The Green Line - CrowdNewsroom as Part of a Content Strategy
The Green Line creates content in a four-week action journey, a trademarked variation of an engagement cycle, which is focused on motivating the community to take action. The aim of the process is not only to draw attention to a problem in Toronto, but also to provide concrete suggestions for solutions.
The action journey begins with an article that defines the current problem. This is followed by another piece that presents known solutions. Next, The Green Line hosts an event where it brings together members of its community to explore new approaches collaboratively. Moreover, the community is invited to share their experiences and suggestions through a CrowdNewsroom. The Green Line then processes the responses in a creative and engaging way, integrating them into the overall process.
How The Green Line Uses the CrowdNewsroom to Engage the Community 🔗
Anita Li, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Green Line, creates a new CrowdNewsroom for each topic. The first four questions are always the same and are used to create a contact: "What is your name? How old are you? What is your e-mail? Where do you live in Toronto?" This allows new members to be integrated directly into the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system as part of the community.
The following questions vary from topic to topic - this is the content part of the survey. For example, participants are asked what experience they have had with the problem and what solutions/tips they have learned from it. Furthermore they ask their community what information or tools The Green Line can offer to help them navigate this problem.
The Distribution of the CrowdNewsroom - beabee as an Offline Tool? 📝
Once the CrowdNewsroom has been created, The Green Line still needs to distribute it to its community. To do this, it shares the link in its newsletter, mentions it on its website and has come up with another special way:
For each topic, The Green Line also organizes an on-site event. Anita Li also wanted to include visitors to these events in her community.
She came up with a simple but innovative concept: “After each event, we distribute questionnaires that we simply printed out from beabee.” The Green Line receives answers to its content-related questions along with contact details. The editorial team then adds all the information to beabee.
Transforming the CrowdNewsroom-Answers to Content - Data Analysis 📊
Once all the responses have been received, the analysis of the CrowdNewsroom begins. To do this, The Green Line exports the data from beabee and analyzes it using its own algorithm. The algorithm searches the text entries for various topics and sorts them: “We then look for the three most frequently mentioned topics or solutions.” These solutions are then published on The Green Line website. However, if there are only a few answers, this analysis can also be done manually.
Why The Green Line Uses beabee Instead of Google Forms 🔐
The Green Line has been conducting the survey with beabee for some time now: “We used to use Google Forms, but that had too many privacy issues for us,” says Anita Li, explaining the switch, “we want to protect our users' data as much as possible.” Beabee acts according to the privacy-first principle, data protection is the top priority here.
The second advantage of beabee compared to other survey tools is that it is also a CRM tool: “This means I can use the answers from the surveys directly to send out individual newsletters,” explains Anita Li. As a result, the members in the CRM are now divided into districts thanks to the information they provide in the CrowdNewsroom.
Why The Green Line also Uses beabee for Donation Management 💵
The Green Line has now also moved its donation and membership system from Patreon to beabee. The advantage is clear to Anita Li: “It simply feels much more professional.” By this, the journalist means that the beabee site integrates seamlessly into The Green Line cosmos. The website runs via the URL of The Green Line and also features the branding of the local medium. Anita Li sums it up: "It's all personalized, it feels so seamless. When people click on it, they don't feel like they're leaving The Green Line."
The Advantage of a Donation Platform and CRM in One Tool 🤝
But the switch to beabee is also more convenient for The Green Line itself. The fact that donation and membership management is integrated directly into beabee means that donors and members can be automatically added to the CRM. Previously, Anita Li had to export the data from Patreon and then upload it to her CRM.
Another advantage for her was the lower costs. Patreon keeps a significantly higher fee than beabee. This means that more of the revenue from memberships and donations remains with The Green Line itself after the switch.
The Green Line is a good example of using the CrowdNewsroom in an innovative way to involve the community. Publisher and editor-in-chief Anita Li also likes beabee's approach as a “community-driven” software solution. Beabee is developed in close consultation with the users, which Anita Li also appreciates: “I know that beabee comes from people who have similar goals to mine.”
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