Page 34 - AIB | The Chanel | Issue 2 2011

34 | ISSUE 2 2011 | THE CHANNEL
THE CHANNEL | ANALYSIS
he words of the late
German poet‑
playwright apply to
the challenge facing
international
broadcasters since
InterMedia began
helping many of them to gauge
reach, engagement and impact 15
years ago. The need to engage with
audiences through relevant content
and appealing formats is unchanged,
but the terrain of engagement has
transformed as digital and mobile
technologies proliferate and evolve.
Strategies and research must adapt
to this shifting landscape while still
focusing on broadcasters' core
activities.
How much have things changed
digitally? In the past two decades,
personal mobile devices have gone
from 1G phones to 3G and 4G
"smart devices". Between 2000 and
2008, Google's reach expanded
from one billion indexed pages to
one trillion. In the past seven years,
Facebook amassed half a billion
active users who spend roughly
700bn minutes combined on the site
each month. 24 hours of video are
added to Youtube servers every
hour; Twitter users tally more than
5bn friendship relationships. Phew.
The challenge for all media
organisations is to embrace and
benefit from these new platforms,
where the keys to effective
engagement are understanding
how users behave and cluster
within these networks, and how
users are shaping their own news
and information environments.
Here are a few pointers for the
digital road ‑ ten new rules of
engagement.
1. Recognise that meaningful
engagement is through huge
numbers of few‑to‑few interactions
In contrast to the traditional media
model of "one to many," the digital
terrain offers news‑seekers the
ability to filter and shape their daily
news diet from among a multitude
of sources. As a result, news‑
seekers tend to huddle in niches
where they can confine their
exposure to information that
resonates with their world view.
For example, at one point
following Iran's controversial 2009
election, individuals would have
had to read three tweets a second
on Twitter to keep up with all the
online banter. But most individuals
stuck to specific links and streams
of conversation. Twitter activity
was highly concentrated in just a
few "clusters" that followed
popular "nodes" of information.
2. Participate in user networks to
generate loyalty
Successful media organisations
must be participants in the digital
information realm rather than only
distant creators of it. Increasingly,
engagement with news is on the
terms and in the networks of the
user. The value of the broadcaster is
derived as much from the forums
for expression it provides users as
the content it delivers to this space.
3. Broaden conceptions of reach,
motivation, response and impact to
reflect the digital terrain
Complex multi‑directional
networks in the digital space call
for tools that measure engagement
in multiple directions. Measuring
only reach or one‑way
dissemination will miss valuable
insights about potential audiences
and underestimate overall
effectiveness. Meaningful
measurement in the digital terrain
must incorporate a broad range of
user behaviours within searching,
linking, sharing, commenting, co‑
creating, re‑tweeting, and using
offline word‑of‑mouth.
4. Move beyond geography as the
standard for defining audiences
The location of a transmitter no
longer defines the reach of
broadcast content. The focus has
T Because
things are the
way they are,
they will not
stay the way
they are
Bertolt Brecht
NETWORKED
AUDIENCES
Global research consultancy InterMedia has offices in London, Washington DC
and after 15 years of working throughout Africa also recently opened a regional
office in Nairobi. For international broadcasters the need to engage with
audiences remains unchanged but the rules of engagement are new. InterMedia
COO Susan Gigli and Dr. Ali Fisher who directs their Networked Communication
Research give a few pointers
Capitalise
on the
popularity
of individ-
uals to
generate
more
interest in
your
brand
“