 critical shifts your newsroom needs to make right now:
1. Engagement Must Be Intentional Conversation 🙏
Sebastián argues that true engagement involves being "very intentional about having as much close as a conversation as you can have with the very audience that you are trying to serve."
Is that scalable? Maybe not, but remember, how you react to your readers who take the time to engage, will also be seen by others…
And stop chasing views and clicks for insight! Start asking directly. Sebastián shared a project where asking readers for questions resulted in 600 submissions and the top-performing story of the day. When the audience buys into the process, they are bound to come back. 🪃
2. The Aim is Survival 🪦
What is the ultimate goal of these strategies? Survival.
Your engaged audience aren't just consumers; they are:
♥️ Ambassadors for your brand.
💰 Supporters at a financial/monetisation level.
📰 Partners in your reporting and distribution strategy.
The more you know them, the more roles they can play in sustaining your organisation. 🌱
3. AI’s Real Job is to Free Up Your Time to: Talk!!! 🙊
AI won't magically solve your community relationship problems. In fact, Sebastián argues its greatest value is in allowing journalists to STEP AWAY from the efficient world of automation. The hard truth is that Journalists will do everything to avoid to go out and connect. Do you agree?
We should use AI to streamline bottlenecks, automate production, and eliminate internal bureaucracy. This repurposes valuable time for work that is inherently inefficient but critical: "You need time to engage with people in order to find where the problems are. There's no way to go around that."
If you’re ready to build relationships and hear ideas that will help sustain your newsroom, listen to the full episode.
And if you’re short on time? No worries. Simply browse the episode chapters below and choose the segments you're most eager to hear:
00:00 Introduction to Sebastián Auyanet
02:30 Defining Audience Engagement
07:43 The Aim of Engagement Strategies
09:26 Successful Engagement Projects
14:52 Measuring Success in Audience Engagement
21:03 Challenges in Audience Engagement
23:21 The Importance of Time and Workflow in Engagement
25:16 Defining Community Roles in Newsrooms
28:07 Effective Audience Engagement Strategies
31:07 Surprising Audience Interactions and Lessons Learned
35:17 The Role of AI in Audience Engagement
39:37 Future of Engagement: Streamlined Processes and Local Focus
42:55 Practical Engagement Hacks for New Journalists
