Our new report on what publishers should expect from social media platforms in 2017 gathers the views of social media editors, audience development experts and others from leading newsrooms across the US and Europe.
As newsrooms and content creators turn their attention to the year ahead, many have been asking what their site should expect from social media platforms in the next 12 months.
To get a sense of what publishers should be expecting in 2017, we asked a range of NewsWhip clients, blog readers, and other industry experts for their take on what the new year will bring for social distribution.
We’ve complied the answers in a new 30 page report.
Download your 2017 predictions report here.
We had some great submissions, from staff at Business Insider, the Associated Press, and the Wall Street Journal. European publishers are also represented, with the likes of the Telegraph, the Guardian, RTL Netherlands, Bild and Expressen all contributing. We also have a special brand focus with Nissan, our pick for the best brand use of community engagement in 2016.
The report is packed with insights and predictions from social media editors, audience development strategists and other digital media observers. Our contributors covered a range of topics, from chatbots, to fake news, to audience growth, to artificial intelligence and virtual reality.
See below for a sample of some of this year’s contributions, and download the report here.
Video
“Video on Facebook will reach its peak in 2017. Videos won’t just work because they’re video. It’ll turn into content and publishers will have a hard time optimizing in the battle for attention.” – Jakob Wais, Bild.
“We expect to see a greater opportunity to self-moderate your feed from Facebook, while it consolidates its lead position in live video. We’re hoping Facebook will improve its own filters so fake ‘lives’ are not pushed as lives too.” – Ivor Crotty, RT.com.
“If 2016 was the year of square video and vertical video, 2017 is the year of round video as we shoot via our Snap Spectacles.” – Sarah Marshall, The Wall Street Journal.
Audience Development
“The challenge for social media teams in 2017 will be to convince the audiences of our credibility, to listen to them and to talk to them. Our task for 2017 will be to win back their faith in our journalistic work.” – Andreas Rickman, Bild.
“Newsrooms need to understand that their audience is not one monolithic unit, that an audience is made up of lots of different interest groups, and start to get smarter on how they serve them.” – Mark Frankel, BBC News.
Social Media Strategies for Publishers
“We must face the reality of social media being the dominant distributive force – while the publishers’ grain of gold is the content being distributed. That’s the area we should focus all our efforts on, because that’s where we are close to unbeatable.” – Henrik Ståhl, Bonnier News.
“I suspect the most competitive social media companies will work to improve financial terms for media that post content natively on their platforms, including better ad opportunities, revenue share deals and more opportunities for news organizations to link-out to their owned-and-operated products.” – Brodie Fenlon, CBC News.
“I think 2017 is going to be all about FB live, video in general, one to one messaging from pages to people and the growth of notifications.” – Dina Rickman, Independent.co.uk.
The report makes for essential reading for anyone interesting in where social media and audience development is going in the New Year – be sure to get your copy today.
