I gave a Bold Talk at Inbound 2016 on the topic of audience building and community. I came at it from the standpoint of the news business, where I spent the bulk of my career and I have a lot of opinions as to how it got to the place it finds itself in now.

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OWN YOUR AUDIENCE:
DON’T GIVE IT AWAY
Or: How I learned to stop worrying and love
my readers.
Amy Vernon

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• 20 years in newspaper
journalism
• Miami Herald staff
Pulitzer, 1992
• Top female submitter of
all time to Digg.com
• 15th most influential
woman in tech on Twitter
(Business Insider/Peer
Index)
• Mommy, wife & Siberian
Husky owner
Photo courtesy of Social Media Week

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A little history, first. I mean, we spent thousands of years building our audiences, right?
A LITTLE HISTORY

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The Roman Acta Diurna dates to 59 BC when news of the day would be
inscribed on stone or metal and hung outside government offices
Photo by Dawn Danby via Flickr Creative Commons

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The government got the people to come to them for the news.
Right there, right outside their offices.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Senate

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The birth of the printing press helped the church
way spread their word further, so long as you could
read Latin of course.
Photo by Andy via Flickr Creative Commons

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But their reluctance to allow translations led to
(https://www.flickr.com/photos/jezza101/6227242173/)

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Luther, who took his 99 theses and nailed them to the
doors of churches and translated Bibles into German, to
heck with what the Pope said.
Photo by Holly Hayes via Flickr Creative Commons

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FAST-FORWARD A FEW YEARS
OK, let’s fast-forward a bit. I could give a whole history lesson, but that’s not what we’re
here for.

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When newspapers started, they were very
conversational and had tons of little items with
all the news of their communities and the world
at large.
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth
138466/m1/1/

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A side note: This is my favorite story from this front
page of the El Paso Herald from Oct. 26, 1916.
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth138466/
m1/1/

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As magazines, radio, television and cable news ate into their audiences,
newspapers could have doubled down and become more vital to their
communities.
“To look at the paper is to raise
a seashell to one's ear and to
be overwhelmed by the roar of
humanity.”
― Alain de Botton, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work

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Instead, they became “objective” and
distant. They regionalized their
coverage and consolidated their
companies.
http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/91
3985-morning-news

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But you had to be incredibly motivated to write a letter, and your
response might not publish until long after the article that spurred
it.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/st00ka/8080449439/

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Enter the World Wide Web. Newspapers created forums for their
readers, and added comments to stories. Instant feedback!
Oh, and by the way? That coffee smoke was animated. Very
Geocities. (Friday, Dec. 20, 1996, via Internet Archive)

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Thing is, journalists had become so distant from the
communities they served (sure, not all), they didn’t
really want that feedback.

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They refused to moderate comments and forums,
and the loudmouths reigned. More thoughtful
readers stayed away.
https://xkcd.com/386/

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They didn’t want to be called names or
worse, just for expressing an opinion. And
they weren’t going to get any backup from
the news folks.
http://www.livememe.com/qdz7bkx

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People started having conversations
about news on these platforms. The
conversations were informative and
pleasant. (Yes, that has changed, too.)
http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3q5
tsy

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And now where are we? Circulation is declining. Advertising
revenues are plummeting. And few people are willing to pay for their
news.
http://www.radioinsights.com/newspaper/

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Because for all this time, you’ve abandoned your audience.
You’ve ignored them, not wanted to talk to them, gotten
offended by criticism.

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You’ve told them not to bother spending time with you. No
place for comments, sites that are difficult to navigate,
pop-up ads that auto-play sound.
http://www.memecenter.com/fun/176599/pop-up-ads

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Oh, they’ll come when they see
something that interests them – on
FB, Twitter or elsewhere.
https://memecrunch.com/meme/1359
4/see-ya

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You’ve done it to yourself.
You’ve told them you don’t care about
them.
How can you ask why they turn to others,
then?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/wadem/2730
257498/

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This hubris is not unique to the
news media. A pioneer in social
media, Digg had a huge and
thriving on-site community.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kar
ol-krakowiak/2369803102/

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The powers that be grew to distrust their
own community and took away the ability
to talk to one another on-site.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/
2009/05/digg-shout-share.html

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Hardcore users took to Twitter. Then
discovered they preferred Twitter to Digg.
And stayed there. And Digg made more
changes to take the site away from the
community; it slowly declined and then
died.
http://socialblade.com/show/2010/08/31/an
-old-digg-user-returns-after-being-gone-for-
a-week-comic/

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Not everyone has suffered from this syndrome.
Yes, Buzzfeed.

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Buzzfeed, for example, from the beginning
invited engagement on its site. And on
Facebook, and on Twitter. And anywhere.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/erinchack/pure-
tweets?utm_term=.aupbmpVOb#.qhP4OQ
5A4

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Sure, when your bread and butter is funny
cat and dog pictures, it’s a little easier to
engage with random people.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexnaidus/cozy
-cats-
yall?utm_term=.ueQE6MA7E#.gfxb4wp3b

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But they’ve used all these platforms to
build their audience. An audience they can
monetize anywhere.
http://www.relatably.com/m/get-money-
memes

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Now, most publishers – the so-called
“legacy” as well as newfangled digital-only
– freak out every time Facebook changes
its algorithm.
https://theamericangenius.com/social-
media/facebook-makes-yet-another-
change-to-their-algorithm/

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That’s because half the time, their
audience doesn’t even think about what
site they’re visiting. They saw the story on
Facebook, on Twitter.
http://pandawhale.com/post/58915/walking
-dead-season-5-episode-11-s5e11-the-
distance-gifs-and-memes

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They talk about the stories on social
media. Sometimes they’re even reading
the stories, whole, on social media.
http://www.blowoutcards.com/forums/mem
ber-sales-trade-feedback/877352-so-i-told-
people-have-been-being-warned-about-
me-3.html

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Koff koff *instant articles*
https://instantarticles.fb.com/

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It’s been heartening to see some
publishers begin to embrace on-site
comments again.
The Coral Project, Civil Comments,
Spot.im and others are working to help
make comment sections civil
https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showth
read.php?p=1268931

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– and therefore a place people would
actually want to spend time.
https://imgflip.com/i/107axl

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But this lesson should not be lost on
anyone: Building community matters.

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The thing is, we’ve pushed everyone to
these platforms, and found ourselves at the
mercy of them.
http://ru.memegenerator.net/instance/5482
2257

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What we need to do – NEED – is to use
these platforms (OK, except Vine).
http://wellonscommunications.com/services
/socialmedia/

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Use them to build community. Use them to
engage with our people.
Use them to remind our audience of how
important they are to us – and we are to
them.
https://memegenerator.net/instance/26056
706

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At the end of the day, we need to bring it
home.
http://www.usableinterface.com/articles/is-
your-homepage-doing-what-it-should/

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Own your audience.
http://theeword.co.uk/digital-
marketing/creating-content-with-your-
audience-in-mind-its-not-one-size-fits-all/

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Don’t push them away.
http://conduit1.com/bye-felicia-memes/

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THANK YOU.