As the Winnipeg Free Press began looking at ways to build a younger audience, it knew the traditional social media outreach through channels like Facebook and Twitter wasn’t sufficient. During Wednesday’s Webinar, Erin Lebar, manager, audience engagement for news, and Nadya Pankiw, multimedia producer, explained how that realisation led to creating a successful Instagram strategy.

During their presentation, Being successful on Instagram (A guide for publishers), Lebar and Pankiw walked INMA members through their journey. Lebar began by explaining where the company was at just before the pandemic hit.

When she began looking at the company’s social media strategy she found it was rather informal, with the editorial department making daily posts on Twitter and Facebook. It didn’t have an Instagram strategy.

“When we first had Instagram up and running, it was run by our photo department,” she said. That became too much for the photo department, so it became a marketing task. The posts used original and stock photography but weren’t aesthetically pleasing.   

In March 2020, Lebar assumed her role as manager of engagement, she moved Instagram back into the newsroom and began working with Pankiw to develop a social media strategy.

Improving Instagram

Pankiw said it was important to create a strong Instagram strategy because the Free Press is interested in building for the future.

“We’re looking to secure our next generation of readers,” Pankiw said. “Our average age of the reader right now is in their 50s, which is primarily focused on print. We knew that investing in a platform such as Instagram that has a younger demographic would be beneficial to us.”

That began by looking at how the Free Press uses social media, then looking at how Free Press followers engage with social media and how other newspapers use social media.

“That was everything from how frequently are they posting, what kind of posts are they making, what do those posts contain element-wise, and what kind of posts are they not making,” Pankiw said. She and Lebar also looked to followers to learn what they wanted and expected from the media company. Then, they had to be realistic about what they could accomplish: “We also had to do a look internally and see what resources we had to dedicate to Instagram — what do we have monetarily to look at investing in Instagram ads, sponsored posts, content creation,” she said.

To develop a strategy, Pankiw said the Free Press in-house designer worked with them to create branding guidelines. Instagram provided an opportunity to stay true to the Free Press branding while exploring slightly more colourful options.

“We came up with brand guidelines … [covering] everything from the line height to the font size, just so everything is consistent and it’s highly recognisable as the Free Press brand,” she explained. The guidelines also were applied across other social media platforms.

Consistent posting became central to the strategy, and using scheduling tools — in this case, Later.com — has been part of that strategy.

“We also started not only posting our beautiful photos from our photojournalists, but we began posting other promotional content as well,” Pankiw said. As the company celebrates 150 years of operation, it has launched a book club and is looking at creating a community cookbook; it also has a movie night and a “Brew Box” initiative targeting craft brew enthusiasts. Social platforms provide an ideal way to extend the reach of those initiatives and increase engagement.

Although currently Pankiw and Lebar are the only members of the social media team, they’re looking forward to the day when that team expands. The current Instagram strategy provides a firm set of guidelines for such things as hashtag use, the type and amount of content, posting frequency, emoji use, tools for measuring engagement, and more.

How it’s working

Instagram has become the main tool for engaging non-paying users. While Pankiw said she hopes that one day that will lead to those users becoming paid subscribers, it’s still important for followers to recognise and connect with the Free Press brand and mission.

“It’s important for them to see that we’re not an old, rigid, cold institution and we are trying to reflect the needs of our community,” she said. “We want them to know they can come to us for news about their community.”

In the one-year period following the implementation of an Instagram strategy, the Free Press grew its number of followers by 40%. That following grew exponentially within the 30- to 40-year-old demographic, which is an age group that Facebook was not reaching.

What publishers need to know

With two years of experience behind them, Lebar and Pankiw said they had learned many lessons that other publishers can benefit from:

1. Know your product. “Know what you and your organisation are on social media,” Pankiw advised. That will inform the tone used for each platform and means understanding how followers on each platform perceive your company.
2. Know your audience. Lebar said the easiest way to know what audiences want is to ask them. Free Press has used an audience feedback survey that it posts on the channel to encourage that interaction. “We definitely are influenced by the feedback that we got from them,” she said.
3. Know your platforms. Learn everything you can about the available tools, successful formats, and best times to post. “Be sure you’re speaking with your colleagues who are also on the platforms and asking how they use those social channels as well,” Pankiw said.
4. Know yourself. From staffing to budget, outline your strengths as well as your limitations — and then act on them. “It’s better to be consistently great at a few things than mediocre at a lot of things,” Lebar said.
5. Know that things are changing. This is not a set-it-and-forget-it world; social platforms are constantly changing features and tools. “It’s very difficult to stay on top of everything, and that’s OK,” Pankiw said.

Finally, it’s important to accept that growth will eventually plateau—and that’s not a sign of failure.

“User habits are changing, platforms are changing, and you have to be prepared to adapt,” Pankiw said. “But it’s not necessarily a sign of failure, it’s just a sign of opportunity and growth forward.” 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .