September 24, 2009

When Network Communications Inc. (NCI) implemented a web-first publishing strategy, it moved from "assembly-line-driven content" to a new "sharing model" built around blogs, Twitter, and Facebook. The move boosted the reach of NCI's sites by 31% in just two months.

NCI, publisher of print and online magazines for local real estate markets, provided web-based training for the new model not only for its editors and other staffers, but for its customers as well, said Dan
McCarthy, the company's CEO. The openness demonstrated NCI's commitment to the process while acknowledging that the publisher didn't have all the answers yet.

"It really is like getting naked with your customers," remarked Mitch Rouda, President at eMedia Consulting Group.

McCarthy detailed NCI's social media strategy and the workflow behind it during the keynote address at this week's Niche Digital Conference.

More competition for readers, less ad dollars

When considering how NCI needed to reinvent itself, McCarthy relied on a few key reader and advertiser patterns that should be apparent to any newspaper or magazine publisher:

1. Readers have a lot more sources for content
2. Advertisers have less money to spend
3. Advertisers say "Internet" when they mean they have no money

If NCI didn't adapt, McCarthy realized that his content teams would have to work harder just to maintain current levels of user engagement while his sales teams would bring in less revenue due to the adverse advertising conditions. But McCarthy saw an opportunity. "If we create more channels to engage in more ways with more of the market, we will increase our engagement, enhance our importance, and offer more cost-effective ways for marketers to use our brand to build their image, interact with customers and drive more business," he said.

Redefining digital reach

This policy was based on McCarthy's theory that "people who are interested in me are going to be interested in what I'm interested in."

"Every day, editorial and sales staff are meeting with members of the community we serve," he said. Those interactions and insights go undocumented and unshared in the traditional assembly-line model. Now, every time a staff member interacts with the community, it can become content, used to engage readers. Each brand and each staff member has a blog, a Twitter account, and a Facebook fan page to help them connect with the community, McCarthy explained.

This approach helps redefine the way media companies can measure digital reach:

Total digital reach = staff followers + brand followers + unique visitors + email addresses

Content marketing specialist Joe Pulizzi echoed this sentiment at the conference. "Be everywhere your community is instead of trying to bring your community to you," he said. Instead of having five editors who are cultivating followers for a single branded social media presence, a publication could have 15 staff members engaging different segments of the community via a multitude of community-oriented social media profiles or channels. NCI used this approach to increase unique visitors by 21% in two months and grow its total reach by more than 30%.

Social media's impact on community engagement

The move to the "sharing model" has had an interesting effect on how users consume NCI content. In short, the publication sites have become far less reliant on search engines to drive traffic. For instance, McCarthy's blog, ViralHousingFix, captures readers in the following ways:

30% direct navigation (going to the homepage, clicking on a tweeted link)
30% referring traffic (blogs, comments on blogs, other links)
23% search engines
17% other (email, promotional campaigns)

This is a substantial departure from the search-dependent ways of the past where search might account for more than 50% of visits.

This shift could benefit new models publishers are exploring for paid content. Consumers are more likely to pay for content recommended by someone they know and trust than they would be for something they found on Google.

This Article has been reprinted on NCI.com with permission from the publisher.

To interview Dan McCarthy, please contact Tami Gross-McCarthy at 212.750.5755 or via email at tami@TMGpr.com.

Media Contact:
Tami Gross-McCarthy               
TMGpr                         
212.750.5755                            
tami@tmgpr.com