The UNSW Newsroom has launched its own WhatsApp channel.
UNSW’s news content is now available to a new potential audience of 12 million Australian users – and many more globally – on WhatsApp Channels.
WhatsApp describes Channels, rolled out globally in September 2023, as “a one-way broadcast tool for admins to send text, photos, videos, stickers and polls”.
Many Australian mainstream news publishers – e.g. SMH, the Guardian and the ABC – have jumped on board since to share their news content (the ABC, for example, wrote an article about joining Channels as a pilot), but higher education organisations haven’t become active yet.
“Our new WhatsApp channel is part of UNSW’s tried and tested digital strategy of experimenting with emerging channels and storytelling techniques that we see as high value,” says Head of News & Content, Monica Melki.
“Our channel is focused on our most high-profile and high-impact news content from the UNSW Newsroom. As a channel follower, you can expect to see one to three engaging pieces of Newsroom content a day, delivered straight to your WhatsApp app.”
Unlike other social media, WhatsApp channel posts don’t focus on generating engagement with the post itself – there is no comment function and the only way to publicly engage with the content as an audience member is via emoji reaction. Instead, the goal is for followers to click through to UNSW Newsroom content and share it with their contacts.
“What we see working for top-tier Australian media on WhatsApp is a strategy of keeping channel activity simple, so we’re deliberately not over-engineering our posts,” Ms Melki says.
“We see WhatsApp as an additional distribution channel or alert system for engaged audiences who want to stay on top of what’s coming out of our Newsroom.
“We look forward to exposing a major new audience segment to our news content about our academics’ world-leading research that is creating progress for all.”
Follow the UNSW WhatsApp channel.
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