As more consumers get their news from social media, news organizations
must leverage social engagement, social reach and social audiences into their
overall measurement model.
A
recent survey from The Pew Research Center reports that 30% of Facebook
users in the United States get their news from Facebook. Of the 168 million adult
Facebook users in the United States, approximately 50 million of them get their
news on Facebook. That’s a greater number of people than those who visit NYTimes.com, read any American
magazine or tune into prime
time cable news on CNN, MSNBC, FOX.
Pew also reported that “Facebook news consumers who ‘like’
or follow news organizations or journalists show high levels of news engagement
on the site” and these users are “more active on the site than other users by
nearly every measure.” Pew also reports that “news outlets rank low in the
reasons Facebook news consumers click on news links.”
What does this mean for the media organizations that provide
this highly clickable, informative content? Your content is great, your users
are engaged, but your brand may be getting lost in the newsfeed.
In the past 10 years, Facebook’s Newsfeed has gotten more
powerful, while the American
news industry has suffered. News organizations need
to turn the tables and make sure their content on Facebook is not just seen,
liked and clicked on, but that it helps to drive ROI. Facebook has the audience
data, but news organizations have the content. By connecting Facebook’s
demographic data with their content engagement, news organizations can show the
strength of their own audiences to advertisers and investors. Using targeted promoted posts, news organizations can test out reaching to new audiences to
see if they can bridge gaps and find new consumers. A simple ‘Like’ can be a
gateway to a new reader, subscriber or viewer. Testing multiple messages and
offers can make their fan base more lucrative.
Currently, the rewards for using Facebook are site traffic, fans,
brand relevancy and the power that comes with sharing information. But as news
organizations continue to persuade advertisers about the value of their
audiences – they need to keep their social media platforms in mind when evaluating their overall reach, impact and measurement models.
