photo credit: Andrew*

Continuing along the lines I laid out yesterday, what are the exact characteristics of the two visitor levels and how we communicate with them? Here is a first attempt in breaking down the pyramid of media consumption.

First off, let me to get back to the important point of the context of this first discourse of categorizing news consumers. My aim is to find a terminology that could replace or complement how we talk about commercial consumers in marketing and sales departments – that is, in terms of customers and hot or cold sales leads. For now, the terminology differs from a journalistic standpoint, where a reader is a reader no matter the channel, and we are talking more about for example crowdsourcing end curation as aspects of consumption.

In yesterdays blog post The Pyramid of News Consumption, I used two similar models of community engagement to find a first somewhat viable categorization of our readers:

The News Consumption Pyramid. Four levels of news consumers: (1) Observers, (2) Visitors, (3) Members, (4) Sponsors.

The vertical dimension (top to bottom) specifies the level of engagement and investment that the consumer makes in you, while the size of the horizontal dimension corresponds to the size of the community. The reason for turning it upside down is simply for illustration, as it is to be seen as a funnel in which we find (most of) our future members and sponsors among the visitors.

So, if we focus on our two first levels, what are their characteristics?

Well, first off, we need to establish the fact that not every kid who grows up has the local newspaper laying around in the kitchen whilst eating breakfast. Therefore, we can no longer count on them recognizing our brand as a safe port for news and beautiful way of kick-starting the day. People may know our brand and may know our product well, but we must realise that it’s far from a foregone conclusion. And as we are adapting to modern ways, we are also working with services that change rapidly over the months and years to come. So, even a seasoned reader can lose sight of what we are here and now if she is distant from our brand for a year or so. With that in mind, here are few words on our visitors. (Credit due to Groundwire and their Engagement Pyramid for the inspiration.)

1. Observer
Nature: Passive consumption.
Keyword: Observation.
Communication: Indirect, through third parties, or direct in events and advertising.
Engagement: Earn interest and trust in brand.
Content: Focus on building brand through showcasing content, skills of employees and the core values that are deemed most relevant in the setting.
Service functions: In the current channel of communication.
Required investment: None.
Examples: News or comments in social media, advertising, corporate presence at county fairs or at conventions and conferences, journalists taking part in broadcasted debates or conference panels etc.
Metrics: Brand/advertisment impressions, distributed material, number of visitors/viewers etc.
Call to action: To engage consumer to actively consume, primarily through free online media (level 2).

2. Visitor
Nature: Active consumption.
Keyword: Engagement.
Communication: Indirect, through the specific channel of news consumption and social media.
Engagement: Establish relationship between reader and journalists, encourage readers to send news tips.
Content: News suitable for channel (ex quick news, culture, politics, editorials, polls), presentations of journalists (names, passions, articles, online presences etc), easily accessible presentations about all available channels.
Service functions: Telephone, e-mail, social media and chats.
Required investment: Time.
Examples: Following brand presences and/or journalists in social media, visiting a non-paywall news site without requirements to register etc.
Metrics: Web and social media metrics (visitors, followers, reads, mentions, retweets, likes etc).
Call to action: To encourage habit of consuming news and attract to a deepened and direct relationship (level 3).

Those are the key properties that are on top of mind for me personally, but as always I would appreciate any and all feedback – even if you completely disagree with my theories. The model must be deepened, and there’s nothing quite like transparent discourse to facilitate that process.

Time for a break from thinking and some rest. In my next post, I’ll look into the one or two of the remaining levels of member- and sponsorship.