How news portals can benefit from social networks

Status: 08.09.2014Since the portal "BuzzFeed" is enjoying great success in the USA with its slogan "The Media Company for the Social Age," the media landscape is in turmoil. The website's recipe for success: Virality. The content on Buzzfeed is optimized so that it spreads as quickly as possible via Facebook and the like. The portal gets around 80 percent of its traffic from social media platforms. The number of visitors is now over 130 million per month, and this success is naturally attracting imitators. For some months now, a similar concept has been used in German-speaking countries by the site Fierce.co for a furor. On Facebook, posts are teased with emotional headlines such as "what these cows do after being saved from the slaughterhouse is indescribable." User numbers for the website, launched on December 2013, are literally exploding. On Facebook, Heftig.co already has almost one million fans. Experts are therefore talking about a "media revolution. "Storyfilter.com" and "Likemag" two portals that are focusing on this trend and picking up their readers via social media. The traffic figures for Likemag.com are impressive. The online portal now records over 4 million visits per month (NET-Metrix-Audit 2014-06), which is more than the news portals baslerzeitung.ch, bernerzeitung.ch or watson.ch.Comparison between apples and pearsWhat does this development mean for the news portals of the major Swiss publishers? Berit-Silja Gründlers, Social Media Manager at 20 Minuten, says: "Equating Heftig.co and Likemag.com with a news portal like 20minuten.ch is like comparing apples and oranges. The two portals have almost no news aspect. Some of the viral content is several years old and is thrown back into the social networks like a boomerang. Our goal is different: We want to provide our audience with content that is newsworthy. "Adrienne Fichter, social media editor and community manager at the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, also distances herself from Likemag and Co.: "Pure clickbaiting with sensational headlines is not the NZZ style.Importance of social media on the riseNevertheless, social networks are also gaining in importance for traditional news portals. "Readership on the Net is important for us," says Fichter. "It allows us to reach important and very active multipliers and to enter into an exchange with our readers." In addition, he said, the social network serves as a seismograph for moods and trends. "In this way, we can find out what topics readers are concerned about and what issues they would like to discuss further or be informed about in greater depth." Ringier also recognizes the increased importance of social media. It's no coincidence that blickamabend.ch, a portal that is strongly oriented toward Buzzfeed, was launched at the end of 2013. "Social media portals are becoming increasingly important because the majority of the Internet community regularly visits these portals, where they also have the opportunity to participate in discussions in real time," says Claudio Candinas, Social Media Manager of the Blick Group. "For news portals, the presence on social media platforms offers the opportunity to be present with content both with actively searching users and during waiting periods in everyday life. The challenge is to drive users to a website's content and offerings through social media."Focus on regular readersFor the new online portal watson.ch, which was launched at the beginning of 2014, social networks are a crucial traffic generator. "Social media channels can be a suitable sales channel for all companies that have exciting content to offer," says Steven Goodman, Head of Strategy and Marketing at watson. "As a news platform, watson is dependent on regular readers, he says. That's why the focus is on how to reach people via social media channels and then turn them into regular readers, he said. "However, social media platforms are not only traffic generators, but above all dialog platforms - here, companies can talk directly to their target group and get to know their needs better. "Christian Lüscher, Social Media Team Leader at Tages-Anzeiger, also blows the same horn: "What counts for us is primarily a loyal readership that is as active as possible. We don't see social media as a traffic generator, even if every now and then a good story spreads incredibly far." In community management, he says, less attention is therefore paid to click rates. "But social media is a kind of business card for the editorial team, and stories can also be generated via these channels. In addition, we are of course also interested in what important opinion leaders are saying on Twitter," says Lüscher.Facebook brings the most trafficSwiss news portals are mainly present on Facebook and Twitter (see chart). Facebook generally generates the most traffic. 20 Minuten currently generates five percent of its total traffic via Facebook and Twitter. Around 45 percent of these users are new users. At the Tages-Anzeiger, the share of traffic via Facebook and Twitter is also five to six percent.At the NZZ, too, by far the largest share of total social media traffic is generated via Facebook, followed by Twitter. "It's still a single-digit percentage overall," says Adrienne Fichter. "But the growth is enormous. "At watson, social media contributes around 30 percent of traffic - in certain target groups and also among first-time users, the share is even higher. "Among the social media platforms, Facebook brings in the most traffic, far ahead of Twitter and others," says Steven Goodman. "At Ringier, no specific shares are published. However, the strongest social media platforms there are currently Facebook and Twitter.More than a distribution channelThe question remains as to how news portals can make the best use of social networks. According to Adrienne Fichter of NZZ, this depends entirely on the goals. "Basically, a good mix of exciting content, topic selection and inviting contribution posts generates the greatest response. Social hot topics like immigration almost always trigger debates. According to Claudio Candinas of the Blick Group, successful management of social media channels for news portals requires "a good mix of editorially prepared content and liquid content, as well as topic areas adapted to the time of day, because not every content generates the same access rates at every hour. Furthermore, a healthy interaction with the audience and regular call-to-action efforts are also essential. "Steven Goodman from watson criticizes that many news portals see their social media presence as a pure distribution channel. However, this is suboptimal, he says, because users expect above all to be listened to and for the company to participate in a dialog. "Successful companies are those that focus on the needs of the users of the respective platform."High speed vs. demand for qualityFinding the right content is not always easy. "Social media platforms are fast-moving and fickle. Therefore, there is no general management strategy," says Berit-Silja Gründlers from 20 Minuten. "The classic news business, negative stories or hard news don't work on Facebook," says Christian Lüscher of Tages-Anzeiger. "According to Adrienne Fichter of the NZZ, the biggest challenge is to reconcile one's own quality standards with the sometimes extremely fast pace in the social networks. "We often find ourselves in a field of tension there. Because the 'be first' credo on the web also applies to us, but on the other hand we want to report seriously and analytically on a topic."Trends: photo platforms and WhatsappWhat do the publishers have planned for the future? At NZZ, they want to use social media not only as a communication channel or dialog tool, but also to establish it as an editorial tool: for research, exchange and idea generation in the editorial process, as well as for analysis of network phenomena that only take place on the Internet. "The reader should not only be a recipient of the articles, but should be able to inspire and help shape the editorial team," says Fichter.At Ringier, they are constantly looking at new platforms and weighing up the extent to which it makes sense to position themselves on them. "The trend toward photo platforms such as Instagram is also an issue, which raises the question of new forms of storytelling," says Candinas. At watson, they have set out to gather experience on all platforms and deduce which network is most useful for which goals. "On all platforms, we can still improve our ability to engage in dialogue and also listen more actively to the various communities," says Goodman.20 Minuten is also keeping an eye on newcomers, but does not currently see any network in which it would be worthwhile to invest resources. "But I think we need to keep an eye on what happens with Whatsapp after the takeover by Facebook," says Gründlers.Author: Simon Wolanin__________________________

MORE

In April 2014, the Fink&Partner Social Media Observation Group and Socialbakers in a broad-based study examines social media usage at leading German-language newspapers. The study, which was published on our online journal MK-Fokus, caused great controversy in the Swiss media landscape.Kuble AG creates rankings on Einflussreich.ch based on Klout scores. There you will also find a Ranking of Swiss media brands.