We are all aware that most people are on social media and are bombarded with information from all directions. But how are they getting their information? What kind of content drives the narratives home? Do people seek out information, or do they wait for it to come to them? How does social media keep people informed about the latest news?
The digital landscape has changed
In the early years of our digital life, news sites were destination sites. People would go to their home page of choice and browse stories, much like the way we read newspapers in the morning. Now, however, we live in an age where everyone expects information to be delivered to them. We are blasted with a firehose of information every day, and much of that comes in the form of social media.
However, the internet has turned everyone into a skeptic. We tend to distrust everything, and conversely, we can consistently find people who agree with our viewpoint to back up our preferences. These two contrasting facts have a dramatic influence on how we filter our news, leading to curated news feeds that are often presented through social media.
Digital sources have become an important part of Americans’ news diets – with social media playing a crucial role, particularly for younger adults. Overall, just over half of U.S. adults (54%) say they at least sometimes get news from social media, up slightly compared with the last few years.
In short, people have not only stopped looking for information, but they also carefully select which sources they are willing to receive it from.
Where are people getting information?
But which platforms are they using? This is a deceptively complicated question because social media is a very wide net. Are we listening to “news influencers” on YouTube and Instagram? Links on Facebook? We have started to gather some insight on these shifts.
Facebook and YouTube outpace all other social media sites as places where Americans regularly get news. About a third of U.S. adults say they regularly get news on each of these two sites.
Smaller shares of Americans regularly get news on Instagram (20%), TikTok (17%) or X, formerly known as Twitter (12%). And even fewer get news on several other sites, including Reddit (8%), Nextdoor (5%), Snapchat (5%), WhatsApp (5%), LinkedIn (4%), Truth Social (3%) and Rumble (2%).
What are the benefits of publishing news on social media?
Social media is maligned for spreading false information and enabling people to scroll headlines without backing up their information, but there are many benefits to publishing on social.
- Speed. Getting breaking news out there is easier than ever, and you can reach millions of people almost instantaneously.
- VIsibility. Not only do you have the ability to build a large, targeted audience, you can give people content in multiple formats. Videos, links to written content, images, and infopgrahics are all easy to distribute to your network.
- Accessibility. As we discussed earlier, your audience is no longer searching for information. They are waiting for it to come to them. If you don’t bring your content to your audience, chances are they’ll get their information elsewhere.
How can publishers use this information?
So, how does social media keep people informed about the latest news? The first takeaway is that social media is necessary for news publishers. Two decades in to this social media experiment, the number of people receiving news on social platforms is still growing.
Additionally, evaluate your own social media strategy. Are you on the right platforms? How are you bringing your content directly to your audience? Where are you succeeding, and where could you improve?
If you need some help with your social media posting and strategy, set up a demo with True Anthem today. Our AI tools can help you get your content to the right people at the right time, and take the day-to-day labor off your plate.
