This is part “social” experiment, part NGEN blog post.
For this blog I have done something a little out of ordinary to demonstrate the power of social. To make this more discoverable to those within the industry it’s been boosted through Facebook as a sponsored post. After the post went live on Adnews, I used my Facebook page to boost the blog to the target audience, mainly comprised of people working in marketing and communications.
If you got here by clicking through Facebook – gotcha!
1. Is Facebook the modern news agency?
For me Facebook is now a bit like the ABC. I used to be interested in it when I was younger, my parents love it and I know I can find the news there 24/7.
In a recent Facebook Insights session I attended it admitted it's not the cool kid on the block any more. However this doesn’t bother them as their penetration is high. It has 13.8 million Australian friends and it is not losing them any time soon.
Facebook is no longer just for keeping up with your friends, posting on walls and sharing photos. It is also the place you go for news and is seen as a utility for accessing information. Facebook hasn’t lost out either as their other properties (Instagram, Messenger App and Whats App) are predominantly social. In fact, one in three minutes on mobile is spent on one of Facebook’s properties.
Social media is the fastest way to disseminate information to people all over the world. It is the modern day newsagent that links you up with the content you want to see based on your interests (i.e. what you have liked).
The power of Facebook for marketers is to deliver content that influences all aspects of the consumer journey right through to purchase. If you reached this through a sponsored post it demonstrates the power of social to deliver content directly to the audience required.
Facebook is now the news agency as well as the billboard.
2. The hook – My catchy list title
Right now in Australia, 75% of visits to Buzzfeed come through social. Buzzfeed’s proposition to the Australian market is that “If content is social, ads can be too”. Buzzfeed understands how content works for them and it has well and truly embraced the psychology of modern social content.
But why to people read so many of its articles? The Buzzhooks, smart cuts, native lists, and article-as-numbered lists… we all know what they are. They are becoming the most pervasive articles in social and on the web.
So what is happening? What makes us stop and read these lists?
A great article by Marie Konnikova explains all.
Optimal balance of content and intrigue – the hook!
The title intrigues you based on your interests and the hook of the article title draws you in to read more. They make the sometimes banal and mundane sound exciting. Subjects like saving “11 Small Things You Can Do To Save Money” or conservatism “21 Struggles People Raised by Conservative Parents Know to Be True”.
I’m sensing a theme.
List are our preferred way to receive information
We process information in an organised structure. Beginning. Middle. End. Etc. Lists make it easier for us to remember and get to the point when we try to recall it at a later date. Probably the reason people still take notes. We intrinsically love short-cutting to information.
It makes you feel good!
A study by two psychologists in 2011 (Messner and Wӓnke) found that people feel better when the amount of work they have to do to process information is reduced. The faster we make decisions: the happier we are. In the context of a social feed these articles are going to make us the happiest as they reduce the amount of processing our brain needs to do.
Hopefully my catchy list title combined with a little Facebook boost is what got you here.
3. You love the Adnews NGEN blog
You’re a regular. You want to know the most up-to-date, interesting and insightful stuff that is happening in the industry from the point of view of those who are at the pointy end of the business.
You love the NGEN blog and what people have to say.
4. Attention spans – I don’t really have a fourth
Most people by now have most likely given up or skipped ahead for the good bits.
Attention spans are changing and it is likely that you have stopped working on a task to check in on your Facebook newsfeed and come across this. A study by Lloyds TSB Insurance in the UK showed that the average attention span had fallen to just five minutes, down from 12 minutes 10 years ago.
The reason you might not get to the end of this post could be exactly why you stopped work to read it.
Social media is more dynamic than it was 10 years ago and its adjustment to consumer behavior is making it extremely powerful utility. Marketers and content providers need to recognise this and the changing consumer behavior to master their social messaging.
James Phillips is an executive in investment, planning and implementation at MediaCom