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In the age of the Internet and the increased social media use, local businesses like the Marysville Journal-Tribune are making good use of it.

The Journal-Tribune has increased its engagement with people on social media through their forum, my2centsworth.biz, its own website, marysvillejt.com and its Facebook page.

The strategy to be on the ground level listening to what the people are talking about allows the newspaper to better explain a story, look deeper into a topic or even help gather new story ideas.

“With social media and website engagement, we now have a bigger reach into the community providing us a better idea of what readers are interested in.” Behrens said.

Behrens said the J-T has been able to capitalize on promoting stories through social media, like Stanley Penn’s parole hearing and Honda’s 40th anniversary in Marysville.

He said those social media posts bloomed into opportunities to write more stories the community wanted. He said an example of that included a story about the original “Honda 64” employees, which started gaining interest after the original Honda anniversary story was discussed on Facebook. The J-T made a post asking for anyone that was part of that group to contact the newspaper.

One of those people who connected with the paper through Facebook for that story was Nancy Rider, the first Honda clock number.

Online, Rider contacted the paper about her being one of the first residents to be employed by Honda Marysville in 1978. Though she doesn’t use Facebook much, she found out about the Journal-Tribune’s interest in finding original Honda employees after a friend shared the paper’s post with her.

She said she likes how the paper handles its social media engagement with the community. She said it’s a good idea to put out content through social media to make sure everyone can read it.

“I always like to see the things (going on) out there,” Rider said. “(The paper is) a part of our community, and I think it’s interesting to still know what’s going on in Marysville. I enjoy seeing these stories.”

With increased engagement on social media, that has led to increased traffic on the Journal-Tribune’s website.

According to data provided by the Journal-Tribune, the number of page views the Journal-Tribune website garnered in 2017 were more than 30.7 million, which is more than a 115 percent increase compared to 2016’s 14.2 million views.

Behrens said it was a “pleasant surprise” to find out the new strategies worked, making it “the biggest website in the community as far as traffic.”

“I think the change in the platform and the change in the social media strategy has contributed to the increase in traffic,” he said. “Ultimately, it’s the content the readers are desiring to read.”

Local business owner Bruce Daniels said it’s a good idea for the J-T to use social media as a way to connect with the community on stories and to inform them.

“If it helps better the quality of communications and the community with constructive dialogue, then it can lead to beneficial things,” Daniels said.

Though he doesn’t get on Facebook, he’s seen the effect it has over the community.

“The power of Facebook and social media is incredible,” Daniels said. “The people commenting are paying attention.”

Even though many people would tell you that they get their news on Facebook, the one thing that isn’t being said is those stories talked about are generally posted by newspapers. The local schools had a survey done last year that attributed 70 percent of local news consumed in Marysville to the Journal-Tribune.

Behrens also said the Reader Advisory Board as well has been effective engagement as well. By giving people a look at “the inside of how we do what we do,” he said the Journal-Tribune has helped the community members really understand why a local newspaper is so vital to a small towns identity.

Behrens said future ideas for the paper will involve the archives being implemented with the main website. Combining the separate websites into one would be the “next big thing for us.”

“We’re trying to unlock all of our archives back to 1849 into a one-stop shop on the website,” he said. “We hope in the next year that happens.”

Something else to look forward to is The City of Marysville’s 200th anniversary in August of 2019. The J-T will be compiling a special section documenting the areas rich history.

“Just like any utility company where you pay for a service, we’re providing one to the community that includes recording the daily history,” Behrens said. “We hope our efforts to be able to tell the community’s story of what happened over the last 200 years turns out because its a lot of information to gather in such a short period of time.”







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