Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Newspapers need to develop a formal social media strategy to harness the power of Twitter and Facebook

Headlines this week showed just how strong social media is for the consumption of news. Not a surprise is that people, including me in a traditional media profession, do not wait until the 6 p.m. news or the morning paper to see what happened.

Some studies recently show that the first thing people do in the morning is check their phone for email, social media, text, etc. Count me as one of them as well. That might be a sad realization in terms of how we act in the 21st century, but it is the reality; my reality and probably yours as well.

The Wall Street Journal had a blog post this week showing a survey about how consumers are getting and consuming their news. In the article, 10% of people get their news from Twitter. Facebook garnered 30% of the audience as the local news source.

While this shows the fractured habits of consumers, I believe it is great news for newspapers. The survey did not specify, but I'm pretty sure that 10% and 30% audience is very likely getting a newspaper feed on Twitter and Facebook.

Newspaper publishers have not always wanted to offer their content through these feeds, but I believe they must do this to reach their local audience. A Twitter or Facebook feed will feed back to the core site, if you have a good social media strategy and are offering good, interesting content.

In September, newspapers online had a record crowd. Using Twitter and Facebook can help grow that even more. But it isn't just a matter of posting stories; it must be an engagement with the audience. And if the local newspaper doesn't do this.....someone else will.

Full details on the Wall Street Journal article can be found at:  http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/11/05/pew-nearly-1-in-10-americans-get-news-on-twitter/?mod=e2fb

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