We talk to a social media strategist at one of Canada’s best-known media outlets about their social strategy, and how they use Spike to stay on top of the stories that matter in real time.
Last month, we named broadcaster Global News the biggest Canadian publisher on Facebook.
To get a better understanding of how the site, one of the best-known media outlets in Canada, is using social media to reach their readers, we talked to their Social Media Strategist, Shauna Rempel.
1) Can you tell us about your role at Global News?
My role as social media strategist is a relatively new one for the company. Social is a part of the job for pretty much every staffer at Global News but we didn’t have someone who took a “big picture” view until recently. I’m in charge of the social media strategy across the country and because of this I get to work with every team in our 12 newsrooms.
2) How important Is social media as a distribution channel for Global News? Are there differences in how the team approaches Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms?
Social media has emerged as the largest driver of traffic to globalnews.ca. Every day we are able to reach millions on various social platforms. We do take a different approach to each social network – Twitter is a natural choice when it comes to breaking news and political stories, for example. But when we have a good social story – by which I mean one that elicits emotions and reaction and has powerful visuals – we tend to share it across all social networks.
3) Global News has been a big name in Canadian media for a while. How is the Global News brand adapting to the new opportunities and challenges that social media brings to publishers? How do you balance traditional news values with making sure you’re engaging your social fans?
We realize that social media is ever-evolving and one of the ways we keep up is by exploring new social storytelling tools and networks. For example, we were one of the first North American news organizations actively using Snapchat. But all of our work is guided by the principles and practices set out by Global News and parent company Shaw Media. Although those policies have expanded to include the development of social media, the values around our news gathering and presentation remain consistent – we don’t disseminate unverified information on social media and we share news in an engaging way that doesn’t oversell it. No clickbait!
4) How are the Global News team using Spike in their workflow?
We use Spike as part of our social media analytics toolkit to see what stories are resonating with people. It’s a quick way to gauge reaction to our work as well as see what’s clicking for our competition – and you can drill down by topic or location to get a more detailed picture. Lately I’ve been fascinated with the two beta features Influencers and Creators – you can quickly see how various accounts and individuals stack up on social media and add them to a Watch List.
5) What metrics are Global News interested in when measuring the success of their content on social media? Is it clickthroughs, overall engagements, a combination?
Increasingly we are focused on engagement as our key performance indicator when it comes to social media and social referral. How long did someone spend watching that video or responding to a question or writing a comment? Did they take the time to share a user-generated photo or video? Those interactions indicate to us that we have loyal audience members who are invested in the stories that we are producing.
6) Finally, what advice would you give other publishers when planning a social strategy?
Advice No. 1: Start with a goal. What are you trying to accomplish with this? Revisit the goal periodically to stay on focus.
Advice No. 2: Track everything, both quantitative and qualitative. Use your company’s analytics tools (or sign up for the free versions) to measure hashtag usage, pageviews, replies, reach, etc. But also take screenshots of comments and other feedback that can help you understand your audience better. It will also help you stick to Advice No. 1.
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