Tag: social media

How Advertising Is Changing for Media Brands

Throughout the past few months, the media industry has faced a number of advertising-related challenges. As advertisers slashed marketing budgets and started blocking important keywords during the pandemic, businesses watched their ad revenue drop.

But advertising is still alive and well and, as long as brands can make a few simple changes, it will continue to be a part of the future for media companies.

“[Advertising] is an industry that is constantly talking about wanting to transform itself, but that is also constantly sticking to very traditional approaches,” explains Marcelo Pascao, the marketing VP for Coors beer. “Old habits die hard, but people are being forced out of necessity to adapt faster.”

To maintain revenue earnings and brand integrity as we venture through the new normal, the relationship between media brands and advertising is evolving. Here’s how:

Consumer Engagement Has Become Mandatory

There’s more to a digital community than just the number of clicks and views on a page.

The level of consumer engagement around a brand’s content now plays a significant role in producing a high-value environment for advertisers. 

According to Chris Waiting, CEO of The Conversation, “today advertising value is measured by engagement so if publishers want to improve their ad offering, they must devise a successful engagement strategy first.” 

Condé Nast also created a new metric in partnership with Deloitte that measures consumer engagement, brand influence, content quality and overall trust levels. A Condé Nast representative explained how these details could showcase the appeal of running ads on a highly engaging and trusted platform. 

By hosting ads within engaging digital spaces, media companies can ultimately assure advertisers that active audience members will see their content.

Positive News Is Pulling Advertisers Back In

Many media companies have been covering major news stories related to the pandemic and social justice regularly — two topics that advertisers are wary of. 

So how can businesses stop advertisers from pulling their ads while keeping consumers informed on these critical issues?

Some publishers are creating content that takes on a positive or encouraging angle to rope advertisers back in. For example, TIME focused some of its content on individuals who were recovering from COVID-19 and earned a significant amount of related sponsorship revenue.

“There’s neutral and positive-sentiment news around coronavirus that’s a perfectly reasonable place to advertise,” says Joe Barone, brand safety manager for media marketing firm GroupM.

Social Media Is Becoming Less of a Focus

Social media has triggered a series of hurdles for advertisers: misinformation, trolls and an overall lack of control over their content.

To top it all off, advertisers are noticing that social media platforms value profit over brand safety. Facebook in particular has introduced ad spots for in-stream videos, which could theoretically run alongside misinformation and offensive content.

“They’re prioritizing maximizing inventory at the expense of making it brand-safe,” states Erica Patrick, MediaHub’s VP of paid social. “You shouldn’t have to make a giant investment to get into brand-safe content.” 

Media companies have already started pulling ad dollars out of Facebook, and will likely continue the trend as little has been done to rectify these issues. As a result, companies are now prioritizing their own digital properties to run advertisements.

Diversifying Revenue Streams Is Essential

Although advertising powered the media industry in the past, it is no longer stable or strong enough to sustain an entire media company. 

Businesses have started looking at a wide variety of revenue sources to maximize their profits. This involves stepping beyond the boundaries of advertising to monetize membership programs, user data and events. 

For instance, Future plc has managed to thrive amid the volatile economy by expanding its revenue streams. The media group predicts that it will finish the year off with an impressive $110 million in profit. 

“The shift towards subscriptions and other diverse revenue sources is only set to grow, accelerated in part by the pandemic,” says Richard Reeves, managing director for the Association of Publishers. “The publishers that adapt to this change will be the ones that have the most to gain when the storm passes.”

The dependency on advertising revenue is certainly shrinking throughout the media industry. But having a healthy flow of ad revenue is still important.

By embracing change, media companies are re-establishing themselves as reliable — yet self-sustaining — partners in advertising.

Why a Temporary Facebook Boycott Isn’t Enough

With over 2.7 billion active monthly users, Facebook has become a popular destination for media companies hoping to approach new audiences. 

 

But funneling time and money into Facebook feeds a growing list of problems. Most recently, a series of nonprofit groups asked companies all over the world to temporarily pull their advertisements from the big tech company. This “Hate for Profit” boycott was meant to pressure Facebook to take action against hate speech and misinformation on the platform. 

Since then, the social media platform has taken some small steps to better itself, like promising to hire a new VP of civil rights and removing more posts that suppress voting — yet, it isn’t nearly enough. 

The boycott showcased the seriousness of Facebook’s flaws, but it was also temporary, meaning that the social giant expected its advertisers to come back.

In Mark Zuckerberg’s words, “all these advertisers will be back on the platform soon enough.”

But the disadvantages of using Facebook extend beyond advertising. Media companies that use the platform organically, without investing any advertising dollars, also face a series of consequences. And Facebook isn’t taking action to resolve these issues. 

Clearly, a temporary boycott of the platform won’t cut it anymore. Here’s why you may want to consider making your boycott or disuse of the platform a little more permanent.

The Ongoing Spread of Incivility and Misinformation

Facebook is notorious for enabling the spread of misinformation, racism and voter manipulation. Unfortunately, the social media giant relies on a moderation system that can’t effectively sift through and block all offensive posts and fake news. 

Not to mention that its algorithms will amplify the reach of content and groups with high engagement rates, regardless of its nature. In many cases, hate groups are even allowed to exist and are recommended to other users on the platform.

“From the monetization of hate speech to discrimination in their algorithms to the proliferation of voter suppression to the silencing of Black voices, Facebook has refused to take responsibility for hate, bias, and discrimination growing on their platforms,” Color of Change, a racial justice organization, writes on its website. 

Now imagine what happens when your content is thrown into the mix of misinformation, trolls, bots and discrimination. 

Ultimately, your brand’s credibility is significantly reduced on Facebook since so many people don’t trust the content they come across on the platform.

Whether it be due to the Cambridge Analytica data scandal or the ongoing incivility, many people have already lost trust in the social platform. So how can you possibly nurture an audience that trusts your brand in such a volatile environment? A month-long or even year-long boycott isn’t going to help regain the trust of Facebook users.

No Audience Ownership

Facebook poses more challenges to media companies than just fake news and offensive comments. It also acts as a barrier between businesses and audiences, often preventing brands from accessing the proper data needed to form close connections with users. 

If you use the platform as a primary way to attract and nurture consumers, you’re stuck with the limited insights Facebook provides. In other words, you can forget about getting in-depth first-party data or engagement data on your community members. 

On Facebook, the only company that gets ownership over your community and its data is Facebook. 

And here’s the problem with that: By missing out on consumer data, the opportunity to understand your consumers to improve and monetize their experiences with your brand is slipping through your fingers. 

Actionable first-party data can be used to build valuable, personalized consumer experiences. 

“Our ability to capture interaction data at scale, turn it to insight and leverage it broadly across our organization will define our success,” states Troy Young, Hearst Magazines’ president.

Limited Control Over Your Content

Facebook’s algorithm is constantly changing. Businesses have been disrupted time and time again as the platform changes how content’s prioritized in the News Feeds. 

According to Hootsuite, a social media management platform, posts by brands on Facebook during late 2019 were seen by around 5.5% of their social media followers. 

This means that 94.5% of their Facebook followers would never even see posts from brands in the News Feed. 

Additionally, media companies are powerless to where their content is displayed to users. Your precious articles could even be sandwiched between fake news or offensive user posts in someone’s Feed. 

Media companies simply don’t have enough control over how their content is showcased and who can see it on Facebook. 

In fact, Facebook hid potentially live-saving information related to COVID-19 from users during the early stages of the pandemic. 

Whether or not the social media platform can solve its misinformation and incivility challenges, it will always hold all of the cards when it comes to displaying your content — and that might not be in your company’s best interest. 

A temporary boycott simply isn’t effective enough to convince the social media giant to renounce its power over your content.

Loss of Revenue

Pew Research Center notes that Facebook owned 42% of all digital display advertising revenue in 2019. 

By using Facebook as an advertising platform, not only are you helping to fund the site, but you’re also losing a cut of your advertising revenue to them.

Instead of giving a share of your ad revenue to Facebook, you can make the most of your company’s digital properties by running your in-house and third-party ads right on your platform. 

Consider leveraging the social spaces within your own website or app to run advertisements to maximize the engagement around your ads. 

At the end of the day, Facebook presents issues far beyond damaging the reputation and revenue earnings of your company — it also stands in the way of keeping people informed, safe and aware of deep-rooted prejudices. 

While Facebook must continue improving itself, don’t let the success of your brand and safety of internet users be tied to the social media giant. This is the time to stop focusing on investing in a company that’s bringing yours down. Instead, focus on building up your own brand outside of Facebook’s influence.

Five Common Mistakes Media Companies Make That Lead to Subscriber Churn

Subscribers are helping to fund the media industry right now. And in order to maximize reader revenue, companies are working to perfect their subscription strategies.

Juan Señor, president at a media consulting company, explains that “many publishers can expect to get up to 50% of their revenues from reader revenue, and [that number’s] growing.”

However, this boom in reader revenue doesn’t come without a major challenge: subscriber churn. As media companies begin to see interest in coronavirus content tapering off, they’re fighting tooth and nail to keep readers loyal and paying. 

But reducing subscriber churn doesn’t have to be a complicated task… especially if you know what’s causing it. To help prevent you from losing precious, paying community members, here are a few common mistakes your media company should avoid making at all costs.

1. Allowing Toxic Comments to Exist

While hosting user commenting tools is a powerful way to engage visitors, letting people post offensive content comes with consequences. Some of these consequences can include trolls and community-wide disengagement. 

In fact, nearly 50% of members will remove themselves from a platform when they see incivility from user comments. Many advertisers and advertising platforms also don’t want to be associated with any type of offensive content. 

By protecting the quality of conversations through an effective moderation solution, you’ll protect your brand’s reputation and ability to monetize its community.

2. Not Leveraging First-Party Data

Any insight you can get into the behavior and interests of your visitors is extremely useful. It can be used to improve their experience with your brand and strengthen the relevance of your content. 

“Companies that are able to produce insights from content, audiences and commerce transactions will be the most successful going forward,” Kristen O’Hara, the chief business officer at Hearst Magazines, tells Digiday. 

Plus, now that third-party cookies are being phased out by internet browsers, businesses must focus on gathering and analyzing first-party data. Failure to do so could prevent you from knowing how to keep your community members interested in your content and willing to pay for a subscription. 

3. Leaving Subscribers Unengaged

Many media companies believe that the process of engaging visitors must continue until they convert into a member or subscriber. But onsite audience engagement shouldn’t stop after this conversion point.

Without engaging your subscribers, they can become disengaged and churn.

“Once people come across your content the key is to make it easy, accessible and engaging in the hope they will come back,” says Chris Waiting, CEO of The Conversation.This rings true for visitors at every step in their digital journey — whether it’s their first visit to your website or they’ve already subscribed.

4. Focusing on Building a Community on Social Media Instead of on Your Website

There are thousands of active users on social media. Some media companies are, therefore, tempted to use it as their primary way to connect with consumers. 

Unfortunately, companies don’t have much control over user data, who sees their content or the quality of conversations on social media, and are subject to comments from trolls and bots.

The New York Times’ COO, Meredith Kopit Levien, stresses the importance of building “a direct path for sending… readers back into our environments, where we control the presentation of our report, the relationships with our readers, and the nature of our business rules.”

Social media, and any other type of content aggregation platform, removes that element of control over readers for businesses. It also prevents you from reaching, understanding and engaging the subscribers that you’ve already earned.

5. Not Positioning Your Brand to Be Trustworthy

Robbie Kellman Baxter, a strategy consultant, explains that consumers pay for subscriptions because “they trust your [organization] to solve their problem, or achieve their goal, forever.” 

No matter what kind of content your media company creates, it’s essential that your company is a trustworthy resource for consumers. 

But brands can jeopardize this trust through several actions: like allowing toxicity to exist in social spaces, running your trustworthy content near misinformation on third-party platforms or even not being transparent enough with your audience. 

You can’t expect consumers to continue paying for your services if they don’t believe in your brand. To position your brand as a trustworthy resource, be sure you’re meeting your community’s needs, serving up reliable content, and are taking steps to keep them safe. 

It can be easy for any media company to make a simple mistake that has detrimental effects. Thankfully, you now have everything you need to avoid these common pitfalls and continue on the path toward success and sustainability.

Eight Times Social Media Destroyed Public Trust

Do you believe every news story you come across on social media? With fabricated videos and accounts floating around social platforms, it can be extremely easy for misinformation to spread. 

A study conducted by Oxford’s Reuters Institute reports that an estimated 88% of misinformation related to the coronavirus is found on social media. In contrast, only 8% is found on news platforms.

Now that the world is going through a major crisis with the ongoing pandemic and police brutality against black people, consumers need credible platforms for news and entertainment. But publishers can no longer depend on social media to build up an audience around trustworthy content. Not when public opinion can be distorted so effortlessly across social platforms.

To gain a better understanding into how skeptical consumers already are of social media, read on to examine eight times social channels betrayed public trust.

1. When Facebook marked trustworthy COVID-19 information as spam

As a media company, you’re probably familiar with the many algorithm changes social media uses to decide what content gets prioritized and what gets hidden. No one, however, was prepared for Facebook to label important information on the coronavirus as spam and prevent consumers from seeing it. 

Although the issue was allegedly caused by a bug, the damage was already done — social media users who depend on Facebook for news weren’t immediately informed of critical updates.

2. When fake COVID-19 cures were spread

It seems silly to even think that garlic, vitamins, sesame oil or drinking a lot of water would be able to wipe out a deadly virus. But after these were falsely touted as miracle cures for COVID-19 by fake World Health Organization and national health ministry accounts on Twitter, misinformation spread rapidly. 

The public has now directly witnessed that even the most senseless suggestions can seem believable on social media.

3. When conspiracy theories over George Floyd’s death were allowed

Millions saw the video of George Floyd being murdered by a policeman on credible news sites. And yet, conspiracy theorists continue to leverage social media as their primary space to preach about why they believe George Floyd never actually died. 

Even YouTube has been used to spread fake videos skewing the cruel reality of George Floyd’s death.

4. When Twitter let police start rumors about protesters

Unlike news outlets, Twitter has an extremely limited ability to dig deeper into claims to see if they’re true or false. Which is why the social platform has become home to police officers who are manipulating the public’s image of the Black Lives Matter protests. 

In one occurrence, an official police account posted about riot weapons found in a bus.

This “riot equipment” turned out to be harmless everyday tools used by street performers.

5. When Facebook failed to delete a viral conspiracy video

A video claiming that vaccines weaken immune systems and have made people vulnerable to the pandemic was only demoted by Facebook, not deleted. Now, some uploads of the video have gained a whopping eight million views, and are being used by anti-vaxxers as well as conspiracy theorists to spread their beliefs.

6. When fake, believable wildlife stories went viral

If you were on social media at all during the early stages of the pandemic, you probably read about how wildlife was thriving due to the lockdowns.


Well, that was fake news.

This is just one of many examples that are pushing consumers to realize they can be tricked by even the most heartwarming stories on social media.

7. When Facebook had the Cambridge Analytica scandal

Back in 2018, the public found out that Facebook leaked private user information to a company that used it to send out targeted political ads. Facebook users have been skeptical of the tech giant ever since.

8. When derogatory and untrue information skewed public opinion

We all know that it’s highly offensive to call COVID-19 the “Chinese virus,” which facilitates harmful stereotypes and perceptions towards Asian people. Unfortunately, this derogatory phrase has become commonplace on Twitter. Even Donald Trump’s tweet that reinforces this prejudice has yet to be removed by the social media giant.

Little by little, social media platforms are chipping away at the public’s trust. Any news content posted on these channels now faces skepticism and uncertainty from consumers simply by association. So how can you maintain your reputation as a trustworthy brand in an untrustworthy space? 

To establish close connections with consumers as a resource that people can trust, media companies must start enhancing the power of their digital properties — outside the realm of social media. After all, the last thing anyone wants is for their content to get lost in the sea of misinformation.

A Socially Engaged News Network That Doesn’t Depend on Social Media

Over the past decade, the ubiquitous and overwhelming phenomenon that is social media has rocked the world of traditional journalism to its core. A reporter today who isn’t on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat is something of a dinosaur.

Catherine Badalamente knows better than most about just how profound the changes have been. She’s spent the last six years as the vice president of Digital Media at Graham Media. The company operates seven award-winning television stations and associated online media hubs in Houston, Detroit, San Antonio, Jacksonville (FL) and Orlando. It has been recognized within the industry as a news leader in digital media and technology development.

Badalamente has worked hard to embrace new, interactive technologies in an effort to make Graham Media a prime resource for the local communities it serves. With year-to-year growth of 29% in daily average users over the past five months, it seems that hard work is paying off.

Using Social to Get People off of Social — and onto Graham Media

Badalamente admits that social media engagement is a key piece of the puzzle for Graham Media — but it’s not the only piece. Rather than the final goal, Badalamente sees social media engagement as a tool to drive readers to the company’s own platforms.

“We can’t control our content on social media,” says Badalamente. She explains that tech giants like Facebook or Instagram can change their algorithms on a whim. Media companies, like Graham Media, optimize content to get maximum exposure considering the social network’s algorithms, and when something changes, the content may not be seen by as many viewers.

“It can be dangerous to put too much energy into platforms that make decisions about how our content is exposed,” says Badalamente. “Instead, we’re using social media to direct users back to us.”

An Interactive Plan in Action

Graham Media’s KPRC Channel 2 in Houston recently put this strategy into action while covering the story of missing four-year-old Maleah Davis. A KPRC reporter used a Viafoura live question-and-answer widget to ask the public for questions about the case, and then answered those questions in real time.

“I followed it live from Detroit, and it was so compelling because the audience asked amazing questions,” says Badalamente. The network then advertised through social media that the questions and answers would be reported that night on the evening news.

“It was real and interactive,” Badalamente added.

And most importantly, it directed viewership back to Graham Media’s own platform — the evening news. It’s one part of a larger strategy that Badalamente says is responsible for the 34% increase in digital revenue Graham Media experienced in 2018.

Created by an Algorithm, Driven by the Community

Making the news interactive is another key component of Badalamente’s plan to make Graham Media the first place its communities turn to for hyperlocal coverage — before social media.

“People aren’t satisfied with simply consuming the news,” says Badalamente. “They have an expectation that they will be contributing to the conversation.”

To create a venue for these conversations, Badalamente is targeting what she describes as “communities of interest.” A community of interest could be a geographical location like a neighbourhood, or a local hero – Aretha Franklin in Detroit, for example – or even a simply hobby like fishing. Graham Media uses a specially-designed aggregation tool that monitors internet traffic for topics that are of interest to the local community served by a particular television station.

When the tool finds a topic that is generating traffic in a particular community, it automatically generates a page on the relevant station’s website. It then gathers content on that subject both from within Graham Media’s platforms and from the internet at large and fills the auto-generated page with the latest relevant news on that topic.

The specialized aggregation tool has only been running for a year, but Badalamente is already seeing results. Graham Media app downloads increased by 19.6% over the past month to 131,254 downloads, and auto-generated pages have begun popping up in the networks’ most-viewed sections.

“No one is lifting a finger,” says Badalamente. “It’s very exciting.”

Now that the system is in place, it’s time to take the next step. Graham Media will search for local individuals who are heavily invested in a particular community of interest, and will make them facilitators who can help organize and share a page’s content.

“How can we build a passionate, invested audience?” Asks Badalamente. “By becoming a gateway to information for the community.”

With Badalamente at the helm, Graham Media is doing just that. The user base is growing, and with it, the company’s bottom line – year-to-year revenue is up 39%.

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