DIRECT ENGAGEMENT

 

One tactic we took to grow Global Journalist's loyal audience is to build relationships with others. We wanted to do this through direct contact.

 

As part of our Twitter strategy, we tweeted at and mentioned influencers, but our primary medium for this was email. We emailed individuals and invited them to engage with on social media, and we sent them an interactive PDF we created with links to our Ebola coverage.

 

Many of these individuals were previous sources or guests on the weekly radio show. We obtained sources' contact information through a database an editor had maintained for several years. We also reached out to current and former Global Journalist staff members and asked them to pass along sources' contact information.

 

We found other email recipients by looking at Google Analytics referrals. We tracked down contact information for several dozen people who had linked to or mentioned us on their websites.

 

We began to collect contact information for influencers and thought leaders who might be interested in our content. These include bloggers, professors and activists. This is an area that could certainly benefit from expansion in the future.