Project Overview
Cronkite News, a multiplatform news organization operated by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, sought to enhance its digital presence and user engagement through a comprehensive website and social media performance analysis. The objective was to assess audience behavior, identify key engagement trends, and provide actionable recommendations to attract and retain high-quality users. This project focused on analyzing data from Google Analytics, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter between November 1, 2022 – December 9, 2022, intending to refine Cronkite News' content strategy and increase meaningful user interactions.
Goals & Objectives
Analyze website and social media performance to determine key engagement trends and user behaviors.
Identify high-quality users based on content consumption patterns and demographic insights.
Optimize content strategy by focusing on high-performing topics such as Arizona-centric news and sports coverage.
Increase conversions by improving user pathways, internal linking, and content engagement tactics.
Leverage multimedia storytelling to enhance Cronkite News' digital reach, particularly on Facebook.
How It Came Together
To achieve these objectives, we conducted an in-depth performance analysis using Google Analytics to measure audience behavior and engagement patterns. Key findings included:
Arizona is the dominant audience base, with 132,216 active users—significantly higher than in California and Texas.
Sports coverage driving the highest engagement, with 62% of Facebook link clicks attributed to sports-related content.
Strong performance of Facebook’s visual content, demonstrating its potential as a key platform for audience growth.
Real-time reporting’s impact on traffic spikes, as seen with the 2022 Arizona Election page, which received 14,494 pageviews in a single day.
Low conversion rates on key engagement events, highlighting a need for improved internal linking, stronger CTAs, and more compelling video content.