As technology evolves, the way news media companies reach and serve their audiences changes, too. During this week’s members-only Webinar, INMA members heard how two African news media companies — Legit.ng in Nigeria and Tuko.co.ke in Kenya — leverage changing technology to expand their reach.

During Harnessing technology to grow audience reach and engagement, INMA members heard from Jacob Otieno, editor-in-chief at Tuko.co.ke, and Rahaman Abiola, editor-in-chief at Legit.ng, about some of the strategies they have implemented and the results they have seen.

Catherine Tomosori, a representative for the media holding company Legit, explained the two media companies have some of the highest levels of audience engagement in Nigeria and Kenya, as noted by the 2023 Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

“In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, leveraging technologies is essential for organisations seeking to expand their audience reach. It’s also very important for people looking to deepen engagement in their various regions,” Tomosori said. “As traditional news companies look to move into digital or transit into the digital landscape, it’s important for them to get insights from digital media leaders.”

Exploring new storytelling formats

Everything at Legit is data-driven, Otieno said: “It all starts with data for us. Data enables us to not operate blindly, make informed decisions, and develop content strategies that align with our audience preferences.”

Data helps the company understand its audience, what kind of content they consume, and where they consume it. Because of this, Legit has experimented with and embraced new storytelling formats.

“We do a lot of experiments with new technologies, and through these experiments, we learn what works and what doesn’t,” Otieno said. One of the biggest successes has been using Facebook picture posts with links in the comments section — a practice that doesn’t work well on X (formerly Twitter).

Through experimentation, the company has learned what constitutes a good picture post on Facebook: having a short and catchy explainer, emotional photos, and a strategically placed call to action. Digital tools, such as IO analytics, help identify the top-performing stories of the day to determine which ones should be repurposed into a post.

Then, the performance of each post is tracked to see which ones are working best. And the results, he said, have been impressive, with one successful single picture post generating more than 390,000 views.

Multimedia storytelling

Beyond a single picture post, the combination of text, images, videos, and infographics allows the companies to provide multimedia storytelling to audiences. These different formats work together to create a deeper emotional connection with the audience, boosting reach and engagement.

“We tell big stories in all formats,” Otieno said, recounting one story of a young Kenyan man who was seeking medical help outside the country to end his own life. The video version of the story received so much attention that it was repurposed into other formats and went viral.

Another secret weapon in the multimedia toolkit is infographics; Otieno shared the example of using infographics to cover some high-profile deaths in Kenya.

“We wanted to make it easier for our readers to follow the chronology of events that led to their deaths,” Otieno said. “Here’s where infographics really came in handy for us. We used the infographics to tell complex stories in a way that is easy to understand in a matter of seconds.”

Since most of its audience is relatively young social media natives with a short attention span, these infographics have been useful in “getting some engagement going.”

How content distribution can drive traffic

Abiola shared some content distribution tactics being used to drive traffic to the Web site.

“As the media landscape continues to evolve, tech giants like Facebook and Google are increasingly getting involved in content distribution and feasibility,” he said, calling Google’s algorithm change late in 2023 “a game changer.”

“So many newsrooms were affected, as this shift led to a massive drop in pageviews,” he said, which led to Legit developing new tactics.

First, he said, was to ensure the content is optimised to improve user experience and visibility in the search engine results pages (SERPs). The company also adheres to EEAT practices: experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.

To do that, he said, it follows three practices:

1. Ensuring the content has been verified and researched.
2. Hyperlinking only to credible sources.
3. Getting comments only from professionals who are recognised experts in their fields.

Contextual hyperlinking, or linking to articles for the sake of credibility, plays a role in driving traffic. He emphasised the need to ensure the source articles also adhere to Google’s strict requirements and said such linking can help readers navigate complex stories.

“This has helped our SEO efforts and has really been driving traffic to our Web site,” Abiola said. “The SEO effort has really been instrumental to our success. I can tell you that in quarter one alone, this practice helped boost our traffic by 10%.”  

Leveraging emerging platforms

As it moves into the future, Legit is exploring how to tap into emerging social media and technologies. WhatsApp has helped provide an effective traffic source away from Facebook, X, and Google. With its WhatsApp channel, Legit has expanded its content distribution capacity and attracted traffic to its Web site.

“At Legit, we understand that the industry is very competitive on a daily basis, so it’s important that we lead the way by leveraging these new features for traffic growth,” Abiola said.

The WhatsApp channel has helped it grow a new audience, build audience trust, and even let users join based on their location so they receive local information. Users can react to stories through emojis, and Legit can collect data-driven insights into what topics they’re interested in. Legit is experimenting with new content using the WhatsApp channel while seeking users’ opinions and reactions. This, he said, will help shape the direction of coverage.

“We’ve been able to connect tightly with our audience and keep them engaged through polls and multimedia content engagement, posting funny videos, and pictures,” Abiola said. “We believe that in a world where the opinions of audiences are increasingly valid, results from polls can constitute a big part of a new story and help build a content strategy.”

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