Today, driven by digital technology, new vocabulary and concepts are emerging: digital transformation, online communities, personal data, influencer marketing, etc.
These are replacing the old vocabulary and concepts used by traditional media: audience and readership, reading contract and editorial line, socio-demographic profiles, journalistic investigation.
The very notion of media is fading: for some, brands are media, influencers are media, social networks are media in many ways, even if they do not always assume full responsibility or all the duties that come with it.
This is clearly not just a question of vocabulary; digital technology is transforming the world and creating a new one.
But do audiences and communities really have nothing in common? How do they differ? How can we engage and monetize a community in the same way we do with an audience? What do online communities bring to traditional media?
According to Stanislas Balaÿ, Director of Content and Business Development at Dailymotion Africa, the main difference between communities and audiences is that audiences are "passive" while communities participate in the debate.
For him, the first essential thing is to manage your online community well, which means knowing how to bring it together, get its members to interact, moderate, and steer.
He proposes three concepts:
social listening, which consists of listening to what is happening in your community;
interaction, which consists of ensuring that the community interacts with each other and feels involved;
the well-observed effect, which consists of enabling identification. If a community identifies with something, it becomes united and powerful. The series Bref is a prime example of content that allows people to identify, share, and interact.
Korede Odjo Bella, Director of Vibe Radio and elle.ci, points out that the unique feature of her business lies in the complementarity between old and new media that she experiences on a daily basis, and that this notion of interactivity is not unique to digital media, as radio also allows the audience to participate. Being able to rely on both traditional and digital media in a 360° approach is extremely powerful.
Philippe Perdrix, CEO of 35° Nord, does not pit traditional media against digital media in his press relations agency business: for him, what matters is the message. Regardless of the medium, what matters is the message and the values we want to convey. Social media allows press coverage to go viral and is therefore both complementary and indispensable.
For David Gueye, Deputy Director of Digital at TV5MONDE Afrique, when we look at the evolution of media consumption, we cannot ignore the digital dimension: internet users are taking control and deciding when and where they consume content.
In addition, new content created specifically for digital media is multiplying, particularly at TV5MONDE Afrique.
This difference in temporality is noted by Stanislas Balay, who believes that the digital tempo, consisting of short moments of consumption, appeals to young people and that this is becoming a real challenge for brands, which must capture attention in a matter of seconds.
When it comes to monetizing these communities, there is a general consensus that advertisers' investment levels are still too low to cover costs, but at this stage, the participants' objective is rarely a return on investment.
In the case of TV5MONDE Afrique, the primary objective is to ensure that the content produced and broadcast by the channel is distributed as widely as possible, particularly to targets that are difficult to reach with television. Monetization of content is secondary.
Nevertheless, as Stanislas BALAY points out, the battle is far from lost. Ten years ago in France, everyone thought that digital technology would kill the press, whereas today we can see that the press is doing well in France because it has successfully undergone its digital revolution by increasing video content and finding new areas of monetization (subscriptions, paid articles, etc.).
Guillaume Lacroix, one of the founders of Brut, recently stated that the debate was not between traditional and digital media, but between new and old brands. Can an established media brand successfully undergo digital transformation?
For Habib Bemba, Director of Digital Transformation and Media at Orange Côte d'Ivoire, digital transformation is possible for an "old" brand, but it requires a strong desire to change the corporate culture. This is, of course, more complicated than with a pure player. Nevertheless, the announcement of the partnership agreement between Orange and RTI clearly shows that it is possible and that a traditional brand can successfully implement its digital revolution.
*This article was written based on contributions from participants in the debate
"From traditional media to pure players: creating online communities"
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