The news on the tweet

The emergence of Twitter has not been a nail in the coffin for newsbrands, says David Brennan, founder of Media Native – in fact, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts and the news eco-system has been greatly enhanced…

In my last blog I spoke about the hidden benefits of social media for TV. In fact, social media in general tend to offer positive benefits for all kinds of media channels.

Take newsbrands for example; I was privileged to present the hot-off-the-presses research on the relationship between newsbrands and Twitter at the Newsworks/Twitter event last Tuesday, entitled ‘News on the Tweet’ (in another life, I would have been a failed Sun headline writer!). The research explores the relationship between news, newsbrands and Twitter in some depth. You can see the charts here or film of the presentation here.

There are an estimated 8-9 million people in the UK who follow newsbrand content directly on Twitter; either the individual titles, their many sub-brands or the journalists. They are a very attractive audience, indexing well above average for most types of consumption, social influence and early adopter behaviour.

They are also enthusiastic about the changing role of news (in a very broad sense) and the ability of channels like Twitter and newsbrands to make it a more personal, shared, engaging and entertaining experience. Perhaps that is why five of the top six media brands (and 30 of the top 50) responsible for content that is shared through Twitter are newspaper brands.

‘Better together’ is becoming something of a cliché in the world of media, ever since we first learned that online and legacy media (I love that phrase!) were not in fact in cutthroat competition but often work together to create an eco-system which offers far more value to the media consumer than either could achieve alone. But, of course, in any symbiotic relationship there has to be benefits for both parties.

For Twitter, the newsbrands are a valuable source of content and help drive both traffic and acquisitions. That is because they are a major part of the reason why users are on Twitter in the first place.

The top three reasons given for signing up for Twitter were “to be aware of what is going on around me”, “to feel connected to people I am interested in but don’t know”, and “to pass the time” – all clearly ahead of the other reasons, including “to connect to people I know” and “to enhance my television viewing”. Of course, two of those top three reasons are core newsbrand territory and even passing the time is often done with news content.

So, it is of little surprise that newsbrand followers check in far more frequently than non-followers (60% more likely to visit every day) and those same followers are more than twice as likely to post daily. They are also three to four times more likely to retweet or comment on a regular basis.

For the newsbrands, Twitter offers immediate access, and greater reach. The average follower follows several newsbrands at once and the majority have been persuaded to buy the newspaper or visit the website regularly as a result. They claim to be more engaged with their favourite newsbrand(s) and more connected to the journalists, in particular.

In fact, let’s hear it for the journalists; the often unheralded content creators who have perhaps been most positively affected by the emergence of Twitter. Led by the likes of Caitlin Moran, Grace Dent, Fleet Street Fox, Oliver Holt and Kevin McGuire, the journalists have become a powerful force within the Twitter universe, garnering millions of followers and creating a more personal connection with their readers as a result.

After many years of study, I still don’t quite know what the term ‘engagement’ means, but I do know that the four key drivers of newsbrands’ relationship with Twitter – a thirst for knowledge, a desire to join the debate and opinion-setting, searching for communities of like-minded people, and joining in with the gossip and banter – are all likely to be significant components of engagement, however it is eventually defined.

The long and the short of it is that, just like the integration of online and legacy media elsewhere, the emergence of Twitter has not been a nail in the coffin for newsbrands; far from it. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts and the news eco-system has been enhanced.

Perhaps there is a lesson there for the digital giants such as Facebook and Google, as well as the founders of Amazon and eBay, who have all recently announced their plans for ‘transforming’ the news market-place with their own products and services. They will only ‘transform’ by working within the existing eco-system, rather than attempting to replace it.

Twitter already understands that fact of life very well, and has built a successful business around it as a result.