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Traditional media urged to take advantage of social media to reach target audience

Traditional news media platforms like the television, newspapers, radio and the online portals must take advantage of social media to reach their target audience and maximise profit, a digital marketing strategist, Mr Maximus Ametorgoh has suggested.

“Consciously or unconsciously, we have entered an era where technology has become an asset and social media has taken over the news space and non-professionals are making very good use of them for money,” he said.

 According to him, the audience of traditional media is gradually shifting its attention to these mushroom sources of news, adding it was therefore incumbent on the media houses to optimally shift focus to the use of social media for enhanced productivity.

Mr Ametorgoh who is head of Digital at Output Multimedia, a private multimedia, stated these here on Tuesday when he facilitated a workshop organised for journalists in the Upper West and Savannah regions.

The workshop was organised by MTN Ghana for the news editors to be abreast with modern trends for reaching out to their target audience with the news and also make profits in that regard.

Mr Ametorgoh hinted that according to survey, over 85 per cent of Ghanaians used Whatsapp, 51 per cent had access to Facebook and over 49 per cent were very active on Youtube hence including social media in the news production and distribution value chain would be an added advantage to the particular media house.

“In this case, you create a community and your subscribers or followers become your product and owners of the social media space will be willing to pay you based on the number of people in your community and the activities they undertake there with regards to what you post”, he stated.

Mr Ametorgoh outlined that news distribution through the traditional medium alone had become somewhat challenging considering the speed at which the online users were able to reach their audience at very minimal cost without recourse to transportation and dispatch personnel.

“An issue happens and an unprofessional in the media space who runs a portal is able to inform people immediately, and so the traditional media can also decide to operate a very active website which is mobile friendly and could post more stories on it than it would in for instance, the newspaper,” he stressed.

Mr Ametorgoh also explained that some organisations and media houses were using email to increase their revenue by designing newsletters which they distributed to their audience within stipulated time in the day, saying the practice helped them to reach their audience with speed and also increased their revenue as a media entity.

He mentioned some of the media channels that could be monitised as website, email, social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and Twitter, Blog, Podcast, E-Materials, live streaming and E-Commerce, adding that to begin with the individual organisation would be expected to build a community, create value, build influence, commercialise content, allow for subscriptions or pay-to-view modes and exchange attention of interest.

Mr Ametorgah urged editors to consult experts in the field if they were unable to effectively administrate the platforms.

FROM LYDIA DARLINGTON FORJDOUR, WA

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