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Sharing is caring: Focusing on making sharable social content

6 September 2024

Recent posts by Twitter/X owner Elon Musk and the head of Instagram Adam Mosseri have revealed a shift in what is important when we’re thinking about our next post: make your content sharable.

Instead of “posting and hoping”, or just “broadcasting” by telling users about an announcement or story, we need to place far greater emphasis on triggering an emotional reaction, or making it feel practical, new or relevant to that audience.

As you’ve probably seen, be it with ‘for you’ tabs on Twitter/X, pages on TikTok, or mixed up in your feed on Instagram and Facebook, all social platforms are moving towards more algorithmically-driven approaches as a way to try to increase the amount of time you spend and engage on that app.

That’s partly because we have generally stopped being so public in our reposts and commenting, preferring to share posts privately on direct messages or messing apps like WhatsApp.

Both Musk and Mosseri have publicly emphasised how important sending a post can be as a signal to the mysterious algorithm, to boost its visibility and increase its reach.

Twitter/X on what the algorithm sees when you share posts

Elon explained it in his trademark way – partly in response to the backlash over the type of content appearing in users’ for you tabs:

Read: Should my company stay on Twitter/X – or leave?

Instagram explains why you should focus on sendable and sharable content

And this is how Adam Mosseri explained the importance of “thinking about creating something that people would want to send to a friend”:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Adam Mosseri (@mosseri)

Read: What young people think of as ‘news’ on Instagram

How to make your social posts and content more sharable

So rather than focus on telling followers and viewers something, focus on making them feel something: for example, happy, sad/empathetic, angry (though I would be careful to not overuse this), entertained, informed or something that helps them in their lives.

You may see this as just an extension of the old adage of “don’t make boring content” – which is true! But on social, as in the rest of the media environment, where there is so much more content than ever before, and the competition for people’s attention is greater than ever, it’s important to really think carefully how it would appeal to your target audience – beyond those that already follow you.

Should my organisation leave Twitter/X – or stay on there?

13 August 2024

Recent events on Twitter – or X, as we should now call it – have left individuals and some organisations to consider quitting the platform.

Critics of Elon Musk have accused him of using Twitter/X to stoke hate, amplify disinformation and of prioritising profit over social responsibility, particularly over the riots in the UK.

Although emotions have been running high these past couple of weeks, don’t rush to delete your company’s Twitter account – take some time to reflect on whether it still helps to meet your strategic objectives and audience needs – and have a comms plan if you are going to announce you are going to deactivate it.

Twitter is not as popular as it was – but it is still ‘the go-to place for news on social media’

A lot has changed since companies set up their Twitter accounts, a decade or more ago.

From once being the place for firms to post their news and announcements on social media, and offer a new form of customer service, it’s been overtaken by Instagram and rivalled by TikTok in terms of popularity among UK adults, according to the latest Ofcom Online Nation report.

And according to the recent Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024, it is further behind in terms of the top social, messaging and video networks in the UK:

And the same piece of research claims that globally, TikTok has now overtaken X/Twitter as a source of news:

Since Musk took over Twitter, he has declared “f–k business” over firms deciding not to buy ads on the platform, and created confusion and trust issues with the ability for anyone to buy a blue tick – once a clear symbol of authority and veracity.

But he has also kept with the pre-takeover implementation of Community Notes to challenge incorrect posts and tried to boost X’s finances with paid subscriptions offering popular features to users, like the ability to edit a tweet within an hour of posting it and tempting content creators with shares of ad revenue.

Despite these turbulant 18 months, a study from the Pew Research Center in the US appears to show that X is still more of a destination for news than other social platforms – by that, I mean most Twitter users go there specifically for news, although others also see news passively in their Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook feeds.

And judging by the US presidential race, the UK General Election, the Euros and Olympics, if you want the latest breaking news, analysis (and hot takes), the best memes and an ability to immediately react to live events, nowhere can quite rival Twitter.

Interestingly, the head of social media for BBC Radio and Sounds, Jem Stone, claims the most popular tweets over the attempted assassination of Donald Trump seemed to be from the mainstream media:

And today, the Premier League announced it had launched an account for refereeing and VAR updates – but only on X, not on any other platform.

However, for many of the public, they feel worn out by the sheer amount and depressing nature of the news, and prefer not to see it in their social feeds – and the data from the Reuters Institute report seems to back this up. And the sometime hostile nature of some users has made it an unwelcoming place.

Many companies’ have shifted their initial very public customer service accounts and conversations to DMs, their websites (for live chat or email), or even to WhatsApp business accounts.

Even for news organisations, including Sky News, Twitter had not been a big driver of referral traffic before the changes to links in posts:

What to do if you think your company should leave Twitter/X

1. Review how Twitter fits in with your comms strategy and business objectives

It’s good to have a regular social media review anyway, and this should always be part of your process when setting your next communications strategy.

Analyse the stats of your Twitter activity from the past year or so against previous reports. A significant decline in engagement could indicate that your target audience may not be on there anymore, or the shift to an algorithmic-focus has made it harder for people to see your posts – or that more effort is needed to improve their impact.

And check if your key stakeholders and individuals that you’re trying to influence are still actively on there. Check the replies tab to see if they are more of a replier/lurker than a poster (this used to be easier to check with the likes tab, before it was removed from public view.)

Do also compare it to your engagement performances on your other platforms. Don’t overfocus on followers – with the shift in prioritisation of algorithms over followers by most platforms, they aren’t as important as it once was.

Away from the numbers, reflect upon whether X is a channel that still aligns with your values as a company.

You may have seen the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust post last week that it was deleting its account as “X is no longer consistent with our Trust values” – which include “equality, for all” and “trust, honesty and respect, for each other”.

But it was also the case that it appeared that this account was getting little interaction and engagement for its tweets – and wasn’t necessarily the best communication channel to reach their generally older audience.

However, the head of NHS England, Amanda Pritchard, continues to be active on Twitter, posting messages for staff, stakeholders, and the media.

Assess the pros and cons of leaving and consider the other ways for your customers to get in touch, through social, your website and offline.

If your social team or colleagues with high profile Twitter presences have been affected by what they’ve experienced on there, think about ways to protect their mental health – either for others to temporarily take over or rotate their responsibilities, or suggesting breaks from posting on there.

2. Consult and inform internally and with key stakeholders

Talk and get approval from your wider comms team, senior leaders and executives before deciding to delete your Twitter account.

It is also worth considering whether to inform key external stakeholders of your decision before you communicate it publicly.

3. Communicate your decision clearly and link to other social accounts

If you do decide to leave Twitter, post and pin a tweet to users that includes an explanation (you don’t have to go into the details), and ideally link to your other social media accounts where they can follow you.

This is what BBC Radio 6 Music and Radio 2 did when they both left Twitter and Facebook earlier this year:

4. Leaving your Twitter account dormant may be better than deleting it

It can be confusing for followers who try to find your account on Twitter, only to find it has disappeared with no apparent notice. And by deleting your account, you open up the potential for the handle to be taken by people who may want to cause confusion, spread misinformation or cause harm.

Additionally, some very popular tweets can still provide invaluable advice, information or assistance to users.

Leaving your account dormant, with a pinned tweet explaining what has happened and links to other communication channels, is an alternative to deleting it.

If you do want to go ahead with deactivating your company’s account, make sure to download a copy of all your tweets, content and data – they are a really valuable resource of insight into what worked well for future social campaigns and you may want to reuse that image or video.

You do have 30 days to change your mind if you do want to restore a deactivated account, so note the date in your shared calendars, just in case.

5. Continue to monitor Twitter

Don’t just walk away, delete the app and never check Twitter again – keep a close eye on mentions of your company and your deactivated handle to monitor the response to your decision, but also whether a customer or stakeholder posts something that requires your attention.

There is no perfect social media platform

I’ve seen a lot of posts on Twitter and elsewhere about moving to Threads, Instagram, or Bluesky. That may be understandable, for personal reasons.

But all platforms have their faults and downsides – there is no one ideal social media platform! It all depends upon where your audiences are and their interests – your target groups may be more spread across different spaces than before. And sadly, there is some nastiness and trolling on all of them.

For authorities, X is still is important – we’ve seen how it has been used effectively to disseminate vital public information. But it’s also been a good wake-up call for them to think more about how to better use other social channels to engage sometimes hard to reach audiences, rather than rely on a tweet.

And for everyone, it’s been a timely reminder to build more direct relationships with their audiences, than relying on third-party apps and sites.

Finally, a reminder that there can still be nice things on Twitter:

If you need an expert hand in helping you to review your social media approach, or modernising your wider communications strategy, get in touch.

Lessons from the Labour government on presenting new leaders on social

12 July 2024

Making good first impressions with staff and target audiences, and landing key messages with them, are rightly important for new CEOs or senior leaders – and although these organisational changes are major events, they are often rare.

But for those working in government, changes in prime minister and secretaries of state are more frequent, and civil servants tend to have a lot more experience in showcasing their new bosses to those important target groups (especially in these past five or so years.)

So what can we learn from these first seven days of this new government in terms of how to present new executives on their social and digital platforms?

Audiences are more willing to engage with content from new leaders (at the start, at least)

We all know how we are living and working in an era where we are overwhelmed with content on our phones, on the TV and in our inboxes.

But when there is a new major organisational appointment, stakeholder audiences are more keen than usual to see and hear from that person and company.

With Labour coming to power, this is the first change of political parties in No10 in the truly social media era, so it is slightly unique in that both key stakeholders and the public are more interested and receptive to what ministers have to say.

But despite this more positive and welcoming environment, the government has needed to work hard to capitalise upon this opportunity, with engaging, relatable and sharable content.

Have clear, simple messages to land on social

From Keir Starmer’s first address outside No10 to the stream of social posts from ministers, there has been a common set of messages repeatedly landed, as part of the new government’s comms strategy:

Change, fixing broken institutions, focusing on economic growth, resetting international relationships and a return politics to public service.

Take a look at this video from No10’s digital comms team announcing the Prime Minister and his new Cabinet, which has similar vibes and soundtrack to Rishi Sunak’s new PM video from a couple of years earlier:

In all his media communications so far – not just online – Health Secretary Wes Streeting has hammered home his claim that “the NHS in broken” and setting out what he will do to “fix the NHS”.

Demonstrating that leaders have taken clear, immediate decisions that benefit the target audience on issues they care about can be impactful.

It’s not a surprise that this tweet announcing “tough action” on cleaning up rivers, lakes and seas after the Environment Secretary’s meeting with water bosses (while the regulator Ofwat announced that water bills were going to rise) was popular – 900,000 views, according to Twitter.

(Disclaimer: my partner is the head of digital comms there, but I think this is among the best performing posts on government social channels this week.)

Show personality and authenticity

Getting a leader’s personality over on social media and doing so authentically can be tricky at times, especially in the early days.

Although I’m not a huge fan of civil servants clapping in their new ministers, what I really like about this video from the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government is that Angela Rayner feels genuine in her reactions as she enters her new department, seeing her photo already on the ministerial wall and thanking staff for their warm welcome.

This selfie by Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds is more engaging to me than a formal ministerial pic in an office – and still lands a clear message in the post wording.

And sometimes the best moments that show your genuine personality are unplanned and unscripted!

And Hacker T Dog should be given his own Sunday morning politics show for this grilling of Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy! (My four year old’s takeaway from this was, “They’re closing down the BBC?” 😂)

Corporate social videos don’t need to be formal and filmed professionally

Keeping on the theme of authenticity, I liked this from Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, who has replicated this format a couple of times already on Twitter this week.

Yes, he’s at his desk, but the jacket is off, and he’s talking in a really easy to understand and engaging way (and without autocue) about the lifting of the offshore wind farm ban – and landing messages about the pace of change and helping to deliver on the election pledge of making Britain a clean energy superpower.

And it’s simple, short and snappy – and vertical too. You don’t have to use professional-level kit for corporate videos, especially for the off-the-cuff, ‘breaking news’ feel of this content. And it can be easily posted on other platforms too.

Use the voices of beneficiaries, customers and staff to land your messages

Although the new government is enjoying its honeymoon period, this will not last long – and after an election campaign where politicians have been all over our media, many voters are likely to be wanting a break from it all.

So instead of leaders or ministers just talking at the screen, look to see when you can use real, ordinary people – from beneficiaries of policies, projects and services, or even your staff.

This is a far more effective technique to engage the less-politically inclined members of the public, who are not using Twitter/X (and if they do are not following ministers) and do not want to see politicians in their feeds elsewhere.

We haven’t seen enough of the public featured in the Labour government’s social output so far, but that hopefully will change soon.

There was some nice interaction in the Department of Health and Social Care video, where Wes Streeting was in listening mode, hearing from patients and doctors, rather than another direct ‘piece to camera’ telling you what you should think is important to you.

Collab with content creators and influencers to land your messages

So far, we’ve seen quite standard social and digital media comms from the Starmer government – but the previous administration had begun to develop relationships with content creators and influencers to help to get their messages out to a non-politics obsessed general public.

This collaboration by the Treasury with Mr Money Jar allowed their news about inflation falling to be told in an engaging, native storytelling format, and wove in soundbites from an interview with the then-Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt.

This week, you may have read about the Biden administration’s work with content creators and influencers and even seen unlikely collabs at the Nato conference:

@mandaround Replying to @ur mom THE COOLEST thing l’ve done in my career to-date – IM AT THE WHITE HOUSE BAYYYBEEEE this NATO summit has taught me SO MUCH already and I’m dying to tell you guys everything that I’ve learned and seen 👀👀👀 The way I was in the same room as THIRTY TWO presidents and prime ministers??????? WHAT I’m doing my absolute best as a hashtag woman in STEM, and hashtag woman in a room full of men in general, to ask questions (to insanely high level officials 😮‍💨) and take up space, and LET ME TELL YOU it’s been a bit nerve-wracking You guys are about to get smmm content from here (and also some cool opportunities for all my scholars interested in geopolitics and other subjects in political science 👀) SO GET READYYY #university #student #canada #justintrudeau #NATOsummit #NATOCanada #ontariouniversities #canadianuniversities ♬ original sound – Amanda | Student life ♡

But giving access and also loosening editorial control can have unintended consequences – for example, Amanda Round’s most popular TikTok was pointing out that only 3 of 37 Nato leaders were women.

And TikTok content creator Olivia Juliana explained to Politico about the backlash facing her and her peers to posting Biden content on the app.

Email is effective

Like any comms plan, there should be a multiplatform approach to landing messages – and more ‘traditional’ approaches like TV, news websites and email are still important.

For example, the new Education Secretary wrote an open letter to the workforce “to make clear the valuable role they will play in the government’s agenda for change”, which was then posted on the Department for Education’s blog on GOV.UK and shared on their social media:

While Wes Streeting sat on the This Morning sofa to talk to their viewers about his plans for the NHS:

Be creative, think ‘what would appeal to this audience?’ and go to where they are online

In the excitement to show action and engagement with key stakeholders, there has been a huge volume of content from government social channels. But, generally, less is more.

Where possible, be creative with formats, backdrops and presentation styles – a formal ‘piece to camera’ in an office should be reserved for serious moments!

And think if video really is the best way to get your points across (we still prefer to consume news in written form, according to a respected Reuters Institute report.)

Use insight to inform your strategy on the platforms where your audience are (I’m hopeful that the TikTok ban on No10 and departments will be lifted soon – the parties showed what is possible on there during the campaign and the Ofcom stats that show how many of us now get news from the app).

Also, look at your social analytics to analyse what type of content works best for that topic.

Put yourself in your audience’s shoes: if all your CEO’s content are videos of him or her talking at camera in their office, how is that going to stand out in people’s feeds?

And now social platforms are embracing algorithms over followers and engagement is key to boost visibility, think about how your leader’s content is sharable to reach a wider audience.

But direct comms is still best – have you considered a policy-themed or personality-led WhatsApp channel to share updates direct into your audience’s phones? Think specific and niche, not broad-based.

If you need some help with rethinking your approach on how to land your new CEO or boss on social, get in touch!

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Why the General Election shows Twitter/X still matters for news

14 June 2024

There’s been a lot of talk about TikTok and the power of video in this General Election campaign (yes, that includes from me) but not much on Twitter/X and the power of words, and their ability to make news.

I found these tweets from Rishi Sunak initially, followed a couple of days later by a similar one from Keir Starmer, really interesting:

They go against conventional wisdom that you must have a visual element to a social post for it to be seen and engaged with.
They are simple, clear, powerful one line statements, which aim to sum up their view, be it on a belief, issue or a policy. We’ve seen a lot of this with inspirational sayings going viral on Instagram, and sayings about business and life being liked a lot on LinkedIn.
Like many successful social strategies, they are aimed to generate a reaction – you may feel passionately wanting to advocate this view, or you may be so aghast that you share it and make clear your opposition to it. But that helps spread it beyond their followers to reach more people, and be shown up more on the For You tab on Twitter.
It shows how important Twitter is to their campaigns in engaging politically active users, reinvigorating their supporters, and appealing to journalists and opinion-formers.

Why Twitter/X is still important in news and communications

Twitter (I still call it that) has been written off a lot in the turbulent time since Elon Musk took over, but it is proving to still be influential and a platform you can’t ignore from a comms/media perspective.

We know that most voters aren’t actively on Twitter/X, but it is still the place where mainstream news, memes and debate tends to start, to then be picked by up and amplified or turned into a story by the media.

The election campaign seems to have reinvigorated users, reacting to the news, policies and bloopers that have come up these past few weeks.

As Ofcom’s 2023 Media Nations report showed, Twitter is still a way behind other social apps used by adults in the UK, and may soon be overtaken by TikTok.

But it was interesting to see a study from the Pew ResearchCenter in the US that X is still more of a destination for news than other social platforms for Americans – by that, I mean most Twitter users go there specifically for news, although others also see news passively in their Instagram, TikTok and Facebook feeds.

My use of X has certainly changed over recent years (I tend to use more lists than the main feed), but it still helps me get a snapshot or insight into news and topics, both personally and professionally.

The main political parties know a tweet can still influence journalists, decision makers and opinion formers more than TikTok – often I’ve seen TikToks go more viral on Twitter than where they originally came from!

But like TikTok, it won’t be Twitter Wot Won It. Organisations need to have a strategic multiplatform approach, tailored to different audiences and channels, both owned and social. It’s a far more fragmented, complex and competitive media landscape than in any other election before.

7 practical takeaways from Ofcom’s Online Nation report

29 November 2023

How have our online habits changed this past year? Ofcom have done a thorough exploration of this, with their latest Online Nation report.

I’ve gone through this fascinating study to pull out what their findings mean for you – and how you can be inspired to better reach and engage your audiences.

1. Do you have a good YouTube strategy?

Ofcom Online Nation report survey: YouTube is Top social media services among UK adults

For too many, YouTube is still seen as a dumping ground for TV ads and other unloved videos. But it should really be a cornerstone of your digital comms strategy.

YouTube is now the most popular social or digital media platform among UK adults, overtaking Facebook.

Think about how you can provide helpful and engaging content on your most popular or searched for topics, with clear video titles that include relevant keywords, and interesting thumbnail images.

It’s no surprise that TikTok is popular among younger adults, with 18-24 year olds using it for an average of 55 minutes a day on there, but Snapchat is proving remarkably resilient too, with its users spending nearly an hour a day on there.

It feels too early to make any decisive views on Threads, but despite aggressive promotion on Meta’s other platforms, it’s not quite caught on so far. Like many of us, I’ve dipped in and out of it. But Channel 4 is doing a good job on there!

Don’t write off Twitter (or X) – although its usage has declined overall, it’s still the main place for breaking news, sport and other live events, if that’s what your audiences are interested in, and journalists and opinion formers are still active there.

2. The one size fits all social approach doesn’t work anymore

Overall, we’re seeing an increasing fragmentation of social media, with different groups of audiences using a wider range of channels. Just plonking the same post and content on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram is unlikely to work as it may have done before.

You need to examine what is working on what channel for you – even if it contradicts the general findings of this report – and even be bold about focusing on fewer of them.

Diversify your forms of engagement and communication too – we’ve seen how a whim of a social media giant or tweak in the Google algorithm can have a serious impact.

Also, think what you’e trying to achieve – is it to provide information and drive awareness, where social can be beneficial, or is it driving people to your website, which is becoming trickier through these platforms without paying?

Tailoring and optimising content and messaging is so important as well. Generally, we have less time and patience than ever before – if your caption or first few seconds don’t interest them, it’s likely to struggle.

I’ve proven this theory wrong, with some 16:9 videos on TikTok getting hundreds of thousand of views, but the content has to really resonate with, and engage, your followers.

And with the general shift to more algorithmic-based feeds, look into an organic promotion strategy to help boost the visibility of your posts – this doesn’t mean just influential voices, but your own staff too!

3. Is your content and site optimised for mobile?

This may sound silly in 2023, but we are using our phones more than ever to go online, with computer and tablet usage declining, according to Ofcom.

Even though those aged 55+ use smartphones the least, this still accounted for the vast majority of their time spent online.

The irony wasn’t lost as I tried to read Ofcom’s PDF-only report on my phone…

4. Consider reaching and engaging your audiences on WhatsApp

Apparently, we have an average of 36 apps on our phones – having culled a load recently from my phone that I hadn’t used in ages, this surprised me!

Meta-owned apps were the top ones used by adults, with WhatsApp still the favoured app of the nation.

Have you thought about creating a broadcast channel or explored whether you can gain access to Channels?

Success on there so far has been a bit hit and miss (my assessment is: less link posts, more native chat and content.)

5. Think about how AI can help your teams do their jobs better and provide a better service and experience for your audiences

I was fascinated to learn that as many as three in ten UK internet users had tried out a generative AI tool, such as Chat GPT, DALL-E or Snapchat’s AI. There’s an apparent willingness for people to use them, if they’re clearly labelled as such

But as Microsoft discovered, great care is needed when using it to avoid undermining customer confidence in what you do.

AI is also being used to provide great benefit to comms jobs – Buckingham Palace used AI-driven software to help assess the notoriously-tricky-to-measure online sentiment to the recent royal visit to Kenya, and Whitehall is testing their own in-house tool to see how it can help improve tasks such as in press offices.

I recommend following Peter Heneghan who’s doing exciting work in this space.

6. We all have a duty as content creators and publishers to protect our audiences

“Attitudes to being online are complex and often ambivalent”, notes Ofcom.

It adds that “adults recognise the benefits of being online at a personal level, but less so for society overall… Although being online provides both adults and children with many benefits, the online environment also has the potential to expose internet users to harm.”

Misinformation is the biggest issue – with those surveyed claiming political or electoral content is the biggest problem. A quarter of users had also encountered hateful, offensive or discriminatory content in the past month.

Think about the steps you can take to protect followers: do you have a clear guide in place? Do staff know about it, from a professional, and also sadly, personal basis?

Worryingly, with the shift to more algorithmic-based feeds, over a third of users said their most recent harmful interaction came for just scrolling through their feeds, or the for you page.

Combined with the fact that less than half of those surveyed were aware of platforms’ rules and safety measures in place, I’d love to see a high profile campaign by these apps, government and Ofcom to raise awareness of how to report potential issues, and also improve media literacy of users online.

7. We’re more online than ever – but remember those who aren’t

UK adults spend on average 3¾ hours online – slightly more than this time last year. It’s no surprise that younger people spend nearly an hour more, and 65+ an hour less.

But what struck me was the numbers that don’t have access to the internet at home, either through desire or affordability.

It’s 7% of 16+, rising to 18% of over-65s. Over a quarter of people said this was due to cost.

Despite the race to be more and more digital, don’t forget to include all of your audiences in your communication efforts.

You can read Ofcom’s fasinating Online Nation report here.

Twitter/X axes headlines from link posts – this is what you can do

25 October 2023

After the recent changes to Twitter/X and Facebook, LinkedIn is probably the only social platform left where you can easily post external links – but even then it doesn’t mean lots of views of your article!

It’s all about a gradual shift in how social media firms want publishers, companies and other users to use their platforms.

These changes had been expected

Last night’s changes by Twitter to remove headlines from Twitter cards had been coming since Elon Musk posted in August about doing so.

He wants followers to stay on the channel, rather than go to read or watch something on a browser or an app ( the “esthetics” claim seems dubious.)

What I think people are overlooking is that he claims the algorithmic-based For You tab “tries to” prioritise posts that don’t – but whether they are able to do so is not so clear. If a post which includes a link is generating lots of engagement, I generally think it will be more likely seen in that tab than a less interesting post.

So what should we do?

Again after a change by Musk, it’s provoked frustration, slight outrage and vows to quit Twitter – but they reflect moves by all platforms to wanting to keep users where they are.

But it is also helpful to put yourself in the shoes (or hands) of the user – we generally prefer to read everything where we already are as we lazily scroll, rather than be redirected elsewhere, close the page, go back etc. And unless something really resonates with us, or captures our attention, we’ll keep on scrolling.

So we need to adapt the way we communicate on those platforms – or seek alternatives.

Like it or not, Twitter is still the place where live news and hot takes happen – the Liverpool VAR decision to the Conservative Party conference this week alone.

If we want to engage our followers, we need put more effort into thinking what our posts will look to them – and why someone would share, comment or like it, or tap on the link.

For example, do we need to rethink how we use lead images on sites and adding captions, so that the picture pulled through is more appealing and tappable?

I’ve seen some publishers manually adding an image to a post, with the link in the copy, but I’m not sure how much more appealing that is to users.

Another way is posting a headline or teaser post, with the link in the reply – but I don’t think that is any more effective; there’s little incentive to share or like a post that says ‘read more’. All the detail you need to know tends to be in the top post.

Interestingly, LADbible, who are at the forefront of social publishing, have appeared to stop doing that and gone back to link posts.

Another option to share information is in a short thread – three posts mean that all are seen in the feed and not hidden (Twitter displays the first and last two in a thread). Treat each one as a standalone post that still work if individually retweeted, with details, images/video and then possibly a link in the final one. More often than not, the first post gets the most engagement. you could space out the thread to try to get repeated hits of the top post during the day.)

The other option, is to pay – either to be verified, or use promoted posts for carousels and other features.

Having a blue tick allows you to post much longer posts – but have you tried to read one of those? It’s hard work…

For my wrestling history account, being verified allows me to post longer videos and be more visible in mentions (and possibly the For You feed, but it’s not clear.) Monthly payouts have dramatically reduced in the last couple of months, but for me it still covers the cost of the fee.

But for many big publishers, Twitter referral traffic has been poor for a long time. Sky News’ head of digital, Nick Sutton said recently:

What about other platforms?

You may have seen how Facebook is cutting its efforts and support to news publishers – according to Axios, major news companies have suffered huge losses in traffic in the past six months.

And the much-heralded Threads still doesn’t have the ability to post links. Besides, engagement numbers appear to have fallen off a cliff (Just checked my phone and I used the app so infrequently I had to redownload it.)

Look also at Instagram and TikTok, who don’t allow links in posts (unless you pay) – I rarely feel motivated enough to ‘check the link in our bio’.

WhatsApp offers exciting opportunities – I wrote about the potential of Channels last month and Reach have been talking about the success of interest-based Communities(but I would not want 15 messages a day from a news provider clogging up my chats!)

Slowly, many have realised that they can’t rely on third party platforms to reach their audiences – and for publishers, make money.

We’ve seen a refocus on owned platforms: apps, email and memberships, which is a good thing.

So…

Experiment! Try things out, see what works and analyse the data. You can still have great success on social media, but you can’t just post a link and hope it will drive great interest anymore.

After my first Twitter payout, is the X Premium programme worth it?

8 August 2023

I admit I was a bit sceptical of Elon Musk’s claims about his Twitter/X Monetization programme (now called X Premium), but my curiosity got the better of me, so I signed up to Blue.

After my first payout, I think it is worth it, if you have a hobby account that’s popular – but you won’t get rich off it!

Is the X Premium scheme worth paying £10 a month for?

First of all, you need to do some basic maths to work out if it is worth the investment.

You have to be subscribed to Blue, or be a verified organisation as one of the qualifying criteria. Blue costs £9.60 a month, including taxes.

I’d also recommend checking your Twitter analytics before signing up. You need to have at least 15 million organic impressions on your cumulative posts in the last three months – that’s a lot for most people.

This rules out some of my hobby and personal accounts, apart from On This Day In WWE, which is dedicated to milestone anniversaries of events in wrestling, which has 50,000 followers. Having Blue has been helpful because I can post longer clips than 2’20”.

How do you qualify for the payouts from the X Premium scheme?

Looking at the last three months, which we believe to be the qualifying period (but we don’t know for certain), I was just over the threshold for impressions:

Twitter is hot on accounts using paid promotion, or bots or other ways to artificially boost your numbers.

The other qualifying criteria is that I needed to have at least 500 followers.

There are also caveats in the small print of X Ads Revenue Sharing terms – I had copyright claims for the footage I used from Sony India, which I successfully appealed, but that could count against you.

Are your Twitter/X posts interesting enough to make money?

Also buried in the small print is that the ad revenue sharing programme relates to the organic impressions of ads shown in replies from veriified users (ie fellow blue tickers) to the content you post.

So, if you’re generating a lot of replies to your content, great. That doesn’t mean you have to do clickbaity posts.

My wrestling content is aimed to stimulate reactions to memories – good or bad – about moments in wrestling history. Did you love a match – or hate a storyline? Optimising content to provoke genuine emotional reactions tends to do well.

And you are likely to need to post a lot to generate sufficient replies, unless something goes particularly viral.

Do you want to give Twitter/X your bank details?

The other consideration is that you need to have a Stripe account to receive payments. This requires using a bank account, which some people may be uncomfortable with.

Musk has talked about building financial services into Twitter, which has concerned some people – and you do connect your Stripe account with your Twitter account – but Stripe is a separate, and by all accounts, a secure organisation.

So how much did I make from X Monetization?

Drum roll… $202 – or £158.

Minus £30 of Twitter Blue payments, that’s £120. A nice amount for something I genuinely enjoy doing.

So if you’re hoping your meme account will make you millions…sorry.

But…

Again, Twitter makes clear in its terms that you have to have generated more than $50 (£40) to qualify for a payout.

And “X may modify or cancel the Program at any time in its sole discretion, including for business, financial, or legal reasons” – so this may be the peak in terms of payouts. They haven’t shown how they work out the amount they pay you.

Payouts are made “at a regular cadence” – it’s not clear how often.

So…

If you enjoy Twitter and posting what you do, and you get high levels of impressions, then it’s worth doing.

It’s more than any other social account is doing to help creators (unless you want to sell things through a shop on TikTok.)

Article updated to rename the Twitter Blue programme to X Premium

Read how Twitter’s changes to post headlines

This Reuters digital news report can help to change your social media approach

14 June 2023

Today’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism digital news report provides some much needed-momentum to some media organisations, businesses and brands alike to rethink how they use digital and social media.

The report talks about how we face “a continual transformation of digital”. But far from being something that should terrify us, it’s a really exciting time to change things, become more insight-driven, experiment and innovate – and reap the benefits.

The old way of just posting the same series of article links on Twitter and Facebook, or the same video with the same post copy, isn’t as effective as it once was.

I’ve pulled out some of the most relevant findings and how they can be useful to your business.

Where do people get their news or information from?

The report notes that social is growing as the main way people get their news, and it claims there has been a steady decline in people accessing websites and apps directly.

Despite some of the headlines, Facebook is still the most important platform to share news – although this will likely decline as Meta shifts away from prioritising and investing in it. One of the country’s biggest digital publishers, LadBible, still enjoy huge success on there, using performance data to inform them what posts to put on there.

Twitter can still work for big events, newsworthy moments and particularly to appeal to those working or interested in the media, politics and finance. But I’m sure a lot of you have seen how news is not driving engagement as much, generally.

It’s interesting to see how ITV News has cut back on posting and being more focused on what they share, redirecting efforts to other platforms (more of which later.)

The report also shows increases in YouTube and WhatsApp, both of which generally have untapped potential for many organisations.

Getting your news into the WhatsApp ecosystem is key – that’s where people mostly talk, share their thoughts and forward on things to group chats of like-minded individuals, rather than be criticised or put down on public forums.

Think about how you use WhatsApp – personally, I use it the most of any channel to share and read stories that I exchange with family, mates and colleagues. I think there’s real opportunity there, especially with the community group function, for organisations.

YouTube is still generally underutilised, particularly by brands, who still see it as a dumping ground for TV ads and don’t maintain and grow it. Though it has proven fruitful, there is so much more opportunity than just putting clips of your output on there – smaller, digitally-savvy operations have been making some great and popular bespoke shows and content – some slick, others just two experts chatting about topics and answering viewers’ questions. The chance to monetise is probably the best of the platforms, too.

I’ve seen a lot of chatter today about the stats showing an increase in TikTok usage for news – but Instagram is still twice as big a source, including among 18-24 year olds. The visual element is crucial, but put effort into the post copy too – tell the story there. How many times have you really bothered to go to the link in the bio unless you’re really motivated?

Surprisingly, there was no mention of LinkedIn, which has increasingly become influential and a powerful tool to promote your work, engage and connect with people.

What I also felt was missing from the report was the importance of your own platforms (a view Thomas Baekdal is a big advocate of.) Social publishers can change your business model overnight and seriously affect your distribution. We’ve seen how BBC News under Naja Nielsen and ITV News under Stephen Hull and Matt Williams are investing in iPlayer and Sounds and ITVX, and it has paid off. And Global are providing news content from LBC in their app, which houses The News Agents. Live tweeting has been replaced by liveblogs on news sites – something ITV News was doing a decade ago, under Julian March and before that, Andrew Sparrow at the Guardian.

Also, and this seems to have been overlooked, all audiences – including 18-24 year olds – prefer to read text-based versions of news than listen or watch something. Future online news habits will evolve, with more audio and visual formats, but investing in your website is still a sensible move.

Who do people get their news and information from?

Mainstream outlets and journalists still are ahead on Twitter and Facebook, but that’s not so clear cut on other platforms where smaller and more niche media, and especially more personalities and ordinary people, are influential.So, it’s not just thinking about what your reporter or chief executive posts, but how you encourage people with an engaged following on a niche subject you’re talking about to share/post about what you are doing.

Unless it’s genuinely useful and informative to that audience, will trigger an emotional reaction, or is visually attractive enough for them to stop scrolling, it’ll be hard to get your followers to read the post, tap on the link – and you’ll be lucky to get them to share or like it.

Rather than pump out posts, think about why someone would want to share it: as Jeff Jarvis acutely observed a decade ago, primarily we share things as it reflects how we want to be seen by others, or a reflection of our beliefs.

Think before you post: what do I want someone to feel about this post? How can I encourage them to read/watch or share/like it?

Think about the messenger too – it’s often better to show the beneficiary or human side to the story, than a dry corporate voice. ‘Ordinary people’ as the Reuters Institute call them, can deliver your messages with greater success.

For ITV News, taking a ‘people like me’ approach to The Rundown series on Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok has really paid off, with a regular set of younger multiskilled producer/presenters selecting, presenting and editing the stories.

I’ve been doing a lot of experimentation with communities on Twitter and Facebook, setting up accounts on niche interests and cultivating and engaging a following on subjects from ‘on this day’ memories of WWF wrestling to non-alcoholic beer. If you share something that appeals to that audience, and appear genuine and credible in that sphere, it can fly. Think about how you can do that, or how you can tap into that community as a welcome addition, not an awkward outsider just pushing your links.

It’s been pleasing to see the evolution of how these groups are treated. Once dismissed as “echo chambers”, now they’re talked about more as “communities”, with a range of views on like-minded subjects.

Who chooses what news and information you see?

I was a bit surprised in the presentation of the report’s findings that the authors jokingly said: “Don’t worry, we won’t talk about AI!” Thanks to Dataminr’s Kirsten Dewar for raising it in the Q&A. Yes, there’s been a lot of attention on it recently, not helped by some alarmist or misleading stories, but it has the potential to be a gamechanger in terms of production and promotion.

TikTok has enjoyed huge popularity with its AI-backed For You Page, but many don’t regard it as machine-based as it is so accurate so quickly with identifying your interests. It’s notable that of the options given to people in the survey, they preferred the idea of having stories automatically selected based on what they’ve previously consumed, rather than by an editor, as they have been for decades in broadcasting, print and on websites.

Experimenting with AI, with human oversight, is not a new phenomenon. I read many years ago how PA news agency were experimenting with machines writing fact-based articles, including election results. With limited resources, focusing on the content that really serves your audience with machine-based pieces for the more low-level news could be the way forward.

But please, always check it with a human editor…

Here’s a fun challenge for Londoners… see how many bizarre errors you can find in MyLondon’s guide to London Bridge station. Written by an AI? https://t.co/44sjoYHQpR

— M@ (@mattfromlondon) June 13, 2023

In his excellent newsletter, James Ball talked about how at BuzzFeed he wrote four different headlines and after 15 minutes’ performance, the computer selected the one that was doing the best.

And LadBible revealed their ruthlessness when it comes to poor-performing content – if a post is not doing well within the first hour, it can be reworked – or removed completely.

I also wonder what the difference is between AI overseen by a person and data-based decision-making? I’ve had many experiences where senior figures want to go with their instinct of how to present or promote a story – but looking at what audiences actually have engaged with previously on the topic should play an equally strong role in informing what stories to cover.

The Telegraph, for example, has done a very good job in building their subscription business, serving stories that appeal to their audiences through their STARS audience metrics, which provide a far more sophisticated way of measuring success than the ‘most read’ stats. Dan Silver has talked about this in great depth.

Who recommends news to you goes back to my earlier point on influencers – not necessarily celebrities, but those with engaged audiences on specific topics. Those less trusting of the media are more likely to engage with stories shared by individuals they respect.

For example, at the Department for Education, we had great success with getting high-profile individuals to share our content, despite their regular criticism of the government, because it was designed to resonate with them on an issue they cared about.

This is great. Football is great. Jemima is great. https://t.co/DjIYpAubIV

— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) February 9, 2022

Are you turning people off your stories?

Who hasn’t got a news alert that startles you – only to find out it’s of no interest to you at all?

A one-sized approach to the news and audiences is in the past – appoint reinforced by the report’s findings. At least the BBC, to their credit, are testing the ability to personalise text alerts.

This quote from the report’s lead author Nic Newman stood out to me:

“It is clear that many websites and apps are optimised for those that are super-engaged with every twist and turn of today’s news (and politics) agenda. But these approaches also seem to be turning large sections of the public away – with potential long-term implications for civic and democratic engagement.”

It’s no surprise that national politics is one of the biggest news turn-offs for the less news-obsessed. Focusing on the beneficiaries of government policies, or those disadvantaged by them – real people – has been a far more effective way to tell these stories where needed.

And it’s not surprising that interest in news has sharply declined in recent years – I sometimes feel bombarded by content, posts that are not relevant to me. This goes back to my earlier points on insight-based decisions on what to cover and what to post.

Thankfully we’ve seen a decline in clickbait and more sensationalised social posts, reinforced by changes to Google’s search rankings system, and there’s been a flourish of new “varied ways of connecting with audiences”, as Kamal Ahmed put it: personality-led posts and content, explainers, data journalism, fact-checking.

This is an approach that companies can utilise too. There’s no one magic solution – it’s having a range of storytelling techniques and using your previous experience of these formats to judge which is the best one to use in that instance.

Talking of which, I really enjoyed BBC News’ TikTok explainers of key political and economic topics, like this chat with Faisal Islam, made by Jan Bruck

@bbcnews

No gobbledygook allowed. #dragraceuk #bagachipz #rupaulsdragrace #inflation #bbcnews

♬ original sound – BBC News

A quick word on podcasts – a hugely popular format, but one that still has a long way to go in news, with only 8% listening monthly. Looking at the top 10 suggests more creative ways to talk about the news (and please, less of a focus on Westminster!) Certainly making video versions and promoting clips on social can help drive traffic.

That’s all well and good, but how do you make money?

This has been the big dilemma for news organisations. I’m still surprised to hear some news chiefs talk about social media being a source of income – I think gone are the days of large financial support from platforms to do news on there. And apart from YouTube, monetisation is poor.

Publishers talk about a mixture of income revenues – for example, LadBible and The News Movement are tempting brands and businesses with their knowledge of audience insight, data and social storytelling.

That best data comes from owning your own platforms. As Naja pointed out, data from social channels is “a marketing ploy” – it’s not the same as your own stats.

I was editor on The Sun’s website during a difficult time as we were working out how best to work with a paywall. I was an advocate then – even if I didn’t have all the answers – and seeing how other news providers have successfully done so, I still believe it’s the only way forward now.

It will be a difficult conversation for audiences – the UK was the lowest of 20 major countries for paying for news – but declining ad revenue isn’t going to save your business. Portraying these reader revenue models as having greater benefits beyond just news could be one solution. The Telegraph has established an award-winning games and puzzles section, for example, along with high quality, distinctive journalism.

More and more of us supporting individuals and smaller teams on Patreon because we enjoy their podcasts, and to a lesser extent Substacks. What can we learn from those successes for more established outlets?

If you want to hear the news slightly differently…

Hannah Vaughan Jones and I have been experimenting with putting some of these ideas into action with a show called Sorry You Went Viral: all about the stories that people are sharing and enjoying on social media – and the human side of what it’s like to go viral.

Check the show out on YouTube and podcasting platforms – or search for the show name on your social platforms.

I’d love to know with you about what you’re finding is working successfully for you or your organisation, or if you want to chat about how you can put some of these changes in place.