Creative ways to connect with your audiences in an interactive era By Jim Evans (Note: This professional development features is provided through a partnership of IFAJ and the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, University of Illinois.) As an agricultural journalist: How can you reach out to your audiences in ways that help them learn, grow and get involved with you, and each other? How can your audiences reach out to you in ways that help you learn, grow and get involved with them? Both questions address important goals of effective agricultural communicating. The second question may seem surprising as journalists have often been taught to view themselves as informers more than those being informed. However, persistent failure of one-way approaches to communicating and the emergence of new interactive media are crying for a broader perspective. John Cokley, University of Queensland, put it this way recently in describing the financial importance of audience involvement for media survival: "It is…imperative that publishers, editors and journalists acknowledge the audience's desire for not only the ability to respond and interact, but also the ability to contribute…in meaningful ways." In this feature we are drawing upon the experiences of agricultural and other journalists around the world to highlight creative ways to do so. Sources of these ideas appear at the end of the feature. You can review some of them online in full-text form.   I. How you and your audiences can learn, grow and get involved View them as contributors Examples: Encourage more news from them (voluntary or by payment for news tips) Invite their views as guest columnists and commentators (regular basis or not) Create reader forums Feature materials prepared by and for special parts of your audience (e.g., youths) Invite and publish more letters to the editor   Help your audience members share information Examples: "Can you help me?" sections in which readers answer each others' questions Favorite tools, photos, etc. with readers as judges as well as contributors Free classified section Shared experiences with equipment, farming methods, food preparation, other   Get them involved for fun Examples: Puzzle contests Images hidden within the issues Sharing of original or traditional stories, poems, sayings   Get them involved for further learning Examples: Create reader polls and votes on topics of interest Provide quizzes, with incentives for those who take part Sponsor seminars Conferences Shows Field days Health fairs "Glad you asked" (experts answer questions from audience members)   Invite follow-up action Examples: Hold an auction Sell merchandise Offer to sell back issues of your periodical Offer to send something free, or for low cost   Involve them for service Example: Invite shared support for a charitable cause   Involve them in recognition Examples: Sponsor achievement programs (such as "Master Farmer" awards) Invite nominations for recognition of places, innovations, events, special interests   Encourage involvement through reference services Examples: Tear-out sections "Go and do" possibilities (e.g., where to, how to, how much, who to call,directions, locator maps, other)   II. New possibilities for audiences and you to get involved  Editors of rural journals have long used techniques such as response cards and in-issue promotion to encourage feedback from readers. Now the interactive features of online media offer tremendous potentials. "Interactivity is the primary characteristic of new technologies," said Keith Kenney, Alexander Gorelik and Sam Mwangi in their First Monday article, "Interactive features of online newspapers." In future features for IFAJ members we will look at some of these new ways in which rural and other journalists are using the Internet to get involved with their readers, listeners and viewers - to mutual advantage. You can add much to this learning effort by sharing your experiences.  What experiences are you having in your efforts to involve your audiences? What approaches are working best? How are you using electronic media to take advantage of their interactive features and connect with your audiences? What results are you finding? Send your case experiences or thoughts to Jim Evans at evansj@uiuc.edu Thank you.   REFERENCES Allen, Danita. "10 strategies to increase readership." Presentation at American Horse Publications annual meeting, Park City, Utah. June 2002. Posted at: http://www.americanhorsepubs.org/career_center/resources/10_strategies.asp Cokley, John. "The financial importance of audience involvement for media survival." Presentation at the 2005 Journalism Education Association Conference, Australia. 2005. Posted at: http://live-wirez.gu.edu.au/jea Kenney, Keith; Gorelik, Alexander; and Mwangi, Sam. "Interactive features of online newspapers." First Monday 5(1), January 2000. Posted at: http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue5_1/kenney/index.html Ranly, Don. "Refrigerator journalism: making your writing more useful." Extension Video EV0009, Extension and Agricultural Information, University of Missouri. 120-minute video. http://extension.missouri.edu/explore/extvideo/ev0009.htm Reiman, Roy. I could write a book: the behind-the-scenes story of Reiman Publications, a company that began in the basement, was built on "wild ideas" and became a publishing empire that sold for $760 million. Grandhaven Group, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 2005. Wetmore, Bob. "High Plains Journal captures the ag publication formula." Agri Marketing, 41(2) : 14. February 2003. Posted at: http://www.agrimarketing.com/issues.php?year=2003 TOP