AL.com is using Facebook Groups to engage audiences with quality coverage, rather than a broadcasting one way to the largest audience possible.

Quality over quantity

The new approach included engaging target audiences through Facebook, so when AI.com wanted to focus on improving futures for girls across Alabama, they tailored to mothers, and teachers of the South.

Shifting from broad to narrow, in partnership with Spaceship Media, the team placed 50 female democrat and republican supporters in a small Facebook Group for guided conversation.

The group ran for a month between the US election and the presidential inauguration. Sprouting topics amongst the group ranged from immigration, healthcare, and religious views.

Four women from the group even wrote opinion pieces for AL.com. At close, two thirds of participants formed their own self-moderated Facebook Groups and even a book club.

What did AL.com and its audience learn?

The virtual meetings showed that a persons place of residence has a large effect on how they view immigration and healthcare.

The new approach to dialogue driven news had AL.com operating as objective moderators rather than simply reporters.

The new process resulted in bringing left and right wing supporters together in productive conversation, speaking with and audience as oppose to at.

Does this approach feel intuitive to you? Would you be more likely to follow a group as oppose to traditional media? Give us your thoughts in our comments below.