"Parents" magazine y facebook

 "Parents Mag Offers the ‘Content Carrot’ for Facebook Growth"

Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Steve Smith

About a year ago, Parents magazine had a small but growing presence on Facebook, with about 25,000 

fans. But in short order a concerted plan to leverage the social network more effectively with readers has grown the base exponentially, now standing at 256,000. “We have incorporated social media – Facebook and Twitter – and really thought about digital and editorial together to develop for Facebook a well-rounded presence and portfolio,” says Dana Points, editor-in-chief,Parents.

Like other magazine brands with fast-growing Facebook fan bases, Parents is starting to look at the social network as a publishing platform, a place where its users can meet and engage in unique content. The very popular Parents Cover Contests now lets users on Facebook enter their kids’ pictures directly on that page for a chance to see their young ones featured on a future cover. “A big chunk of recent growth has come from the cover contests,” says Points.

Even more ambitious was a recent “Expert Day” event held live on the platform where parenting experts answered user queries. Arranging to have a group of professionals ready to respond to the rapid fire, real-time environment was a challenge, Points admits, but it paid off in high amounts of interactivity. “We received about a question per minute," she recalls. More than half of questions posed were answered directly by an expert and others got responses from fellow users. But overall 80% of the wave of queries posted received an answer. “Sometimes when you offer a timed event it increases the appeal because it is a narrow window of opportunity,” she says. But it demonstrated that editorially driven programs had an important place on Facebook, even if they required some heavy lifting. The program doubled the average number of daily likes Parents was getting go its page. “It was gratifying to me that it didn’t’ have to be a contest. This carrot was the content.”

In addition to contests and exclusive content, the third leg to the Facebook stool for Parents is talking directly with users and letting them see their voices played back in the magazine and on the Web site. Several months ago the letters to the editor page was remade with social networking and interactivity in mind. Now part of the mix are Facebook questions that get expert answers. And of course the print magazine has persistent shout-outs for its readers to become part of the conversation and “like” Parents.

And along with editorial strategy, the metrics too have evolved. A year ago many magazines were measuring Facebook success by their number of fans/likes. Now Points and her social media manager Sarah Hull are looking at the kinds of discussions that take place here, the number of comments different editorial inspires, how engaged people seem to be and then how many people are brought back to Parents.com. “It’s a virtuous circle,” Points says. And the circle gets bigger as people re-distribute the content throughout the social network.

And sometimes success and engagement come simply from asking the right question. Parents recently garnered its first post with 2,000 comments. The wave of responses was to a simple question posed to Facebook visitors: “How old were you when you had your first baby?”