Category Archives: Group Chat

First-Party Data Collection Is Mission Critical

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First-party data collection is fast becoming a top priority for many digital brands and publishers. For marketers, community builders, and publishers, first-party data matters because it brings a direct relationship. First-party data is provided directly by the end user to your company. There are four reasons why first-party data should become one of your top digital priorities this year.

Five Reasons Why First-Party Data Is Indispensable

Shifting your online growth efforts to focus on first-party data collection is vital for five key reasons. 

1. First-Party Data Offers Better Revenue Growth Potential

Gathering first-party data collection means you have a one-to-one relationship with your Community. Boston Consulting Group and Google found that first party data based strategies delivered a 290% increase in revenue. Even better, first-party data delivers significant cost savings! For marketers concerned about making every dollar stretch during economic uncertainty, first-party data is the best choice.

2. The Coming End of Third-Party Cookies

For years, third-party cookies quietly fueled billions of dollars of digital advertising. These cookies made it possible to track user activity across multiple websites. While third-party cookies made online marketing easy, they have raised numerous privacy concerns. As a result, the value of third-party cookies is going to collapse soon as Apple and Google (Who collectively control the most popular web browsers) end support for them.

For a detailed breakdown of the rise and fall of third-party cookies, see our infographic: 

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In other words, the old way of doing business – relying on cookies – is about to end. 

First-party data is the future.

3. Uncertainty About The Successor To Third-Party Cookies

Even as third-party cookies come to an end, there’s continued demand for personalized advertising. Google has been working hard to develop a replacement for cookies through its Privacy Sandbox initiative. Unfortunately, that effort has been delayed several times. There’s considerable uncertainty about whether Google’s new approach will work for advertisers.

4. Data Privacy Expectations Create New Expectations (and Penalties!)

Companies can no longer afford to take a casual approach to user data and privacy. GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in Europe and the CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) in California have decisively shifted privacy expectations. While it’s true that these legal changes do not directly affect every company, there’s no denying that privacy scandals and user expectations have shifted. It’s simply getting more difficult to fuel growth by relying on data collected by other companies.

5. Social Media Platforms Are Struggling

It’s no secret that the biggest social media platforms are struggling to keep users happy. Twitter and  Facebook are struggling to grow and fight harmful content. Advertisers are getting worried and looking for the exits. 

It’s time to reassess whether resources dedicated to social media can find a better return elsewhere – like growing your community directly on your website.

For a complete overview, see our post: Why The Largest Social Media Platforms Are Declining And What To Do Next.

The good news is that the vast majority of companies already have some amount of first-party data. For example, Google Analytics (or your preferred web analytics app) gathers some first-party data like audience demographics. Other company systems will have even more valuable data, such as purchase history records, interactions with the sales team, and more.

The Problem With “First Part Data Collection” Thinking

By this point, it’s clear that we see first-party data as valuable and vital to the future of online growth. Yet, there’s an attitude that might slow your progress substantially… The problem lies in the phrase “first-party data collection” itself.

Looking at first-party data as a resource to be collected is problematic. It encourages you to consider your users as a mineral to be mined. That kind of thinking plays well in a spreadsheet. There’s just one problem with the “collecting data” mindset – it deemphasizes relationships and humanity.

Your audience needs to look forward to visiting your website to succeed in the long term. Your audience needs to be happy to volunteer information, comments, and more with you. In short, they need to trust you. And that trust from your audience needs to be earned by providing value.

Long-Term Strategies To Earn First-Party Data That Your Audience Will Love

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Earning audience permission to obtain first-party data takes some work. The days of relying on sneaky tactics and hiding permission in the fine print are ending. Instead, you need to build and sustain trust from your audience in the following ways.

Bring People To Your Website With Content

To earn first-party data, you need to bring people directly to your website or app. For most companies, the single best way to attract people to your website is to recommit to quality content marketing. Give your audience practical examples, inspiration, and even entertainment! Those strategies will help to succeed online.

Creating compelling content that serves your audience and meets the needs of search engines takes time. Fortunately, you can use Arena Live Blog to accelerate the process. Get the details in our guide to improve your SEO with your live blog.

Content on its own isn’t enough. After all, competitors may find ways to create similar content. The better approach is to enrich your content with engagement technology and community.

Deepen Relationships With Engagement Technology

The most successful personalization requires significant data. Obtaining that data requires significant interaction with individual users. If your users come to your website, view content for a matter of seconds, and then disappear, you’re going to face an uphill climb to gather first-party data.

What if you had a way for your users to spend 5 minutes, 10 minutes, or even an hour on your website? You don’t have to create a streaming service or YouTube clone. Instead, you just need the right engagement technology: Arena Live Chat and Arena Live Blog. Arena’s engagement technology is fast and takes minutes to install on your website.

Transform Your Website Into A Community Hub

Once upon a time, companies viewed their website as digital brochures. That approach will not cut it anymore, thanks to social media. Connection and community have become vital. However, social media platforms are increasingly becoming toxic sources of misinformation. 

Your website can offer something different – a brandsafe community experience for your users. For example, a news publisher can offer exclusive Q&A experiences with award-winning athletes and business leaders. Arena’s moderation features mean that you can quickly stop profanity and other inappropriate content.

Offer Live Experiences To Your Audience

Virtual events, live shopping, and hybrid events are some of the most popular ways to drive revenue and engagement with your audience. Not sure what kind of live experience to offer your audience? Take a few minutes to review your analytics to see what kinds of content your audience is already most interested in. That will give you a starting point to craft a live experience.

Live Shopping

Live shopping is the marriage of entertainment with shopping! Industry research shows that live shopping experiences are already driving billions of dollars in spending. Don’t have the right on-screen talent available in your team to get started? You can partner with online influencers to host the event for you. Live shopping, sometimes also known as livestream shopping, can include product unboxing, demos, and product launches.

To discover more ways to use live shopping for growth, learn the best way to make live shopping successful.

Unique Experiences 

Exclusive experiences and connections are one of the key reasons why people pay to go to conferences and other events. One-of-a-kind experiences – like an Ask Me Anything with an industry leader – are a powerful way to attract your audience. As the event unfolds, your audience will share a wealth of first-party data in the live chat.

Grow Through Other Events Your Audience Cares About

Organizing your own events is just one way you can use to grow. In 2022, Arena quickly built an online hub dedicated to the World Cup: How We Created Live World Cup Coverage for Every Game. 

To apply this live experience strategy to your business, find out what your audience cares about and then look at upcoming events you can leverage. Effectively curating existing content – and adding your own perspective on that news – remains a great way to create compelling content.

Planning and executing a successful online event series doesn’t have to feel scary. Arena’s resources are here to help you to launch events. Use our free virtual events checklist to plan a stress-free experience that grows your audience (and yields plenty of first-party data simultaneously).

How To Make It Easy To Earn First Party Data, Week In And Out

As you gather more insight into what makes your audience tick, it’s easier to connect with them. That means less guesswork and more conversions without constantly increasing your budget. To keep your audience engaged, you need content, experiences, and community. Use Arena to transform your website into a digital community where your audience is happy to keep coming back. 

6 Ways To Grow The Bottom Line

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Publishers are under growing pressure to improve profitability and engagement. Social media platforms, streaming services, and other options compete for attention. There’s a way for publishers to win in the 2022s: invest in first-party data. 

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What Is First Party Data?

In simple terms, first-party data is information that a publisher directly obtains from a reader, subscriber, or member of an audience. The following first-party data examples show what this includes:

  • Website Analytics. Many publishers are already collecting data points like clicks, page views, and time on site through their website analytics platform. 
  • Paid Subscriber Data. When a person buys a subscription to a publication, a publisher gains more data about them, including their location, news preferences, and media preferences.
  • Email Engagement. Publishers that send out emails to their subscribers quietly gather data with every open and click.
  • Event Participation. If a publisher offers live events (especially if the event has a digital component), you can gather first-party data from those events. 

Publishers, especially those with paid subscriptions, have long collected data on their audience. So, why does first-party data matter today more than ever? The answer has to do with the death of third-party cookies.

The Death of Third Party Cookies: What It Means For Publishers

Apple and Google have decided to end support for third-party cookies in their web browsers. That’s critically important because these companies control most (approximately 80%) of the world’s web browser market. If web traffic is important for your publication, then take note of these changes.

Third-party cookies have fueled the growth of digital advertising for over a decade. This technology allows advertisers to track user behavior across multiple websites. That’s why consumers will see personalized ads for products they’ve viewed long after they close a product page.

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Want the full story on cookieless future? See our post: The Future of Cookies In Marketing Strategy

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When third-party cookies fade away, it will make life challenging for advertisers. Specifically, advertisers will have to change their standard processes. There’s another reason why advertisers are looking to make a change – growing problems in social media. Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms have been hit by multiple scandals, growing misinformation, and harmful content.

The changes create a perfect storm that creates a once-in-a-generation opportunity for publishers. Unlike other online properties, many publishers have strong commitments to quality content and curation. That matters because advertisers are hungry for brand-safe advertising opportunities.

While the growth opportunity is exciting, there’s a caveat: advertisers have high expectations.

They expect tremendous data to guide their decisions and effectively leverage programmatic advertising. Without significant first-party data on your audience, connecting with what publishers are looking for will be tough. 

6 Ways Publishers Can Lift Revenue With First-Party Data

Earning buy-in from management and colleagues to implement first-party data effectively is easy when you know the benefits. Fortunately collecting and using first-party data about your audience and subscribers unlocks new ways to increase revenue. 

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1. Drive Online Audience Growth

A publisher with a steadily growing, engaged audience can weather nearly any storm. First party data directly supports growing your audience, pageviews and engagement. For example, you’ll better understand which content and experiences your audience wants. Further, you can test and optimize word of mouth and sharing campaigns to grow your audience.

2. Lift Paid Subscription Growth Steadily

A growing number of publishers, large and small, are setting up paywalls or restricting parts of their content for paying customers only. Persuading more of your audience to purchase a subscription requires a detailed understanding of what customers value.

The secret to lifting subscriber revenue lies in getting granular and seeking unexpected patterns. For example, look at which content paid subscribers access when they first activate their paid account. Supplement this usage data with surveys to dive even deeper into what subscribers value.

To illustrate the impact of first-party data on growing paid subscribers, consider the following pitches to subscribers.

  • Subscription Pitch Without First Party Data.

“Flash Sale. Sign up today for 50% off your annual subscription.”

  • Subscription Pitch With First-Party Data.

“80% of staffers in Albany read our news coverage. Sign up today to keep up with what political insiders are readying.”

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First-party data also helps you launch much more targeted appeals to different audience segments based on how they engage with your publication.

3. Improve Editorial Quality And Decisions

Publishers have endless opportunities to decide which stories to cover and how to cover them. Professional judgment and experience play an essential role in these editorial decisions. 

What if you could supercharge your editor’s judgment with premium data?

That’s precisely what is possible when you leverage first-party data. Start with general types of data, like reviewing the content that attracts the most views and shares. First-party data analysis can take you a step further. You can also identify content engagement by segment (i.e., which content is valued by paying subscribers vs. anonymous website visitors).

With data as a guide, it is easier to update your publishing plans to keep your audience coming back for more. These editorial improvements will translate to more pageviews and higher engagement, key ways to make your publication more appealing to advertisers.

4. Increase Ecommerce Revenue

Selling subscriptions isn’t the only way for publishers to generate revenue. Media companies have offered merchandise (e.g., apparel, notebooks, books by your staff) for years. Digital products, like audio/video recordings and NFTs (non-fungible tokens), represent another opportunity to sell.

First-party data helps support Ecommerce growth in a couple ways: 

  • You can make better decisions about which products to create and promote by looking at audience behavior. 
  • Second, first-party data supports more effective segmentation and personalization when promoting products for sale.

5. Grow Loyalty With Events and Experiences.

Bringing your audience together through events and community experiences is a powerful way to deepen connections. Community experiences also create a moat around your publishing business that will be difficult for other companies to copy.

Community – the network of relationships formed around your content and events – is an important intangible asset. When your audience sees your publication as a community hub, they’re less likely to switch to alternatives. Over time, such increased loyalty translates to higher renewal rates and fewer cancellations.

6. Increase Value for Advertisers

Winning advertiser dollars for your publication is easier when you have robust first-party data. You can offer advertisers a wider variety of segmentation options based on how the audience engages with your content.

For example, an advertiser might want to appeal to new parents. With first-party data, you can filter your audience for people interacting with content related to families, fertility, and related topics. That segment is far more likely to convert for the advertiser compared to a more generic segment based on age and gender.

How Publishers Can Start Getting More First-Party Data Right Now

It’s clear that earning first-party data is valuable and can drive up revenue for publishers. Use the following tactics to get more first-party data.

1. Audit The First Party Data You Have

Most publishers already have some form of first-party data in their systems. The challenge is that this data tends to be scattered across multiple teams and apps. To assemble this data, start by looking at website analytics, mobile device analytics (e.g., mobile web and mobile apps if applicable), and email marketing analytics.

Once you have identified all of your first-party data resources, you can start to build a “single source of truth” for subscribers. This means organizing your data to track a subscriber’s activities across multiple devices, channels, and experiences.

2. Allocate Resources For First Party Campaigns & Testing

Accumulating first-party data is potential growth only. To gain the benefits of first-party data, committing to acting on it is vital. This could be as simple as setting a goal of creating at least two tests per month based on first-party data. Whether you start small or invest deeply in data, 

3 Use Engagement Technology To Grow Website Engagement

Most publishers are already gathering website analytics and email data. While valuable, those sources of first-party data are more common. Therefore, it’s more difficult to build an advantage based on that data.

Adding Arena Live Chat and Live Blog to your website gives your audience new ways to engage. Instead of simply looking at pageviews, you can look at chat interactions and chat logs. As you offer more online community experiences that resonate with your audience, you’ll grow audience loyalty and get more data.

Discover How To Get More First-Party Data With Arena

The end of third-party cookies will change the world of online advertising and publishing. That change creates a new opportunity for publishers to grow their audiences and attract advertisers. 

The essential ingredient is growing your online audience and continuously gathering first-party data. Find out more about Arena’s solutions for publishers.

First Party Data For Brands: Ways To Lift Revenue

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First-party data is quickly becoming the new opportunity to fuel personalization, customer engagement and online growth. Publishers are already starting to use first-party data to deliver customized experiences to their audience. For retail and ecommerce brands, there’s a tremendous opportunity to grow with first-party data. 

What Is First Party Data Anyway and Why It Matters

The best way to explain first party data is through a quick story. Imagine you’re running digital marketing at an apparel company and you’re looking for ways to sell more shoes this quarter. You have many different options and resources to choose from. One decision you’ll have to make upfront is what kind of data to leverage.

Consider planning your campaign by reviewing past customer activity. For example, you may look at website analytics to see which product pages are already receiving the most traffic. In addition, ask your customer service colleagues to summarize what kind of questions and complaints you get. All of this data comes directly from your customers, website visitors, and email subscribers. That’s all first party data.

First party data is often contrasted with another popular type of marketing data: third party data. For many years, digital marketers have used third party data for growth. Third party data is customer data generated by other companies. While this type of marketing data is popular, it’s becoming less useful for two reasons.

There are two reasons why companies are moving away from third party data. First, it is less transparent to consumers and can result in negative feedback. Second, Google and Apple are ending support for third party cookies (a popular technology that enables many third party marketing campaigns) in their browsers. 

First party data has multiple applications regardless of how you sell products. Let’s take a closer look at some of the most powerful use cases.

Retail and Ecommerce Use Cases For First Party

At its simplest, first party data is data that you gather directly from your customers, website visitors and others who interact with your brand online. Leveraging first party data makes it easier to achieve several sales and marketing goals.

Achieving Marketing Goals With First-Party Data

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Systematically using first party data makes it easier to achieve your digital marketing growth goals. 

Optimize Your Content Marketing Efforts

First party data tells you what content, links and assets your audience finds the most engaging. For example, start your analysis by reviewing your top 10 pages by traffic for the past 90 days. Ideally, focus on the pages that have driven the most conversions (e.g. purchases, website signups etc). 

Based on what you find, you can make better decisions about your content marketing strategy. An athletic apparel ecommerce company might find that their ultimate guide for marathon running drives the most conversions. Based on that insight, you may create more content to attract marathon runners to your website. 

Reduce Digital Marketing Expenses

Success in digital marketing requires the patience to experiment with new ideas, technologies and campaigns. The downside is that many marketing tests may not deliver significant results. When marketing budgets come under pressure, you may be asked to stretch your marketing dollars further. First-party data can play a powerful role in lifting marketing efficiency in the following ways.

Optimize Referral Campaigns

Word-of-mouth referrals are one of the most powerful ways to grow online. That said, sending out a blast message to your entire database is unlikely to work.

It’s far better to focus referral campaigns on your VIP customers – the ones who buy over and over again. First party data can help you identify your best customers which means you can create a far more targeted referral campaign.

Boost Loyalty Marketing Efforts

Many retail companies have loyalty programs because these efforts effectively encourage repeat business. The data you gather from buyers through your loyalty program is one of the most valuable forms of first party data. 

Analyze the buying patterns of your top customers and then use those patterns to inform your new campaigns. For example, you may find that 80% of repeat shoppers start by buying low-priced products. Use that insight and prepare a loyalty campaign to encourage one-off buyers to buy that product.

Increasing referrals and loyalty sales don’t require additional advertising so they’re a great choice when budgets are tight. You just need to focus on analyzing your customer data and executing campaigns based on those insights. 

Achieving Sales Goals With First-Party Data

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Some businesses are not focused on online sales. For example, industrial products, vehicles and enterprise software are rarely bought in a matter of clicks. In these more complex sales, first party data can support your sales goals.

Identify High Interest Sales Leads

Sales professionals only have so many hours in the day. First party data can play a role in lifting the efficiency of sales conversations. An analysis of first-party data can identify the prospects who are the most engaged with your content and may be open to a sales call.

Earn Attention With Relevant Content

Complex sales can take weeks, months or even years to close. Staying in touch with prospects during these longer customer journeys takes a lot of work! You can only send a “checking in” style email so many times. 

First party data can support the nurturing process. You can see which content your customers access in the lead up to purchase and afterward. As a result, you can craft follow up messages focused specifically on content that resonates with buyers.

From First-Party Data To Deeper Engagement

Simply gathering and using first party data will give you an immediate advantage in making sales and reaching your marketing goals. 

Ultimately, your goal isn’t really focused on getting data (even highly useful data like first party data). You want to build an audience of people who look forward to visiting your website regularly. An audience who finds insights, connections and experiences all through your company is one that will stay loyal. 

The secret to gaining first party data and deep engagement requires the right technology. That’s where Arena Live Chat technology comes in. You can install it in just a few minutes and get up and running. Discover more about how Arena can help you grow ecommerce revenue!

Start A Sustainable First Party Data Strategy: 5 Principles

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The coming end of third-party cookies means brands and publishers need to evolve. The road forward lies in embracing first-party data. First-party data refers to information your organization has collected from customers and users. As third-party cookies are ending, brands should focus on first-party data.

Got First Party Data Party FOMO?

First-party data is crucial to engaging your audience and customers. It gives you a rich understanding of what your audience wants. Even more powerful, collecting first-party data means you’re building a direct relationship with customers and audience members.

Despite these benefits, many organizations have yet to use first-party data fully. Several reasons for that slow adoption include a need for the right technology. In some cases, first-party data may be viewed as a marketing technology project rather than the lifeblood of growing your audience.

Google’s research shows that investing in personalization offers excellent results. Specifically, the company found “a personalized approach increased the brand’s ROI between 12% and 35%, depending on the marketing channel.” Thriving in the new digital reality defined by first-party data is vital. Use the following strategies to build first-party data into your business.

5 Strategies To Create Sustainable First-Party Data

Charting your path to audience engagement and growth in a first-party world starts with the right approach. 

1. Define your goals for first-party data

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Gathering and using first-party data will take time, effort, and resources. Before making those investments, it’s wise to take a few moments to clarify your goals. Ideally, your first-party data objectives should be linked to other organizational goals (e.g., revenue, engagement, etc.).

We recommend creating a mix of quantity and quality goals to inform your approach. For example, you might set a goal of growing your online audience of registered community members by 10,000 people. To ensure your community is growing effectively, add a quality goal, such as at least 20% of registered users making a posting on your website once per month.

For more guidance on using community tactics and technology to grow, see our post: Ways To Use Community Tactics & Tools To Hit Your Goals.

2. Answer the “what’s in it for your audience” question

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It’s not 2010 anymore – expectations around user privacy and legal changes have changed the conversation. In other words, the days of relying on sneaky methods to gather data from users are over. Instead, success in a first-party data world means offering a compelling value exchange to your audience in return for their data.

Your approach to earning first-party data from your audience will be more successful by making multiple offers to your audience. For example, a consumer brand might offer a discount code or access to a sale in return for first-party data. Discount offers aren’t suitable for every situation, though.

Another way to answer the “what’s in it for me?” questionis to focus on your community. For instance, you may offer exclusive online events with influencers, company leaders, and others to those who sign up for events. In this way, your audience receives a clear benefit – insights and new connections – in return for providing their data.

3. Build your first-party technology platform

Once you have your goals and value proposition, it’s crucial to have the right technology in place. Arena has a suite of solutions to help you earn and use first-party data.

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Arena Live Chat

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Use Live Chat to create engaging community experiences directly on your website. Arena Live Chat is a lightweight application that can be added to any site in minutes. When you use live chat to offer exclusive experiences, you’ll give your audience a reason to keep coming back to your website. Over time, you’ll gather more data to understand your audience’s preferences better so you can connect better with them.

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Arena Live Blog

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Are you a publisher covering breaking news for your audience? Keep your audience focused on your website as the place to get live updates rather than social media. Arena also makes it easy to pull in social media posts that meet your brand guidelines.

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Arena Personas (Beta)

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Arena Personas (Beta) make it easy to segment your audience based on their behavior (e.g., clicks on content) and interests. It’s a powerful way to organize all the first-party data you’re gathering through live chat and live blog experiences.

4. Apply “test and learn” thinking to first-party data

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Marketers and publishers have relied on third-party cookies for over a decade. Marketing systems, habits, and processes have all been built to leverage those cookies. Making the switch to a first-party data world wouldn’t happen overnight.

Ease the pressure on your time to adopt a test-and-learn philosophy. It may take trying plenty of new ideas to generate and use first-party data. Then review what’s working every 90 days before making additional changes. 

To illustrate this strategy, let’s look at two parts of your audience defined by their first-party data.

Audience Segment 1: Product Interest

For example, you might create a test assuming that people who have clicked on multiple product pages in a short period are ready to buy. You can test that idea by emailing offers to that part of your audience. If they don’t respond, it may be time to test a different marketing message or portion of your audience. 

Audience Segment 2: High Chat Engagement

You may find that people who view product pages don’t fully appreciate the value of your brand yet. In that case, you may want to test a campaign with a different segment – like audience members who have participated in several chat sessions – responding to your messages better.

5. Update your measurement processes

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The way your organization measures the value of first-party data will need to evolve. Examine how marketing campaigns and tests using first-party data compare to other efforts. 

While measurement is essential, a word of caution is in order. As mentioned above, first-party data centric marketing may be new to your organization. Keep your expectations reasonable as your team transitions to first-party data. Creating a digital community on your website will take time to pay off.

Equip Your Organization For First-Party Data

Thinking about the role of first-party data will only take you so far. The next step is to get out there and gather data from your audience. Simply asking for permission to gather data can help, but that’s an incomplete solution.

You also need engagement technologies like Arena Live Chat and Arena Live Blog to offer experiences for your audience. 

How publishers can grow engagement and reduce cancellations

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As a publisher, you take pride in your content. Your staff and freelancers put countless hours into production. 

Yet, industry studies estimate that 40% of your subscriber base paid for a subscription but do not access your publication. These sleeper subscribers are quietly hurting your publishing business in several ways.

When nearly half of your subscribers fail to engage in your content, you can lose revenue. Sleeping subscribers are at a greater risk of churning out, causing revenue instability. Second, a significant number of sleeper subscribers means you are losing advertising revenue. 

What happens if your publication overlooks sleeper subscribers and continues business as usual? The disengaged subscribers will only cause compounding problems over time.

Getting The Silent Treatment From Your Subscribers

As the months and quarters roll by, sleeper subscribers who fail to engage with your publication cause even more problems. 

Compounding Losses in Advertising Revenue

Advertisers want to connect with a living, breathing audience. When a third or more of your paid subscribers ignore you, it becomes more challenging to fulfill advertiser needs.

Some publishers try to solve this problem by building their audience further, but that’s a brutal way to grow. It can lead to a shallow relationship with your brand. Lower levels of engagement mean less trust in your brand and less engagement with ads.

Lost Opportunities For Organic Growth and Referrals

A trusted recommendation from a friend tends to be trusted far more than any kind of influence. According to BrightLocal, 49% of people trust personal recommendations from friends and family. 

Your disengaged subscribers are unlikely to share links or offers with people they know. Since you have fewer referrals to fuel growth, your publication will depend on other, more costly efforts to sustain growth.

Declining Staff Morale

Your editorial staff thrives on feedback and engagement with the audience. When they see a fall in audience engagement, staying highly motivated at work is tricky. This type of employee disengagement is potentially even more severe when considering why people choose journalism as a career.

Many people join journalism because they want to share a passion, make the world a better place or connect with people. When the audience goes quiet, the inner fire that keeps your staff coming back to work each day starts to dim. 

There are many costs when a large portion of your audience sleeps on their subscription. Growth gets complicated because word-of-mouth marketing stalls. Employee morale falls further because less feedback from the audience. Growing advertising revenue becomes more difficult. 

Fortunately, there are several ways you can wake up your audience and bring them back to full engagement.

Firing Up The Imagination Of Your Subscribers The Right Way

All of your subscribers once saw value in your publication. Then, somehow, life got in the way, and they became distracted. The following strategies can help you to reduce your sleeper audience faster. The best part? These strategies don’t rely on magical thinking or unsustainable tactics. 

Strategy 1: Transform your website with engagement technology

Like it or not, social media has conditioned your audience to seek instant gratification. Catering to those expectations doesn’t mean you have to recreate Facebook. However, offering a sense of connection between your audience members does matter.

Start by adding Arena Live Chat to your website. This technology makes it easy to host interactive social experiences for your audience. Further, Arena has built-in moderation features to keep the discussions brand-safe. Engagement will naturally increase when your audience sees your website as a place to connect with exciting information and friends.

The next opportunity is to leverage Arena Live Blog to fully leverage breaking news stories. Whether you cover elections, sports events, conferences, or trials, your audience is hungry for trustworthy information. With a live blog, you can increase audience engagement by rapidly publishing updates as a story evolves. Arena live blog makes it easy to manage multiple contributors so you can keep workload levels reasonable.

With these two technologies in place, growing audience engagement gets easier. Instead of reading a digital newspaper, your audience will see your website as a social experience revolving around the news. 

Strategy 2: Improve audience engagement with segmentation

The next strategy to lift subscriber engagement starts by looking at your audience with more nuance. Start by looking at the most extreme segments of your audience: the highly engaged and the sleepers. For simplicity, let’s define highly engaged as above-average engagement (e.g., if the above subscribers have ten pageviews per month, anyone with more than ten pageviews would be tagged as highly engaged). Sleeper subscribers would be those with zero pageviews over the last 60 days.

Analyzing your highly engaged subscribers

Highly engaged subscribers are the lifeblood of your business. It’s important to start with these subscribers and understand their behavior. Your goal is to identify patterns and pain points in your subscriber’s life so that you can create even more super fans!

Use the following questions to understand better what your highly engaged subscribers have in common:

  • Referral source. Start by seeing where your top subscribers come from. For example, a business-focused publication might acquire its most engaged subscribers from LinkedIn.
  • Promotions. Many publications run promotions and discount campaigns. The question is this: are those campaigns generating truly engaged subscribers or not? If the answer is no, you may need to rethink your campaigns.
  • Onboarding experience. Examine the types of content that new subscribers tend to spend the most time during their first month on your platform. For example, are they connecting with certain high-profile writers or personalities? If so, consider doubling down on those subscribers.
  • Social engagement. Look at social actions like sharing links to articles, and social reactions (e.g., likes and thumbs up) to see what kind of content resonates with VIP subscribers.
  • Editorial patterns. Analyze the top topics and sections that pull in your best subscribers weekly. For instance, if you find that sports coverage or certain columnists successfully attract high engagement, it may be wise to promote those assets to new subscribers.

With these insights in mind, you’ll be equipped to run new data-driven campaigns to improve onboarding with new subscribers.

Uncover the causes of subscriber discontent

Analyzing your sleeper subscribers may feel a bit uncomfortable. These people don’t see much value in your publication, as shown by their lack of interaction. Despite this fact, it is crucial to understand the cause of subscriber discontent for two reasons.

Churn Risk

Disengaged subscribers are likelier to cancel their subscriptions, especially during economic downturns. 

Improve Future Subscriber Acquisition

There may be certain messages, promotions, and tactics attracting the wrong type of subscribers to your business.

Use a mix of analytical and qualitative methods to understand why these subscribers are not engaging with your content. The prompts below can help you to design your analysis.

Data Questions 

  • Do sleeper subscribers have any common demographics? 
  • Are there any patterns regarding when or how the subscriber disengaged? (For example: you may have offered in-depth coverage of the World Cup, which turned off subscribers uninterested in that event)
  • Did the subscriber submit any tickets to customer service? What were the requests?

Qualification Questions

Use these questions as free-form questions in a survey or add them to a script if you call subscribers:

  • What attracted you to subscribe to the publication? (For example – was the person brought in through a promotion or subsided based on event-based news like an election?)
  • How do you like to access the publication (e.g., desktop, mobile, app, email)?
  • If we could make one change to make the publication more appealing to you, what would that be?
  • Do you subscribe to other publications? If so, which ones?
  • Do you know anyone subscribes to the publication? (This question helps you to understand the quality of community engagement).

Strategy 3: Add digital events and hybrid events to the subscriber experience

In strategy one, you learned about Arena Live Chat. Digital events are one of the most valuable ways for publishers to use chat with their subscribers. Take a look at the following ways to use digital events, and chat, to grow engagement with your subscribers.

VIP Guest Ask Me Anything

As a publisher, you’re probably connected with industry leaders, elected officials, sports stars, and other fascinating people. Put those connections to work by creating a virtual event with a star guest. Make it a win for the guest by promoting them, such as an actor’s upcoming movie release.

Arena Live Chat offers a blend of automated and manual moderation features to keep the chat brand safe and comfortable for all participants. That means your audience can focus on engaging in the event rather than dealing with online trolls.

Exclusive Access To Premium Content

Examine your publication’s upcoming coverage and plan a virtual event around your premium coverage. For instance, Forbes could offer a virtual event about trends in wealth in anticipation of their annual “Forbes 400” feature on the richest people in America.

Enrich Offline Events With A Chat Experience

Many publications organize or participate in-person events. One challenge with these events is that they may not be convenient for all subscribers to attend. One way to increase subscriber engagement is to offer your subscribers a complimentary virtual event ticket for your top events.

Building Strong Subscriber Engagement For The Long Term

You don’t have to live with the frustration of disengaged subscribers. Use the three strategies outlined in this guide to understand what’s working and what’s not working for your audience. You can then leverage Arena’s platform to give your audience more ways to meet each other and trust your brand more deeply.

Stop News Avoidance Now: 3 Engagement Principles

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Many publishers still offer a standardized news experience that looks the same to everybody. That “one size fits all” experience is there for a reason – it’s inspired by the print experience that offered a uniform page to every subscriber. That’s no longer enough to connect with audience preferences that revolve around data-powered personalization.

The way to win audience engagement and subscribers requires personalization and data. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube present customized experiences based on the user’s connections and preferences. Other online services like Netflix and Amazon have also leveraged personalized experiences to grow engagement. 

There’s a clear ROI to investing in personalization. Industry research suggests that high levels of personalization can lift conversions by 30% or more. That means increased subscriber sign-ups and fewer cancellations, key ways boost revenue and profitability.

Offering personalized experiences helps to lift customer retention and audience engagement. For publishers, personalization is also vital because publishers are facing a crisis of confidence and trust.

Misinformation And Declining Trust: An Existential Crisis For Publishers

Growing audience engagement and subscriptions become difficult when audiences do not trust a publisher on a fundamental level. The Pew Research Center has found that trust in national news organizations fell from 76% in 2017 to 58% in 2021. The same research also found trust is falling for local news from 82% in 2016 to 75% in 2021. Distrust isn’t the only challenge, either.

The Reuters Institute for the study of Journalism found that 72% of news industry leaders found that news avoidance is a challenge. Avoiding the news is driven by, “a response to media coverage related to politics, climate change, inflation or coverage of the war in Ukraine, which leaves people feeling overwhelmed and powerless.” says News Media Canada.

Solving news avoidance will also take a variety of strategies, including editorial changes. The Reuters Institute argues that explanatory journalism, Q&A formats, and inspirational stories are worthwhile solutions to news avoidance. All of these changes have their place in leading to a solution. 

Solving the misinformation crisis will ultimately require collaboration across society, including educators, publishers, and other stakeholders. Publishers have an opportunity to lead the conversation by enhancing trust.

Laying A Foundation For Trust: Integrity, Data, and Personalization

Restoring your audience’s trust in your publication starts with developing three principles: integrity, data, and personalization. These principles can then help to guide you through the tactical steps to follow.

Principle 1: Integrity

Publishers can earn trust by restoring a focus on integrity. Fortunately, many publishers and journalists are committed to practicing good journalism ethics. That said, some of the commitment to integrity is invisible to your audience. With some measure of transparency, it is easier for a skeptical audience to trust you.

Improving your publication’s reputation for integrity will depend on how your audience perceives you. The following methods can help you to enhance your perceived integrity.

Reinforce fact-checking

When a publisher fails to collect and present accurate information, it’s tough to maintain audience trust. For high-profile stories, it’s worth making the extra effort to verify the facts. Investing more effort into accuracy will also help to separate your publication from less professional outlets.

Own your mistakes and follow up

Every publisher makes mistakes now and then – it’s inevitable given the tight timelines and other pressures of publishing. When mistakes happen, whether factual errors or something else, take the time to update your digital stories with corrections. Many publishers already do this, so implementing this best practice is vital to staying  

Invite your audience to occasional behind-the-scenes conversations

Occasionally pulling back the curtain on the publishing process can also help to build trust with your audience. For example, share how you approach high-profile or controversial coverage. By revealing the care and due diligence you use, inspiring audience trust will get easier.

While integrity matters, it will only take you so far. To compete successfully against the largest media outlets, leveraging data and personalization is vital.

Principle 2: Data 

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Data is the next element in solving news avoidance and boosting audience engagement. Specifically, publishers need to make gathering and using first-party data a priority. First-party data is gathered directly from your audience without relying on anyone else. Asking consumers to provide more data is more likely to succeed when the audience sees value.

There are several ways to invest more deeply in data to build audience engagement and grow, including the following:

Deepen your audience understanding with first-party data

First-party data means information your audience has directly provided to you. For example, you might track opens and clicks on your email newsletter. That data gives you direct insights into what your audience values.

Upskill your journalists on data literacy

More and more stories and coverage today require data journalism skills. Whether you train staff, recruit people with this expertise, or take a hybrid approach, data skills matter. The capacity to analyze data critically for your audience will become a key way to build trust and counter misinformation.

Principle 3: Personalization

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Personalization matters in rebuilding trust because it shows that you are paying attention to what your audience values. For many publications, personalization based on first-party data is the largest opportunity for growth. Therefore, we’ll explore this opportunity in the greatest depth.

Depending on your goals and resources, there are multiple ways to personalize the subscriber experience. Here are some of the most popular ways to personalize the subscriber experience.

Personalize The Homepage Experience

Many publishers, especially those with a background in print, present their home page

like the front page of a newspaper. Some subscribers may like that approach, but it may not work for everyone. Give subscribers the option to customize their homepage experience based on their interests. For example, some of your audience may want in-depth political coverage, while others only want to see breaking business stories.

Tailor The Email Experience

Your email newsletter experience is the next opportunity to leverage personalization. Take inspiration from the Morning Brew, an email-only news publisher. The publication started with a general news publication broadly focused on technology and business stories in the US. More recently, the company has created separate email newsletters based on job roles (e.g., CFO Brew) and industry interests (e.g., Marketing Brew).

Arena Live Blog makes creating this kind of experience easy! For example, a new publisher could set up a live blog feed for local news and  another for sports and create an email newsletter based on the most popular content. In that way, your email newsletter delivers only the most popular content to email subscribers!

Invite Subscribers To Exclusive Events

Welcoming your subscribers with premium events is one of the best ways to offer a personalized experience. From the audience’s perspective, an event is a powerful networking opportunity because you can ask questions and interact with people who share your interests. From the publisher’s viewpoint, digital events are a powerful way to deepen audience engagement and gather data.

Running digital events doesn’t have to be complicated either. You just need the right tools – like Arena Live Chat – to get started. Check out the next section for tips and tricks on how to use live chat in your events!

Let’s take a closer look at how publishers can use digital engagement and events to engage their audience.

Unlocking More First-Party Data With Events: 4 Strategies

Unlike static articles, podcasts, or videos, interactive events offer the chance to connect with others who share similar interests. 

Expand Access To In-Person Events

A growing list of publishers like TechCrunch and WIRED offer in-person events to serve their subscribers. For those subscribers able to attend these events, there’s nothing quite like breaking bread with other people. However, the reality is that many of your subscribers may not find traditional events convenient to attend due to travel costs and other responsibilities.

The solution is to offer a digital pass to your event. Using Arena Live Chat, you can use chat experiences on your website to engage your subscribers in various ways. For those who buy digital tickets, you might offer an intimate small group event to interact with your publication’s top personalities. 

Run Brandsafe Events With VIP Guests

Every industry and interest has celebrities and thought leaders. Building an event around an exciting guest is one of the best ways to create an enticing event experience. One challenge associated with running a live event with a high-profile guest is moderation.

While many celebrities have a large fan base, such personalities inevitably attract their share of detractors and haters. Arena has you covered here! You get customizable AI profanity filters to stop the most common “not safe for work” language from ever making it into your chat. Also, Arena provides moderation features, so your staff can filter questions and comments before posting them.

Enhance Coverage Of Live Events

When a big story breaks, your audience will be hungry for up-to-date coverage and analysis. Major events in sports and politics offer tremendous opportunities to provide in-depth coverage. 

Arena Live Blog is one of the best ways to increase engagement during these high-profile events. Your team can leverage a combination of breaking news and content created in advance (e.g., explainers, Q&A with experts, etc.). A live blog – which some publishers call ‘live updates’ – makes it easy to provide short updates. 

When a major news story breaks, your audience may take to social media to share their thoughts. Arena Live Blog equips you with curating social media content to enrich your coverage. However, unfiltered social media can bring low-quality and inappropriate material. 

Arena Live Blog keeps publishers in control of how they bring in social media content. You can use a combination of automation and manual filtering to ensure that every social media update you feature meets your brand guidelines.

The Path To Bringing Personalization To Your Website

Building trust and engagement with your audience is a journey. Yet the first few steps of lifting engagement don’t have to take a long time. Many companies find they can install and implement Arena Live Chat and Live Blog in less than an hour (some are even faster!). Discover Arena’s solutions for publishers!

3 Ways To Build Online Community Hubs For A Crisis

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When a crisis strikes, it’s all hands on deck. Governments, police, firefighters, and more all have a critical role to play. Those impacted by a disaster also come together in communities to share support, information, and strategies to recover. 

Community-based solutions like Facebook Groups, shared hashtags, and websites empower people to work together. The power of community can provide vital social and practical aid to people suffering through a crisis. 

The Impact Of Disasters Runs Deep

When a crisis strikes, people suffer in many different ways. Let’s look back at two of the most significant US disasters in 2022 to show the impact of disaster events.

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In the winter of 2022, the electricity grid in Texas failed for days. As a result, more than two hundred people died, according to the Austin-American Statesman. Economically, the cost of the damage has been estimated at $195 billion by the University of Texas at Austin. 

Residents took to social media with the hashtag #texaspoweroutage to share updates about the crisis and its aftermath. These messages helped to provide a sense of connection during tough times. That’s not all. These fast online community building effort helped to rally attention and donations from across the country to local organizations like Austin Mutual Aid and homeless shelters. 

A few months later, West Virginia suffered from exceptionally high amounts of rain which caused flooding. According to local news reports, the August 15 rainfall alone damaged more than 100 homes. Damage assessments are ongoing, and federal funding is being provided to assist the area.

In early 2023 (last week, as of writing this), major flooding hit California hard. CNN estimated that millions of people were under a flood watch on January 15th. Residents went online using hashtags like #bayareastorm and #AtmosphericRiver to share their observations. Some shared videos showing flooded road conditions – a powerful way to supplement government safety warnings. Others organized charitable relief efforts for people negatively affected by the flood such as the region’s farmworkers using the hashtag #theyfeedus. In the long term, we may find that online community efforts played an important role in helping people through the crisis. 

When disaster strikes, the need for community – including online community hubs – is paramount. Publishers and brands that offer such community support during a crisis have an incredible opportunity to contribute to the community.

Four Reasons Why Online Community Hubs Are Valuable In A Crisis

Offering an online community hub to your audience during a crisis offers tremendous value. An online community hub is not a replacement for traditional emergency relief. Instead, it is best seen as enhancing those measures by helping people to meet their community needs.

Here are some ways a digital community experience can help people get through tough times. 

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1. Provide Accurate, Up To Date Information

During a crisis event, it’s difficult to understand the full scope of the event while you are going through it. You may not know which roads are open, when power will be repaired or how to find emergency aid. In times like these, your audience needs reliable, trustworthy sources of information. Running a live blog with updates on getting help during a crisis is one way to help your community. For example, you might post hourly updates during the height of the crisis to reassure your audience about steps being taken to address the problem.

2. Offer Stability During Unstable Times

When a disaster strikes, your ability to see friends, families, and coworkers suffer. Some people may need to live in a shelter or other temporary housing for a time. This level of disruption can leave people thinking that nothing is certain. This is where your online community hub comes to play.

For example, the meditation app Ten Percent Happier offered a daily meditation experience called “Ten Percent Happier LIVE” during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The fifty-nine-episode live-streamed series for several months in 2020 following the pandemic declaration. Different guests shared their experiences and led guided meditations. This ad hoc digital community experience helped some people cope with the pandemic. 

3. Improve Physical Health Problems Linked To Loneliness

Isolation and loneliness are significant social challenges that are likely to worsen during a disaster. That’s significant because social isolation may cause additional health problems. A 2022 health study examines the health of more than 50,000 women in the US. The research found that: “social isolation and loneliness were associated with increased risk of incident cardiovascular disease among older women in the US.” 

Online community hubs have a role to play in easing loneliness and may help to reduce physical health problems. Beyond the potential health benefits, an online community hub with an interactive live chat can help your audience find mutual support. 

4. Fight Back Against Misinformation

Misinformation is a growing problem in the United States and other countries. 

Researchers have found that misinformation can hurt confidence in the democratic system. The Brookings Institution reports that misinformation has already hurt the United States. Misinformation problems are likely to get worse in social media because Twitter has announced it is “no longer enforcing the COVID-19 misleading information policy.” To put that policy change in context, new Twitter CEO Elon Musk disbanded the company’s trust and safety board in December 2022.

Fortunately, misinformation can be stopped. The New Mexico government launched a rumor vs. reality website to address misinformation-inspired questions and concerns. Other states like Connecticut and Colorado have recently implemented additional measures to promote confidence and fight misinformation.

Just imagine if people could not access emergency aid because incorrect information spread. Misinformation has already hurt public health. A 2022 study of Florida adults found that “Exposure to misinformation was directly correlated with vaccine hesitancy.” Offering credible, up-to-date information as situations rapidly develop during a crisis can help your audience stay safe.

Building A Community Hub For A Crisis: A Quick Start Guide

When a crisis strikes, speed is critically important. Use the following tips to create (or enhance) an online community hub during tough times.

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1) Identify Your Strengths And Credibility

A single organization can’t be all things to all people, especially in a crisis. For example, a local news outlet may connect deeply with local and state governments and nonprofits. In that case, leverage your strengths in building a crisis hub. For instance, use Arena Live Blog with a list of emergency shelters and tips on accessing relief funds and beyond.

What about concerns and issues that go beyond your organization’s capabilities? The best course is to provide a list of available resources. For instance, the community might need access to emergency housing if their homes are damaged or destroyed. Reach out to government agencies, churches, and other groups to make a list and keep it updated.

2) Enhance Your Community Hub With Trusted Community Voices

Giving voice to trusted community leaders is another way an online community hub can help. Start by looking within your organization. Encourage your best-known news anchors and reporters to focus on crisis reporting. Once your team is engaged, reach out to engage others in the community.

Inviting a broad and representative group of influencers and experts to participate in the online community hub is the next step. Some influencers may need guidance on what messages to share, so connect them with resources. In other cases, your influencers may need more experience communicating with digital communication. 

3) Make Your Hub Desirable For Gen Z and Millennial Audiences

Generation Z and Millennials comprise a large proportion of the US population. Engaging these digital natives is vital if your online community hub will thrive. The following best practices will help you to get started:

Offer A Social Media Style Experience

It is estimated that 60% of American Gen Z consumers use social media to shop. A crisis isn’t the same as shopping. However, there is still competition for attention. Make sure your hub offers an interactive experience for your audience. With Arena Live Chat, you can use chat experiences where your audience can interact publicly, send private messages and react to posts.

Use Short Videos

Short video content is one reason why TikTok has exploded in popularity. Creating short, focused videos with credible information during a crisis is a powerful way to connect with Millenials and Generation Z. 

Offer Mobile Payments For Fundraising

During a disaster, your audience may want to help to support this need. Support this desire by making your website supports mobile payments. A recent UK survey found that most Gen Z consumers abandon physical wallets instead of digital wallets. If you partner with charitable organizations and nonprofits during a crisis, make it easy for your audience to buy on mobile devices.

For additional insights on connecting effectively with these large demographics, see other posts:

The Fast Way To Build Your Online Community Hub

When a crisis strikes, your audience needs access to a trustworthy online community quickly. There is no time to optimize settings and technology for days or weeks. You need a fast digital solution that can easily integrate into your website. Arena Live Chat and Live Blog are the perfect solutions. You can install these tools on your website in minutes. You can have a live blog up and running in less than an hour with updates. Learn more about building your digital community with Arena.

5 Ways News Publishers Can Grow Their Gen Z Audience

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Social media disruption and changing habits have created a significant opportunity for publishers to grow with Gen Z. Generation Z, 68 million strong in the US alone, are those born between 1997 to 2010 are in their late teens to early twenties. Along with Millenials (1981-1996), they represent the future. Win market share with these generations, and publishers will have a solid foundation for the next 20 years of your business.

The Gen Z Opportunity For Publishers Is Growing

While it’s always possible to start growing an audience, there are always advantages to moving early to seize the opportunity. 

Building loyalty with Gen Z audiences today while they’re younger can sustain your business for years into the future. From an advertising perspective, focusing on Gen Z is vital because they have decades of spending ahead of them in many areas of life. If you build a sizeable Gen Z audience over the next few years you will have a solid foundation to attract paid subscribers and generate ad revenue for decades.

In terms of habits, comfort with digital technology, and media consumption, Gen Z also shares significant overlap with Millenials. That’s important because Millennials now represent the single largest demographic group ever in North American history. For example, Gen Z spends close to three hours per day on social media, while Millennials also spend over two hours per day on social media. Highly visual platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are very popular with both groups. 

Why First-Party Data Matters For Engaging Your Audience

To fully understand what Gen Z and Millennials want, broad surveys will only tell you so much. It’s also vital to have a direct understanding of your specific audience. That’s where first-party data becomes vital. First-party data is information you collect directly from your audience without relying on any outside source or platform. Gathering this data means building rich audience profiles, making it easier to create engaging content and deepen engagement.

Of course building a first party data set is much easier said than done, especially when the average Metered Stop Rate for publishers hovers around 4% and Paid Stop Conversion Rate averages around .5%.3 Third party cookies are going away, so publishers need to evolve.  Read on for our tips! 

Five Ways To Attract Gen Z Audiences

Use this menu of strategies to grow an engaged Gen Z audience. Our ultimate goal is to bring audiences directly to your website, where you can engage them and build a direct connection.

1) Offer Micro Communities

In his classic essay, Kevin Kelly wrote that 1000 true fans should be enough to sustain creatives like musicians, designers, and other entrepreneurs. That principle is coming to life in a whole new way with Gen Z as they’ve grown up in a digital world filled with niche communities on Discord, Minecraft, Roblox, etc.

It can be difficult to predict which micro-community concepts will take off with Gen Z. That’s why it is smart to take small bets and empower your Gen Z audience to guide community building. Let’s say you’re considering building a micro-community around internships at nonprofits to help Gen Z build their skills. 

Before building out the community, test the concept by hosting a small digital event on your website around the theme. If you see significant engagement and sign-ups for the event, create a landing page where attendees can get more information about the new internship community. Use this strategy repeatedly over a few months, and you will have several successful communities based around your website. Make sure your digital events have an interactive aspect like Arena Live Chat so that Gen Z can ask questions and make connections both with you, and with each other. 

2) Revisit Your Social Media Goals

Growing a large audience on a social media platform like TikTok or Instagram may not be helpful to your goals. A person looking at your content on social media will likely see your content among many other posts. Also, gaining a meaningful audience connection on social media is difficult, and gaining first-party data is impossible. 

Instead, your social media goals should always have the end goal of bringing visitors back to your website. There are a few ways you better leverage social content to grow your audience once they’re there.

Use Arena Live Blog to highlight and react to social media posts. 

To make this live blog even more appealing, invite Gen Z influencers to contribute to your live blog posts. You can also share posts from social accounts you select and select content. This is a great way to add UCG, even if you don’t have an official relationship (yet).

Reinvent the social media challenge made popular by TikTok. 

Brands like Guess’s #InMyDenim and Scotts #DoTheScottsSlide challenge to encourage fans to create videos and share the event. Publishers can adapt this idea by hosting quizzes tied to specific events like elections, sports games, and award events like the Oscars. 

3) Invest In Short Form Video Content

Short form video content, like TikTok videos and YouTube Shorts, are very popular with Gen Z. Growing your Gen Z audience is easier when you invest in video. Length is not the only factor to keep in mind to win Gen Z’s engagement. As you create more videos, look for ways to incorporate the following qualities that most successful short-form videos leverage.

Many of the most successful short-form videos revolve around a few themes. Music, humor and how to videos all tend to perform well, and, of course, you’ll want to make sure that you use whichever format makes the most sense for your brand, and the specific content you’re promoting. For example, a beauty brand can show a model or influencer applying makeup. In addition to providing value to your audience, short videos should achieve another goal.

Look at your short-form videos as a “trailer” that promotes the main attraction on your website: in-depth videos and other types of premium content. For example, you might create a long-form video interview with your CEO at a product launch event. From this longer video, create a series of short form videos and post them to social media. Each of these short-form videos adds bite-sized value to your audience while giving you the opportunity to drive traffic back to your website.   If this formula works for top creators like Gary Vaynerchuk, it can work for you.

4) Step Up Your Sustainability Coverage

Climate change and sustainability concerns are top of mind for many in Generation Z. The Pew Research Center found that more than a third of Gen Z and Millenials feel addressing climate change is a top personal concern. Depending on your publication’s priorities, there are different ways to meet Gen Z’s interests.

  • Go Local.
    Sometimes, coverage of climate change and environmental issues can feel abstract and difficult to understand. Local publishers can stand out by exploring the local implications in greater detail. For example, publications based on Florida have expertise in covering natural disasters and the increase in extreme weather events.
    Emphasizing your local expertise is critical to sustaining trust with Gen Z. The American Press Institute found that Gen Z news readers tend to trust local news outlets more than national options.
  • Invite Special Guests To Share Advice.
    Sharing information and quality reporting isn’t the only way to attract Gen Z’s interest. Take inspiration from events like Creator Conf that bring together thousands of attendees and sponsors like YouTube, Patreon, and Clubhouse. 
  • Publish Unique, User-Friendly Data.

5) Enhance Diversity In Coverage and Staff 

Committing to diversity is critically important to appeal to Gen Z audiences. The American Press Institute reports that only 15% of Gen Z and Millennials feel coverage of immigrants is accurate in the news. Further, only 15% of these generations found that Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, and lower-income people are not covered accurately. 

There are several ways to demonstrate an increased commitment to diversity as a publisher. Look at your editorial staff first and ask yourself if you can improve your recruiting practices. Next, seek ways to improve the quantity and quality of coverage of diverse groups. Finally, work with your advertisers to encourage them to take diversity seriously in advertising.

The Pay Off For Meeting Gen Z’s Interests

Investing in new editorial approaches, media formats, and beyond will take time and resources. It’s a strategic investment for two reasons: first-party data generation and greater loyalty. By publishing content that directly meets Gen Z’s interests, you’re providing significant value to the audience. That means earning and keeping permission to gather first-party data is far easier. As you better understand Gen Z’s preferences and needs, selling subscriptions and keeping them engaged for years to come will become easier.

Get The Tools You Need To Connect With Gen Z Today

Succeeding with Gen Z news consumers takes serious editorial work. It also takes the right technology. Gen Z is used to highly interactive digital experiences from social media. Keeping their interest will become much more difficult if they come to your website and have no opportunity to interact with friends and family. Learn more about Arena’s solutions for publishers.

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What ChatGPT Means For News Publishers

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ChatGPT technology is about to change publishing and journalism forever. Certain types of journalism, like simple sports and business stories, are especially susceptible to automation. ChatGPT may be the most important digital technology to impact publishers since the 1980s.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence model created by OpenAI. The conversational program can answer questions and can leverage secondary research to write “original” copy. If information is on the Internet, chatGPT can produce content. Fast. 

The output of chatGPT isn’t perfect, and it still sometimes makes basic errors but, for an alpha release technology, it has already achieved a great deal.

How ChatGPT is Changing Email, Education and Programming

Early experiments with chatGPT have raised some exciting questions and worries for others. Here are some of the developments we’ve seen so far.

Better Work Emails

The Washington Post reports that dyslexic people are starting to use chatGPT to create work emails. The emails aren’t perfect, but they represent a significant time saving for people who struggle with writing, or who might not be native English speakers, but want to sound like one.

Near Perfect School Essays?

It’s not just working professionals who are seeing benefits from this technology. Fox News reports that AI technology like chatGPT could “blow up” the US education system. The report poses the question of whether overworked teachers can detect if students are using AI. In the worst-case scenario, students lose the ability to write independently. Teachers would face additional pressures to innovate to respond to this change.

Is AI Coming for Programmers?

Software engineers and developers have long taken pride in their technical skills. However, chatGPT is starting to succeed in some programming tasks. GeekWire claims that chatGPT may soon “match programming prowess of average coders.” For example, the software can create some SQL (structured query language) queries based on minimal direction.

With the right strategy, chatGPT is a major opportunity to boost productivity. This technology can draft basic news stories that rely on existing information. That frees up budgetary resources for publishers to invest in investigative stories and other high-impact reporting. In practical terms, this means a single experienced editor can get much more done without much incremental cost.

While technologies like chatGPT are sure to change publishing and journalism, the appetite for quality stories and investigation isn’t going anywhere. Just consider what happened to the accounting and financial industry after spreadsheet software became widespread…

How Spreadsheets Destroyed Some Jobs While Increasing Demand For Others

Fear, uncertainty, and doubt make it difficult to see the advantages and disadvantages of chatGPT. Fortunately, recent history gives some perspective. Consider the case of spreadsheet software.

Before the launch of VisiCalc in 1979, thousands of accounting clerks maintained business records. This work involved long hours writing numbers, recalculating, and checking data for accuracy. The highly manual nature of the work meant managers often had to wait hours, days, or longer for insight.

Fast forward a few decades later, the spreadsheet had a very different impact on business. CPA Practice Advisor estimates that hundreds of millions, perhaps even a billion, of people use spreadsheet software regularly. The nature of accounting employment has changed dramatically. The New Stack reported in 2019 that there were 400,000 fewer accounting clerks in the 2000s compared to 1980. However, there are 600,000 more regular accountants. Future demand is vital as well. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that job growth for accountants and auditors will be 6% from 2021 to 2031.  

In other words, spreadsheet software eliminated much manual work from accounting. The result? Managers, executives, and others increased their demand for financial and accounting data of all kinds. This technological story directly parallels how publishing may evolve in light of chatGPT.

How ChatGPT Will Transform The Publishing Business Model

At Arena, we’re generally optimistic about the impact of technology on fostering community and making life better and believe that  highly disruptive technology like chatGTP has significant potential to drive the next evolution of the publishing business model. By automating the majority of the grunt work of journalism, especially data gathering, editors can put more resources in investigative articles, features and high-end reporting.

For editors and managers, chatGPT opens new possibilities to deliver the news even while budgets come under pressure. Senior reporters can keep their focus on developing sources, in-depth interviews, and creating outstanding stories that keep audiences engaged. Less complex stories – like sports scores and financial reports – can be drafted to good enough (or better!) by this technology. 

With technology like chatGPT, you publish time-sensitive stories like company earnings, sports scores and other routine stories quickly. With those stories largely handled by AI, your lean group of experienced reporters can source unique stories that readers can’t find anywhere else. The bottom line is that you can maintain or improve margins by fully leveraging chatGPT.

Arena’s Generative AI for Publishers, Content & Affiliate Commerce is here. Discover Commerce AI right now.

Two Ways To Prepare Your Publishing Business To Thrive In An AI World

Like any disruptive technology, chatGPT has the potential to create a new generation of winners and losers. Today, these technologies can produce “good enough” or “first draft” level content. That means your competitors can copy and respin existing content faster than ever.

The solution is to create community, content, and experiences that cannot be copied. Here are three ways to build a moat around your business. 

1. Community Experiences

Bringing your audience together for memorable experiences is something that AI can’t match. Planning in-person events aren’t your only option. You can also create hybrid and virtual events using Arena Live Chat. 

Here are two ways to build premium community experiences to keep your audience coming back again and again.

Leverage Your Brand’s Personalities In Events.

Building exclusive experiences around your high-profile personalities, journalists, athletes and staff is a winning strategy. You don’t need Anderson Cooper’s 9 million Twitter followers, either. Running a smaller “fireside chat” event can be even more compelling to your audience.

Invite New Voices And Influencers To Your Platform

Technologies like chatGPT are primarily driven by historical information on the Internet. These tools struggle to develop new ideas, insights, and predictions. One way to meet this need in your audience is to invite influencers and emerging experts to connect with your audience. For example, true crime social media influencers could enrich your coverage of a high-profile criminal trial. 

You can launch an ongoing virtual event series at a low cost using Arena Live Chat.

2. Shift Resources To Premium Content Like Investigative Journalism

Historically, investigative journalism has been costly. In 2013, The Atlantic reported that a team of journalists spent $750,000 and two years to reveal “the dangers of Tylenol’s main active ingredient, acetaminophen.” These stories are challenging to produce. They are also stories that inspire greater trust and engagement in news publishers.

As publishers face more pressure to stretch their budgets, chatGPT and investigative reporting can work closely together. A small group of experienced editors can use AI to quickly draft essential stories and publish them. Meanwhile, shifting resources to investigative resources, hard-to-get interviews, and exclusive coverage will keep your publication highly competitive.

How To Free Up Time And Budget For The New Way of Publishing

Asking your reporters to run community events and engage with new voices might sound unrealistic for your busy reporters. That’s where ChatGPT is transformational. This technology can eliminate hours of routine data gathering and basic writing for your staff. 

As a result, your senior-level reporters, who command the greatest trust with your audience, will have more time to engage with your audience. Increased engagement means more attention on your website for longer periods of time which leads to increased advertising revenue.

Enrich Your Publication With Community

As new technology erodes traditional advantages in publishing, it’s essential to act preemptively. Discover Arena’s solutions for publishing – the easiest way to create interactive virtual communities. 

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Leveraging the Success of Reddit, YouTube, and TikTok for Your Brand’s Growth

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Social media platforms have revolutionized the way brands interact with their audience. Reddit, YouTube, and TikTok, in particular, have emerged as powerful tools for brand marketing and community building, offering unique opportunities for engagement, storytelling, and viral content creation. This article delves into how the success of these platforms can be harnessed to boost your brand strategy.

With recent disruptions at Twitter, including concerns around hate speech, upheavals in their management, and wavering trust from advertisers, many have been left pondering the future and efficacy of social media for branding. While it’s tempting to generalize and deem the era of social media marketing as waning, there are gems in the digital landscape that offer unparalleled opportunities.

The Importance of Social Media to Community Building

Building a community on social media is crucial for fostering strong, meaningful connections between a brand and its audience. Social media platforms provide a dynamic space for real-time interactions, enabling brands to engage directly with their followers, gather instant feedback, and create a sense of belonging. By consistently sharing valuable content, responding to comments, and participating in conversations, brands can nurture loyalty and trust. This continuous engagement not only helps in retaining customers but also attracts new ones through word-of-mouth and increased visibility.

Moreover, by bringing social media content to your website, you can further strengthen your digital marketing strategies. Integrating social media feeds into your site creates a seamless content stream that enhances user experience and keeps your audience engaged across multiple platforms. This holistic approach ensures your brand strategy is consistent and compelling, driving sustained growth and community building.

Understanding the Changing Tides of Social Media

Selecting the right platforms to amplify your brand engagement on social media. Remember, on these platforms, the relationship with your audience isn’t truly yours. They can modify the rules, adjust algorithms, or introduce new features, impacting your audience engagement. Therefore, your overarching strategy should be to drive this audience back to assets you own, such as your website.

Relevant studies to note

  • Business Insider Intelligence: Highlights TikTok as the favorite among Gen Z.
  • Nielsen: Indicates 80% of sports enthusiasts use social media platforms to stay connected with their favorite teams.
  • Social Media Examiner and HubSpot: Respectively found that 85% of marketers leverage YouTube, while 70% are tapping into the potential of Reddit for marketing.

Diving Deeper into the Giants

1. YouTube: Visual Storytelling

Founded in 2005, YouTube is a powerful platform for visual storytelling. Brands can create high-quality videos that showcase their products, share customer testimonials, or provide how-to guides. Engaging video content not only attracts viewers but also keeps them on the platform longer, enhancing brand recall and loyalty.

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Key Capabilities

  • Audio and video files upload, allowing users to create content playlists and collections.
  • YouTube Shorts: a new functionality that works similarly to TikTok, within the mobile app and web browser.
  • Community features, enable users to interact with other users through comments, likes, and subscriptions.
  • Live streaming and captioning.
  • Offers advertising via Google and sponsored video collaborations.

YouTube SEO Best Practices

Optimizing video titles, descriptions, and tags with relevant keywords is crucial for YouTube SEO. Creating compelling thumbnails and including call-to-actions within videos can also boost engagement. Regularly updating your channel with fresh content helps maintain viewer interest and attract new subscribers.

Fit for Business Types: Media & Publishing houses, Entertainment, Retail & eCommerce with video showcases.

2. TikTok: Viral Trends and Challenges

TikTok’s algorithm favors content that is engaging and entertaining. Brands can capitalize on this by creating short, catchy videos that align with current trends. Participating in challenges, using popular music, and collaborating with influencers are effective ways to increase visibility and reach on TikTok.

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Key Capabilities

  • Limited to 10-minute video durations; shorter videos gain traction.
  • TikTok Stories last only 24 hours, similar to Instagram Stories.
  • TikTok has filters, a sound library, video duet and reply, and a robust editing tool kit.
  • Provides CPM and CPC advertising options.

Best Practices for Creating Viral TikTok Content

To create viral content, brands should focus on creativity and relevance. Keeping videos short and engaging, using trending hashtags, and encouraging user-generated content can enhance the chances of going viral. Brands can capitalize on community challenges and influencer partnerships, monitoring analytics helps in understanding what works and refining strategies accordingly.

Fit for Business Types: Consumer brands, publishers, and Entertainment sectors seeking genuine audience engagement.

3. Reddit: Community-Driven Engagement

Famous as a “community of communities”, Reddit is known for its diverse and highly engaged user base. By participating in relevant subreddits, brands can connect with niche communities and build authentic relationships. Engaging in discussions, sharing valuable content, and responding to user queries can help brands establish trust and authority within these communities.

Key Capabilities

  • Hosts subreddits dedicated to specific interests.
  • Subreddits are managed by moderators, know as “Redditors”, who help keep the discussions safe and relevant.
  • Community features such as submissions, comments, private messages, and more.
  • Offers varied advertising options from sponsored links to Q&As.

Best Practices for Reddit Marketing

To succeed on Reddit, brands should focus on authenticity and value, as well as respecting platforms conventions and community standards. Avoid overly promotional posts and instead, contribute meaningful insights and content. Utilizing Reddit Ads can also help target specific demographics and drive traffic to your website.

Fit for Business Types: Companies focusing on niche audiences, wanting to build or integrate into existing communities.

4. Twitch: Live Streaming and Engagement

Twitch, primarily known for its live streaming capabilities, has evolved into a vital platform for brands looking to engage with their audience in real-time. With millions of daily active users, Twitch offers a unique opportunity to connect with a highly interactive and engaged community. By hosting live streams, brands can showcase their products, offer behind-the-scenes glimpses, and engage in real-time conversations with viewers. This level of interaction fosters a sense of immediacy and authenticity, allowing brands to build strong, loyal communities.

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Key Capabilities

  • Offers an immersive viewer experience with live streams.
  • Provides conventional advertising and sponsorships through donations and bits.
  • Gaming features for both streamers and gamers.
  • Category browser.
  • Squad streaming to watch multiple streams.

Best Practices

To succeed on Twitch, brands should focus on creating engaging and interactive content, understanding unique content niches such as gaming, cooking, fitness and music. Brands can collaborate with streamers that resonate with your company’s ethos, hosting live Q&A sessions, product demonstrations, and exclusive behind-the-scenes content can captivate viewers and encourage participation.

Utilizing Twitch’s chat feature to respond to viewers’ comments and questions in real-time enhances the viewer experience and strengthens the community bond. Additionally, collaborating with popular Twitch streamers can help brands tap into established communities and gain credibility.

Fit for Business Types: Brands targeting Gen Z, those in Entertainment, Fitness, and any brand wishing to tap into niche segments with high user engagement.

Discovering Niche Platforms

Many social media networks specialize in a specialized niche. While smaller sites may not have TikTok or YouTube audiences, they have other benefits. Focused audiences are easier to discover. Building ties with influencers may be easier.

  • LinkedIn, the leading business social media platform, now features articles, videos, and groups.
  • Sports Thread is a student-athlete social network. Brands have new potential since the NCAA allowed student-athletes to be compensated for their name, image, and likeness (NIL).
  • Ravelry is a knitting, crocheting, spinning, and related social network. It’s estimated that 45 million Americans crochet and knit. Reaching women, who make up majority of this population, using this medium may be new.
  • Social network Goodreads connects authors and readers. This Amazon-owned platform is essential for publishers seeking enthusiastic readers.

Success stories: How well-known companies have used social media for marketing

1. The Home Depot

The Home Depot is a home improvement retailer that uses YouTube to create product videos, tutorials, and live streams. The company has over 10 million subscribers on YouTube and its videos have been viewed over 1 billion times.

The Home Depot’s YouTube channel has helped the company to:

  • Increase brand awareness: The company’s videos have helped to introduce its products and services to a wider audience.
  • Generate leads and sales: The company’s videos have helped to generate leads and sales by providing information about its products and services.
  • Build relationships with customers: The company’s videos have helped to build relationships with customers by providing them with helpful information and advice.

2. The NBA

The NBA is a professional basketball league that uses TikTok to create short, engaging videos that can be shared with its fans. The league has over 100 million followers on TikTok and its videos have been viewed over 10 billion times.

The NBA’s TikTok channel has helped the league to:

  • Engage with fans: The league’s videos have helped to engage with fans by providing them with short, entertaining content.
  • Promote its games: The league’s videos have helped to promote its games by showcasing highlights and behind-the-scenes content.
  • Build excitement for the league: The league’s videos have helped to build excitement for the league by creating a sense of community among its fans.

3. The International Cricket Council (ICC)

The ICC is the governing body of cricket that uses Reddit to connect with fans and answer their questions. The organization has over 100,000 subscribers on Reddit and its posts have been upvoted over 1 million times.

The ICC’s Reddit channel has helped the organization to:

  • Connect with fans: The organization’s posts have helped to connect with fans by providing them with a platform to ask questions and interact with the organization.
  • Answer questions: The organization’s posts have helped to answer questions from fans about cricket.
  • Build a community: The organization’s posts have helped to build a community among cricket fans.

These are just a few examples of how well-known companies have successfully integrated social media into their marketing strategies. If you are looking for a way to reach your target audience, build relationships with customers, and generate leads and sales, then integrating social media into your marketing strategy is a great option.

How to Integrate your Social Media Content on your Website

Bringing your content from social media to create a social stream with Arena Community allows you to seamlessly integrate dynamic, real-time updates from platforms like Twitter, Twitch, and YouTube directly into your website. This integration not only enriches your site with fresh, engaging content but also enhances user interaction by keeping visitors informed and connected. By showcasing social media highlights, user-generated content, and live updates, you create a vibrant content stream that fosters community engagement, strengthens your digital marketing strategies, and provides a cohesive brand experience across multiple channels.

Crafting A Resilient Digital Strategy

It’s evident that while platforms like Reddit, YouTube, and TikTok offer unmatched potential, putting all your eggs in their baskets can be precarious. Brands need to prioritize driving traffic back to owned assets. Enhancing your website with community-centric features like live chats or live blogs can be a game-changer. Dive deeper into how integrating solutions like Arena’s Live Blog can redefine your community-building strategy.