Social media management in traditional media companies : strategically engaging public service television audiences through social media: the case of RTP and TV Cultura

Abstract

Audience engagement is one of the most sought-after metrics in new media. Traditional media has been greatly impacted by the rise of Web 2.0—from on-demand services to second screen apps, audiences have endless options when it comes to choosing which media content to consume, when to consume it, and how to consume it. Public service broadcasters in different countries face the challenge of attracting new viewers in the ever-increasing fragmented media scenario, where audiences’ attention is a scarce and valuable resource.

The topic of engaging audiences in the Web 2.0 has received increased research consideration. Nevertheless, the majority of media studies focus on the political role of audiences and the polarization between user exploitation and user participation. Insights on how traditional media companies develop and implement new media strategies to engage and retain audiences are still scarce. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate how public service broadcasters apply managerial strategies to engage and attract viewers and how they gauge the effectiveness of current strategies.

A mixed-methods approach relying on a case-study strategy is used to investigate the strategic creation and implementation process within the context of public service broadcasters. To understand how strategies are implemented, quantitative and qualitative approaches are used to analyse the content collected from the Brazilian TV Cultura and the Portuguese RTP fan pages on Facebook. Additional insights are generated through the qualitative analysis of two semi-structured interviews.

The study sheds light on issues that negatively impact social media results within traditional media companies, such as a blurred definition of goals and strategies, broad and abstract goals, the lack of cross-media metrics to compare engagement rates on social media with television audience ratings, and communication issues between different departments. The empirical study also advances the understanding of the value of stimulating user participation, creating exclusive content for social media, finding a company’s own voice in social media, constant re-evaluating strategies and clearly defining goals in the increasingly fragmented media scenario.