Being a social media manager might sound like a light and fluffy, fun job, but for Lucy Santerre, Maine Public’s social media manager, it’s more a matter of juggling multiple newsroom and public-facing roles at once.
“What a social media manager does is write copy, edit copy, shoot videos and photos, edit videos and photos, publish content, schedule meetings, plan shoots and do all that as well as managing strategy of the brand on an account and that account would be an Instagram profile, a Facebook profile,” she explains. “I’m not saying I do all that every single day, but in 2024, it’s creative direction, it’s copywriting, it’s marketing, it’s digital strategy, it’s video editing, it’s internal and external coordination and brand awareness promotion and PR.”
Maine Public is a not-for-profit media corporation that combines TV and radio content from local and national reporters and sources, including PBS and NPR, with on-the-ground reporters and producers (including It’s All Journalism’s own audio producer Nicole Ogrysko).
“Maine Public is a news media organization in addition to being a production company and a distributor as well. We own the towers the radio and TV signals come out of and sometimes we produce the content, sometimes we buy the content, sometimes we’re sharing national original news; all the time we’re sharing news written up by reporters on the ground in Maine,” Santerre says. The station’s signal also reaches into Canada and up to New Hampshire.
Local reporting is woven into the day’s NPR programming, including local spots on All Things Considered, Morning Edition and other popular NRP shows. It’s a big part of Santerre’s job to take those local stories and put them online, not just on Maine Public’s website but repackaging them for social media as well.
She knows that some people might follow the station’s Instagram and Facebook profiles because they’re supportive of the station and are also listeners and viewers. But, it’s also possible people are only getting their information from what’s posted on social media.
“The way I look at social media for a news agency, if people are going to be getting their news on social media, and you produce news, then meet people where they are and deliver it to them as the reliable source that you are,” she says. “You’d rather them get the news from a reliable source such as your own organization than an unreliable source and we know there are plenty of those unreliable sources out there.”
The goal, like any news organizations or any brand that incorporates social media into its marketing strategy, is to increase awareness, recognition and support.
“Driving conversion and driving traffic to the website are two biggest uses of social media” for Maine Public, Santerre says. “You can utilize organic (posting), you don’t pay for it, just post it, or paid, where you target an audience and put a nice shiny box on their Facebook feed with some sort of incentive. Sign up for our newsletter and you can get a free this, or you will be entered to win a free ticket to a show… Good social media strategy practice would be to limit conversion-oriented content to under 10%. People don’t want to be asked things, they want to be shown things, entertained, given valuable information. Once you’ve gained their trust, then you can ask for things like signing up for our newsletter. It’s all marketing.”
Lucy Santerre, social media manager for Maine Public, discusses the role social media plays in public media.
