New Ways to Engage With CandysDirt Staff

It’s been a few weeks since we announced some pretty major staff changes here at CandysDirt, and what has followed since that announcement has been pretty exciting, we think.

One of the biggest things the editorial board — which is made up of founder and publisher Candy Evans, executive editor Jo England, and me — knew we wanted to do was improve the way we engage with you, our readers.

After all, audience engagement is actually in my title now.

So we’re entering a new path in the way we engage with our readers and the way we approach social media. Not to get too far into how the sausage is made, but we want to be part of your day.

“What does that mean?” you may ask. This means that you’ll start to see content on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram feeds that you might not see on our sites. You might also see new avenues open up or get additional focus, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

But we’re most excited about our two biggest options we’ve developed for our readers — two new Facebook groups designed to provide a platform for the house hunter and the Realtor alike, and all those businesses also make homeownership possible.

Today, those groups debut.

“Getting the Dirt,” will be an open group that anyone can join and contribute to. It will be a place to talk about trends, to post a story you wrote and ask for direct feedback, and will also be home to regular posts like, “Pitch Me Please,” where we will ask Realtors to pitch us their best houses in the $200,000 to $700,000 price points; “Open House Roundup,” where Realtors will have the opportunity to point us to their open houses for the week; “Hip Pocket Monday;” and “Suburb Sunday,” where readers and Realtors will be able to weigh in on what suburb we will look at on Sunday.

Our second group, “Insider Dirt,” will be an exclusive group for our subscribers. This group will discuss a specific topic each month. For this first month, we will supply the topic, but after that, the group members will suggest topics, and then vote on the one for the next month. It will include question and answer sessions with experts, and will also be a place where people can share interesting articles or experiences they’ve had that relate to the topic for the month.

To join “Insider Dirt,” look for an advertisement announcing the group in today’s newsletter. In that advertisement, you’ll see a code. You will be asked for it when you ask to join the group.

In addition to being part of this conversation, Insider Dirt members will also get first notice of new staff parties, as well as (potentially) invites to exclusive gatherings just for members.

Want to subscribe? Click here.

I hope that you will see these new opportunities to interact with fellow readers and our writers as useful and informative places to spend a few minutes of your day. We are so appreciative of our growing audience, and the time you spend with us.

Bethany Erickson is the education and public policy writer for CandysDirt.com. She is also the Director of Audience Engagement for Candy’s Media Group. She is a member of the Online News Association, the Education Writers Association, the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, the National Association of Real Estate Editors, and the Society of Professional Journalists, and is the 2018 NAREE Gold winner for best series. Contact her at [email protected].