Category: J-School

By Tyler Johnson

Nate Schoenfelder is the director of audience engagement at the Montana Free Press. Schoenfelder specializes in marketing and communications. Schoenfelder is from Idaho and, prior to serving as the director of audience engagement at the Montana Free Press, was on the leadership team of a software company called Pingman Tools as their marketing communications manager.

Montana Free Press is present on various social media platforms which include Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Their largest following is on Twitter where they have about 9,000 followers. They remain active on all of their social media platforms. UM student Tyler Johnson interviewed Schoenfelder via email to get a deeper look into the Montana Free Press social media practices. Below is a transcript of their conversation.

Q: Are there any guidelines that you follow when generating a social media post and if so, what are they?
 
A: So, our post guidelines are not formalized, but our biggest north star is to always strive to provide value to a reader. While we often have audience and fundraising needs that we support through social media posting, we view all our social posts through the lens of our role as a news organization and our responsibility to provide information to the public and to offer a venue (flawed as it may be) for public discourse. Our posting is always done with an explicit goal in mind, be it to drive traffic to a story, generate newsletter signups, or solicit audience feedback.

Q: How many people do you have working on your social media team and what are some of the responsibilities?

We have a team of three who oversee our social accounts. As the Director of Audience Engagement, it is my responsibility to set higher-level goals and guide our social media strategy to achieve our objectives. At this point, I will rarely draft social posts. However, outside of our social posts promoting new reporting, I review and approve the content of our posts.

We have a marketing contractor who provides social media support, which includes drafting social posts and managing the day-to-day maintenance of the accounts.

Our Production Editor is responsible for drafting and scheduling all of our social posts for story promotion. Our publishing tools allow us to schedule posting directly from our content management system, so social post drafting is included in the story publication workflow.

By Jenna Peterson

Kristen Sackett is the marketing and events director at the Downtown Missoula Partnership. She originally joined the staff in 2014 and served in this role until March 2018. She resumed her role in 2020 after working for a local marketing and advertising agency. Guiding her marketing and social media interns, the Missoula Downtown social media pages have had tremendous growth. Its Instagram has over 9,500 followers and very consistent engagement. UM student Jenna Peterson recently spoke with Sackett via email on the best practices for social media. Below is a transcript of their conversation.

Q: How do you deal with criticism when people have opposing views on your content?

A: Being criticized is one of the worst feelings, especially in the marketing world; you’re trying to tell a story, share something fun, etc., and unfortunately in today’s world people are quick to judge and spew comments as a keyboard war. Generally, I don’t respond to any negative comments because that would just stir the pot. If it’s a moment where I can educate and provide clarity, I will do so carefully but generally, it’s not worth my time and energy to engage.
If we get a comment that is of a racist manner or has explicit language, I will hide it on Facebook, but won’t delete it on Instagram (we don’t want to be accused of limiting free speech). If there is something I can learn from that person, I’ll make a mental note.

Q: How do you come up with new content ideas when there are not many exciting things going on?

A: I look to other social media pages for inspiration. Look at other Downtowns. Look to other “place-based” accounts. Look to our local businesses. Sometimes I will just go through our photo assets and see if any photos spark an idea. Posts don’t always have to have a specific purpose or message. Sometimes a post can be as simple as “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood” and post a beautiful picture for people to enjoy.