Your paper is a valuable resource. It helps to create community around a branded content hub with relevant news and updates for your audience. But how can you take it to the next level?
To start, have you given much thought to whom your audience is? In marketing, these are called Buyer Personas; in Human Resources, they’re referred to Stakeholders. But regardless of the terminology, the concept remains the same: These are the people your content matters to. They are the ones who read your paper, who visit your website, who care about you.
So how can you provide them with the best possible paper with each issue?
1. Log in regularly to your paper
One of the great things about Paper.li is the ability to keep an updated social media presence through sharing your paper to your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn profiles. While these can be posted automatically with each issue, take it to the next level and customize your notifications.
Give your social media readers a preview of what is in your latest issue. You can make this as simple as a few words previewing your paper in a promotional Tweet or post on Facebook or LinkedIn. A Tweet message example could be something like this: “Three Generations of Piqué: The latest updates from Gerard PiqueHQ is out! http://news.gerardpique.com”).
2. Make sure your topic sections are relevant
In other words, know your audience. Does your paper revolve around a specific topic areas? If you’re using the classic layout of Paper.li that includes topic sections, be sure to tailor your sections to your audience expectations. The publisher of one of our favorite papers AI Magazine has applied custom labels to his paper. For example, he’s relabeled the default topic section Technology as AI Tech.
You can customize the names of your sections. Give it a try!
3. Curate from a Twitter list
Ask yourself this: Who does your audience turn to for information? Create a Twitter list that includes these people and then make this list your top Source.
For example, does your paper revolve around a specific sports club, such as the Blue Jackets hockey team? Create a list from the best resources, including fan accounts, sports editors, and even the Twitter handle from the team itself. With each new edition, you’ll be curating from a highly targeted list from the sources your readers are probably already looking at.
This turns your paper into a one-stop shop content hub for them.
4. Filter
What pain points are you addressing for your audience? Whether they’re looking to be entertained, keeping up with the latest news, or reading the tips and tricks of your industry — on most source types, you can apply filters to pinpoint content you wish to always include or always exclude.
For example, a paper on Education such as http://digest.nisod.org/ may wish to avoid any mention of the partisan politics. Using our keyword filters to tune out what you don’t want and provide your audience with the information they are searching for.
We want to hear from you too. What other ways do you make sure your paper is speaking to your audience. Leave us a tip in the comments.
Super tips, Kelly! My fav tip? Using Twitter lists to curate content:)
I’ve been working on my paper for about a year now. How time flies!
And in that time, I’ve learned to take the time to review my paper every day before publishing.
I feel a responsibility to readers to provide something of value, something personable, and some fun and entertainment:)
Fine-tuning my paper makes it a valuable resource not only for readers, but also for me. My paper is my daily go-to reading and learning resource.
Hi Jessica,
I am sure I responded to this — where did that darn comment go?
Great way to put it. As content curators and information go-tos we do owe our readers the very best! And you’re right. If a paper is well groomed and cared for it provides value for everyone, the publisher included!
hello,
I would like to set the paper as a weekly. How do I do it? I did read the method, but could not find the settings.
sincerely,
Nita
Hi Nita! Hopefully you found the answer.You can make that change under your global content settings!
Hi there Nita, sorry for the delay responding. You can go to your Settings > Global Settings > Publishing Schedule and make the change to Weekly.
I agree that fine-tuned paper is more readable and it’s must that all papers that are used were fine-tuned. Sometimes it takes more time to get it fine-tuned but it worse to spend that time.
Happy to hear fine-tuning is working for you, Marie. Indeed, the more love you put in, the more love you get out 🙂
Fine Tuning your paper is the best way to get ranked fast on google,that and some backlinks.
Very true. I took your advice. THANKS!!
I use Google Alerts to identify the content I want to include in our newsletter.
Very nice tip, Edward!
This is a very useful and informative article. Just what I was looking for! Thank you:)
Amazing tips. Especialy I like Twitter helps. I have never used Twitter this way. And now I gonna to.
Thanks for the advice. After reading this I went from a novice to a professional. I am creating a Newspaper/Entertainment guide for North Central Florida. Thanks to Paper.Li and Kelly Hungerford I now know how to do this.
Thanks for this information, I think it will come in handy in the future.
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Thanks for the advice. After reading this I went from a novice to a professional. I am creating a Newspaper/Entertainment guide for North Central Florida. Thanks to Paper.Li and Kelly Hungerford