Andrew Haeg, CEO and Founder of GroundSource, talks to your host Vahe Arabian of State of Digital Publishing about the state of community journalism. GroundSource empowers community-based organizations to build authentic two-way conversations with their stakeholders via mobile. Andrew discusses quantifying audience loyalty, the power of mobile texting, turning engagement into revenue, and what GroundSource has been accomplishing.
Episode Highlights:
- Andrew Haeg shares his personal background as well as that of GroundSource.
- What was the lightbulb moment for Andrew to double down and focus on mobile texting?
- How does Andrew Haeg quantify having a loyal audience?
- How does he compare GroundSource with competitors?
- GroundSource is working towards tying audience engagement with audience development.
- It is hard to build relationships with customers when many don’t know exactly where their content has come from.
- How do you transform engagement into money?
- Are tech platforms trying to create more of an ecosystem?
- How do publishers prioritize and decide how to compete against everything else out there?
- Small companies should create products that are less likely to be taken over by bigger companies.
- Andrew Haeg shares some GroundSource case studies.
- How does Andrew feel that GroundSource fits into the community journalism landscape?
- What role will pop-ups and newsletters have in the future?
- What plans does GroundSource have for 2019?
- Listen more than you talk.
3 Key Points:
- Unlike email, with texting there are no filters, labels or folders that you can send messages to where it won’t hit your inbox.
- The average person is scrolling through 300 feet of online news feeds a day.
- We are moving into a transparent opt-in culture as far as privacy and what information a brand is getting about them.
Tweetable Quotes:
- “You can have more impact as a journalist sometimes by getting people engaged than you can by writing a single story.” – Andrew Haeg
- “Texting provides an incredible channel for developing and cultivating loyalty and turning audiences into fans and brand ambassadors by experiencing more direct connection to reports or news organizations that they trust.” – Andrew Haeg
- “If somebody texts you it is going to get your attention 98-99% of the time.” – Andrew Haeg
