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17. Producing content for social media platforms

While news-stands are the place to find newspapers, social media platforms are the place to find the online content produced by newsrooms. The majority of internet users do not go to the site of a media outlet directly. Therefore, it is important to know how to produce content for the different communities.

Knowing publication times

Knowing a social media platform well means understanding which time is best for publishing content. In general, it can be noted that during working hours, the audience is rather low. It is around lunchtime and in the late afternoon that more connections are made. Here are some more detailed data:

On Facebook, it is advisable to publish your content in the morning at around 09:00 or around lunchtime, between 13:00 and 15:00. On this platform, you will generally have more success at weekends.

On Twitter, lunchtime, especially on Wednesdays, is the time when most connections are made. You can also post content several times in the afternoon.

On Instagram, efforts should focus on the morning, between 08:00 and 09:00, and the end of the day, when everyone comes home from work. As this social media platform is image-based, it is always better to publish a video than a photo to have a hope of reaching more people.

Introduction to the notion of engagement

Generally speaking, social media platforms are a place to interact with your community. If you want to expand your audience, you need to create a link, challenge, ask questions, propose surveys, answer questions, etc. In the major newsrooms, this leadership role is usually assigned to community managers, which is a new role focussed on audience relations.

This role is all the more important since social media platforms, led by Facebook, often function using algorithms that highlight well-written content that includes a photo or an image. If your published content is successful, liked, commented on and shared, you will be more likely to be highlighted by the platform. Developing audience engagement means successfully increasing interactions between your published content and your community.

Being aware of how content is consumed

To be successful on social media, it is of course necessary to know what time to publish content online, but understanding consumption habits is also essential.

Let us take the example of the success of the media outlet Brut. The creators of this agency were initially interested in the way videos were viewed online. They noticed that the vast majority of videos viewed were short and often without sound. It was based on this analysis that they developed a format with text directly in the video and subtitles. This format is now used in almost all newsrooms.