Five Ways Broadcasters are Using Social Media

As part of a series looking at how TV broadcasters are using social media to tell their stories and reach new readers, we look at some examples of great storytelling by experimenting with new channels and techniques. 
Broadcasters’ place on social media is not all about repackaging video clips.
Our data shows that publishers are engaging social media in more and more imaginative ways than ever. Every week we see more examples of creative, social-native storytelling in our social intelligence platform Spike. And many of those are broadcasters.
Today, we’re going to examine five examples of social thinking and content creation in action from a variety of publishers on different platforms.

1) Native Storytelling on Facebook

We’ve seen that broadcasters are able to make the transition to Facebook video easier than most. There’s already a video mindset – the challenge just lies in adapting it for an audience that will be watching on their phones, and often in the Facebook app itself.
It’s important for video producers to remember that video on Facebook is often a different proposition to video on YouTube, just as YouTube is different to a traditional TV  broadcast. On this blog, we’ve already pointed to use of video in breaking down the big stories of the day.
Timing is everything on Facebook. Through Spike’s Facebook posts feature, we can see that some of the most engaged posts on the platform involve videos and other visual elements. Very often, the most successful clips on Facebook are short and capture the key point of the story – remember that Facebook viewers are often not in the mindset to watch a broadcast-length news segment.
Here’s how US Station CBS News posted about one story from the Baltimore riots this week:

2) Delivering Short News Round-Ups

For most Facebook users, finding news on the platform is a serendipitous experience. In recognition of this, publishers are making more of an effort to bring their content to the reader/viewer, in forms that they can easily consume, such as email newsletters.
Today, broadcasters’ online viewers ask the same question – how to stay thoroughly informed without spending half an hour watching a broadcast designed for TV. For the broadcasters, this opens a lot of room to be inventive.
Channel Four News are testing Gif-based news snippets targeted at 16-34 year olds in the run-up to the UK election. Many other news sites are using Vine and Instagram Video to tell stories and knock the day’s headlines into a digestible, snappy-looking video loop that can be viewed quickly and easily.

3) Reaching New Audiences on Snapchat

Even though there are very few metrics made public by Snapchat around the type of engagement on its ‘Discover’ feature, the indications are that it’s very high:

here’s a fun stat: per two sources, CNN sees roughly 1 million visitors per day to its Snapchat discover tab. (CNN: no comment)
— ಠ_ಠ (@MikeIsaac) April 27, 2015

But even before Snapchat launched Discover, in partnership with a number of media outlets, publishers were using the platform to send updates to a highly engaged (and mainly young) audience. Again, the question for publishers when pushing this content may be: ‘what value does it bring us, when the content lives entirely away from our site?’ The Washington Post’s National Digital Editor Masuma Ahuja recently answered this when asked about her approach to Snapchat: “it’s not about the link. Snapchat isn’t about the page view that you see automatically from there. You’re building your brand, you’re building community there, you’re establishing yourself as a source of news, you’re going to the audience – where they are.”  

4) Using Presenters’ and Reporters Accounts to Deliver News and Updates

Reporters tweeting coverage on the ground isn’t that new of an idea. At this stage, most of us are familiar with the Twitter model of live coverage. Now however, more and more publishers are coming around to it as a way of directing traffic to their sites, as well as building their profile on social media.  Given that many presenters and reporters have just as much social clout on their personal accounts as the stations they work for, it’s an obvious option.  Presenters and reporters can now reach huge audiences themselves on social media, often much more successfully than a big news brand.  

Was Miliband’s Russell Brand interview stroke of genius or terrible mistake? Here’s my verdict https://t.co/wq6jkIS4Z9 pic.twitter.com/8TzL5xn6aY — Sophy Ridge (@SophyRidgeSky) April 29, 2015

 

5) Livestreaming Events on Mobile

Livestreaming has been an internet staple for a while now. But thanks to mobile technology and social distribution, the medium has taken on a new degree of functionality in 2015. Meerkat and Twitter-backed Periscope are the two big names in app-based mobile livestreaming. Both have inclusively low barriers to entry (a decent smartphone and an internet connection, essentially), and allow anyone to stream live footage from whatever situation they find themselves in, whether it be exhilarating or completely dull.
This week, the BBC used Periscope video in their TV broadcast on the Baltimore story (they weren’t the only ones):

#Periscope on the BBC: the flagship news show #Newsnight used it from Baltimore yesterday. Horizontally too… pic.twitter.com/l1qLAeQygL — marc blank-settle (@MarcSettle) April 29, 2015

Outside of the news sphere, there are endless applications and room for experimentation. From red carpet reporting to sporting events, as well as previewing upcoming shows with exclusive behind the scenes footage, there are endless ways of incorporating livestreaming into a social broadcasting strategy.
Do you know of broadcasters using social media in a particularly innovative way? Let us know on Twitter.
Previously in this series: 
How Broadcasters Are Adapting To Mobile And Social
Five Steps To Building An Audience On Social Media

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