Adults are hooked on personalised news delivered by social media
Given that social media has become increasingly significant in the lives of the younger generation, it is particularly surprising how today’s adults can also shape their lives within the realms of the digital world. The rise of adults’ use of social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram, clearly indicate how these platforms capture adults’ attention.
The latest Pew Research Center survey revealed that nearly two-thirds of adults get news from social media. The survey conducted in association with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation revealed that 49 percent of adults read news on social media. Seventy percent of Reddit users say they get news from the platform, while 66 percent of Facebook users say the same for the Zuckerberg-owned platform.
According to Jeffrey Gottfried and Elisa Shearer, who wrote the Pew report, Facebook remains the largest social networking site in term overall reach, with 67 percent of US adults getting news from it, which is 44 percent of the general population. This reach is followed by the 48 percent share of US adults that generally uses YouTube. Although only 20 percent of YouTube users — equivalent to a tenth of the adult population — get their news on the video streaming platform. On the same level is Twitter, which has only 16 percent of US adults as users but a larger percentage consuming news via the microblogging site..
Social media’s increasing role in the delivery of news is unsurprising. According to another Pew research, the evolving roles of social media include the fulfilment of adults’ information needs. The survey was conducted at a time when social media sites increased their emphasis on news and publishing.
For instance, social media giant Facebook recently launched “ Instant Articles,” which boast of a faster and more interactive approach to news reporting. With a fast and responsive design, Instant Articles news feeds load ten times faster than the regular Facebook app, thus more appealing to adult readers. Another Facebook initiative on news delivery is its Livestream capabilities — a fun and powerful way to connect with followers. The app is built on engaging live video experiences on Facebook and seamlessly integrating it into a broadcast channel.
Twitter is not to be left behind. The company unveiled its news feature, called “Project Lightning,” which allowed anyone, whether or not a Twitter user, to view tweets, images and videos. Buzzfeed reported that this top Twitter secret project employs faster loading of videos and rich images that will occupy the front-and-centre location of the newest version of the Twitter app.
As more social media sites continue to adopt and develop tools for better news delivery, more adult audiences will turn to these sites for information. Still, adults who consume news on social media still get news from various platforms and sources, such as mobile web news sites and their mobile app counterparts. The American Press Institute suggests that while adults have discovered various news platforms on social media sites, they discriminate on the amount of trust they put in each source.
According to the API report, 43 percent of these adults completely rely on news delivered by news-gathering organisations, while 44 percent admit to trusting these sites moderately. Similarly, these adults cite that they highly trust electronic news alerts, which in concept is triggered by clicking on options they personally prefer. This is short of saying that adults take time to personalise new stories they deem important to them.
“Localised news is also where we seek to differentiate ourselves from other news apps — we believe it is one of the best ways to let our readers know that each audience is important and has value,” said Born2Invest founder and CEO, Dom Einhorn.
The mobile app that delivers business and finance news in over 169 countries across the globe focuses on push notification as part of its campaign. Daily notifications that users get on their phone are products of extensive research on users’ work and leisure hours to have news specifically written for their region and interests.
Mobile news consumption is divided among purely social media app users and other news platform users, but what emerged common in all of these is the ability of these platforms to deliver timely and relevant news to its readers.
With more people going digital, adults are also likely to join the bandwagon because social media manages to serve their interests — connecting with friends and reading news all on one platform. However, mobile news apps also register a high number of adult users because they portray relevance to society and deliver a more personalised content, one that adults highly trust.
