User generated content: Power to the people

In the age of open journalism, where anyone can publish anything via the internet, how can publications make the most of user generated content and really engage with their readers?

Traditionally, journalists wrote articles, they were printed and that was it. The only opportunity a reader had to respond to the article was to write a letter to the publication and, if they were really lucky, the letter might be published. However, as print moves to pixels and more and more content is published online, things have changed. It is no longer a one way street and readers have the opportunity to share content and comment.

This has changed the way online content is produced. In the past, website traffic was driven by search engines. When journalists wrote for the web, they were writing for the GoogleBots and their copy was strung together using key words to push the article up the search results. With the rise of social media, traffic is now driven by sharing. This has opened up the way journalists write because they are writing for real people, rather than robots. Quality content is more important than squeezing in as many keywords and search terms.

The mindset of publications has changed too. It is no longer a case of just pushing content out there. Readers expect to be able to engage with the content and the publication. They expect to respond directly and immediately to articles and communicate with the journalist and other readers. Publications are entering the realm of conversation and to be really successful they have to start listening and responding to their readers – they need to give them a voice too!

However, comments sections are not just about giving your readers an opportunity to share their opinions, they are a great way to gauge what content is really engaging people. As advertisers adjust to the move towards online, they are becoming more savvy. They are no longer just interested in page impressions and users, they are looking for interaction – if someone spends time on a webpage, they are more likely to absorb the adverts that appear on that page. Publications are waking up to this and are producing content that will spark debate and populate their comments sections.

Sparking debate
When journalist Samantha Brick wrote a column in the Daily Mail, bemoaning that women hate her because she is so attractive, many people questioned why an article with no purpose other than massaging Ms Brick’s ego had been published by a national newspaper. However, the article was a huge success for the Daily Mail, as along with the outrage and subsequent media attention generated by the article, the webpage attracted 5725 comments and was shared by 9667 Tweets and 222,247 ‘likes’ on Facebook – great news for the Mail’s advertisers.

User generated content is also increasingly being used as a source of information and content for journalists and publications. Tweets are often used as quotes and, increasingly, whole news items are being written around conversations and conflicts that occurred on Twitter.

Because of the immediacy and shared nature of social media, it is also used to report on events as they unfold.

Caution must be exercised when using social media to drive content, as although Twitter is great for spreading ‘news’, it does not necessarily mean that the information is correct.

The website of music magazine NME has really embraced user generated content and creates whole features from its readers’ Tweets. After labeling a Lady Gaga album as the ‘most pretentious album ever’, it compiled a feature ’50 Angriest Lady Gaga Fans’ – composed solely of outraged Tweets and comments left on its website.

So should you run out now and set up a Twitter account and add a comments section to your website? No – if you are going to do it, you need to be clear why or there is no point. What you can do is make sure that the content you put on your website is easily accessible and sharable. However, unless the content is well written and of interest to your audience, who will want to share it?