Tips from Our Stations: Hearken Best Practices
Credit: Chelsea Naughton / America Amplified
One of our mantras at America Amplified is that we all know a lot more than we give ourselves credit for. We say this all the time to each other AND to the stations we’re working with. So, with that in mind, we held five roundtable discussions (aka “Table Talks”) during our fly-in meetup for the 2024 Elections project. As expected, the attendees had a no shortage of great ideas and wisdom to share with one another on each of the topics.
Read the takeaways from our other sessions:
Building and Sustaining Community Partnerships | Forging Bonds with Overlooked Communities
Listening Sessions 2.0 | Elevating Your Digital Engagement Strategies
Hearken Best Practices
No matter if Hearken is new to you or old hat, it always pays to think about the best ways to use the technology. The tech is just part of the whole strategy you’re deploying. What role does the tech play, and what role does it not play. How do you set up a good Hearken workflow?
Tips about where to put your embed
Stations have learned that the embed does best if people can see the whole thing at once rather than having to click on something to open it.
So where can it live?
On its own landing page, explaining the project
At the bottom of an election-related story
On your home page
On your elections reporter’s bio page
On a voting FAQ page
In your voting guide
On your politics landing page
On posters and postcards (the URL) that you hand out or pin up
In your newsletter
Anywhere else you can think of!
Tips for telling people your collecting their insights and questions using Hearken
Make an introductory piece for print / web / broadcast
This is your chance to set the tone for your series and tell your audience what you're about to do — and how they can get involved.
Tell the audience why you're doing this new thing
Explain the process (in text / graphics / both)
Give examples of the kind of response you're looking for
Invite them to participate
Include the form embed so they can easily ask a question
Include a link to the landing page so they can get more info
Tips for maximizing your engagement on Hearken
Highlight the kinds of responses you want to receive. Can be responses you’ve answered in the past, or questions you don’t even know if you’ll answer yet but they are good questions.
Share your Hearken embed with partner organizations to further your reach. Even if you’re worried that you don’t have enough community partners, 1-2 partners is enough and can open the door to others. No need to overwhelm yourself!
Don’t respond to trolls. If you’re not sure if they’re being sincere, respond as if they are.
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