Promoting your online news website requires more due diligence than promoting a business that sells a physical product. Just like your site name, your domain name should be unique, recognizable, and something people can easily remember. After setting up the brand and generating content, the next step is to promote the news articles and make sure they get read. One way is to promote through social media.
Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter offer opportunities for readers to connect directly with web content. Create accounts on the most popular social media platforms. In order to syndicate your newsfeed on those services, there are a few prerequisites. Make sure your news site has an RSS/Atom feed. With the RSS/Atom feed in hand, create an account using the “TwitterFeed” service. Follow the instructions and link the RSS/Atom feed to your Facebook and Twitter. Every time you post an article, it appears on Facebook and Twitter automatically.
Whenever convenient, be sure to log into your accounts and engage with readers and potential readers.
On Facebook Fan Pages, there is limited personal interactivity between page administrators and fans. Facebook calls for more organic growth. You promote items on your site’s fan page and hope people “like” you – that’s not a formula for success. You can do more with a Facebook fan page, much more.
Consider running sponsored ads for your news site. This allows your site to receive exposure in the user profiles of those within your target demographic. Facebook Ads offers businesses the opportunity to serve ads based on a specific age range, location, and interests. You’ll also see very detailed estimates of how many people your ad will “reach.” Those estimates will come in handy when putting together a presentation for potential advertisers. Before you spend money on Facebook ads, consider the nature of your news site. If your news site appeals to a narrow or niche demographic, you should focus on promoting your site for free using Twitter and submitting your site to search engines.
Critics of Facebook’s advertising program have said that Facebook ads are too inconspicuous and unattractive. To overcome these problems, you need to have ad copy that emotionally engages people to read the news on your website. Think like someone at a news desk. You need a captivating headline and concise teaser copy that draws people to you. Consider mentioning milestones for your post (“Over two million subscribers!”) and advertising/reminding potential readers of nifty sections (ie Classifieds). Your teaser copy should be clear and focused on one topic. Feel free to place ads announcing sweepstakes and contests run by your publication. Advertising a news site on Facebook will always be trial and error, but the probability of getting new visitors will increase when you invest in longer advertising campaigns. Continually modify your ad content until you find the right wording and demographics.
Your Facebook content page needs constant maintenance. You should fill your Facebook page with news articles on a regular basis. Make sure you engage with your readers regularly and chat with them. Human interaction is a popular trend in social media for businesses. Encourage readers and viewers to not only view your content, but also comment and engage in other ways. For example, readers respond favorably to captivating images, just as they do in print publications. Readers tend to respond to stunning and colorful landscape photos, food photos, and timeless portraits that readers can relate to. It is preferable that the images you upload to your Facebook page relate to the articles on your website. Follow up with some text that encourages people to check out your articles and features.
Twitter takes things to the next level. The popular social networking service allows news sites to interact directly with people. Take advantage of the features that Twitter has, such as the “Find People” option. If you have a Gmail, Yahoo, or AOL email account that has contacts, use that email account and Twitter will search for contacts who also have a Twitter account. Be sure to “follow” those who are already following you on Twitter. Sites like “Twellow” (http://www.twellow.com/) can help you find followers based on categories. Tweet Grader (http://tweet.grader.com) allows you to find and follow users who live in your community. Follow members who would be interested in news from your website. The people you choose to follow should also have a large following and update regularly. Never think about the number of people you follow. Always think about the type of people you want to follow. Quality over quantity is an adage that is appreciated on Twitter. If you focus on finding the right people, and not following too many people, you will succeed.
Connect with users who benefit from reading the articles you publish or who would be interested. For example, if you have an article featuring a certain company, follow popular users who are likely to express an interest in the company and its product, including the company’s Twitter account. If you have an article covering an event, follow popular users who have a high probability of posting or retweeting information about the event. Interact with these users in moderation. Imagine that you are in a bar and you hear people talking about something that interests you. The best way to participate is to study the flow of the conversation and then join in once the opportunity arises. If someone asks a question about a topic that appears in one of your articles, feel free to answer it with a link. People will appreciate kindness as long as you focus on being clever and not promoting your news site directly. Remember, you’re trying to promote your news site, so being resourceful should be your primary goal. Once you develop a large follower or subscriber base, you no longer need to do this.
It is important to note that message boards are good for promoting items. While message boards are now taking a backseat due to social media, they are still very useful for generating buzz and traffic. Register accounts and regularly participate in message boards related to your content. It is recommended that you link to your material responsibly and sparingly. In other words, don’t spam a message board with links. Only provide self-service links when there is relevance and an information gap. Provide a link to your domain name in your forum signature. Also, feel free to customize your forum profile. People will be more attentive to those who have a strong human presence. And once you feel that your site has developed a substantial and consistent amount of traffic, you won’t need to continue promoting your site on message boards.
News websites abound, which is why having quality content is so important. No matter how you promote your news site, the goal of your news site is to have articles that are clear, engaging, thought-provoking and resourceful. When people can see that your news site is dynamic in design, organization, and content, they will use it as a resource. News is often considered a throwaway product in the digital marketplace, but it takes a good content provider, with the promotional know-how, to make news worth reading.
