Sonia Says: Social Media Coach, Marketing Consultant

Consultant, coach & creator supporting media, nonprofits & startups. Helping you grow, connect & stand out.

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Sonia Dasgupta is a strategist, storyteller, and founder of Sonia Says — a creative consultancy helping brands, leaders, and changemakers grow through purposeful storytelling and smart social strategy. With years of experience leading digital content and social teams across media organizations — including WJLA-TV, WUSA9, WJZ-TV, and CBS — Sonia has built a career at the intersection of journalism, audience engagement, and brand development. Her work has driven millions of impressions, built communities, and helped public figures and organizations show up online with clarity and confidence. Today, through Sonia Says, she offers strategy, coaching, and content services designed to help clients stand out authentically — pairing creativity with data, and purpose with personality. When she’s not crafting strategy or mentoring the next generation of journalists, Sonia can usually be found near the water, exploring new cities, or creating something that tells a story worth sharing.
How to combat the holiday website traffic drop

How to combat the holiday website traffic drop

After nearly two decades in local news, most of it in the digital space, I’ve seen firsthand how website traffic dips as the holidays pick up.

But here’s the thing: with the right planning, newsroom leaders can not only protect engagement — you can grow it.

1. Create space for headline collaboration
– Encourage your team to workshop SEO headlines together in Slack or Teams. A five-minute brainstorm can make the difference between a scroll-past and a click.
– And if you’re short-staffed, lean on AI tools to spark headline ideas that drive curiosity while maintaining credibility.

2. Plan for consistency, not just coverage
– Build out a holiday content calendar now.
– Assign evergreen stories your team can pre-write and schedule in advance — think explainers, guides, and timely listicles.

HOT TIP: “What’s open and closed” stories always deliver during the holidays. Have versions ready for Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas, and New Year’s.

3. Use your analytics strategically
– Look back at the past two years — what spiked in November and December?
– Double down on proven performers and look for ways to update or localize them.

4. Encourage quick-turn visual content
– Pair reporters with the digital team to create short vertical videos tied to your top-performing topics.
– These can be produced quickly and scheduled to post across platforms — driving engagement where your audience already scrolls.

As leaders, the goal isn’t just to fill the content calendar — it’s to set our teams up for impact and sustainability through a busy season.

What strategies have worked best in your newsroom to keep engagement strong through the holidays?

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