The ties that bind publishing, social media are stronger than ever; plus, Condé Nast debuts new video platform
If you own a company in digital publishing, social media is not an optional arm of your strategy – it’s required to help promote your content, of course.
But too often, digital magazines treat social media as a formality, simply going through the motions of posting a link to an article on Facebook or Twitter.
On the contrary, social media strategies are continually evolving, not least because new social media networks are continually emerging. And slapping a link up on your timeline doesn’t cut it; publishers must view social media distribution as a prime opportunity for repurposing content.
Best practices are also becoming more complex, as Facebook Instant Articles and other services aim to aggregate content produced by digital publishers, which some say could endanger magazine brands and dilute revenue streams. Regardless, as it stands, the upside in utilizing such channels outweighs any drawbacks.
Recent MediaPost articles touch on the subject. Let’s see what execs have to say about it.
Publishing, Social Media Still a Happy Match, Execs Say
MediaPost’s Erik Sass interviewed several publishing executives at the site’s Publishing Insider Conference earlier this month about their companies’ embrace of social media. And while some of those embraces are cautious, most are enthusiastic.
“We made a push into social media, and we’ve seen social media go from 5%-6% a few years ago to 25% to 30%,” Kiplinger Director of Digital Media Doug Harbrecht told MediaPost.
“We’re launching a site right now that is 100% socially distributed,” Business Insider Sales Director Toby Hudson told MediaPost. “For us, the Internet is the publication… that’s the competition. Relinquishing control to Facebook, there is some risk, but for us Apple News, Facebook Instant Articles are areas that we’re going to embrace. … We need to do advertising better on the platforms. Rather than this model of porting print [display formats] to digital and digital to mobile, it needs to be much more native to the environment.”
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Publishers are facing challenges with mobile strategy – which often goes hand in hand with social media – but, again, the benefits blow away any frustrations.
“The challenge, our video and display revenues have been 50-50. So display is not necessarily headed in a very beautiful direction, while video for us is trending in a very positive direction,” Perform Media Chief Revenue Officer Rich Routman told MediaPost.
“The buy and the sell sides will work themselves out. We’re still 12 to 18 months before everyone gets aligned. The content side of our operations is strong. The product side of our operations is absolutely the place where we need to get better. … If we can focus our efforts on product, I think we can solve at least 50%-60% of our pain points.”
Social Media Platforms a Strong Tool for Millennial Reach
In another post from the Publishing Insider Conference, Sass spoke with The Enthusiast Network Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing Eric Schwab, Playboy Senior Vice President for Digital Robin Zucker, Mashable Collective Creative Producer Maya Tanaka, and Bonnier Vice President for Audience Development Jennifer Anderson about how they use social media for securing more views and visits from Millennials and Gen Z. Highly recommended piece!
Condé Nast Releases New Social Video Platform, FIG
The Food Innovation Group Video Network is Condé Nast’s new social video platform that will repurpose content from its Bon Appétit and Epicurious properties, MediaPost reports. Starting with nine series with a planned expansion to 26 next year, FIG will publish videos to Condé-owned sites as well as to Amazon, AOL, Apple TV, Facebook, Instagram, MSN, Roku, Snapchat, Spotify, Tumblr, Twitter, Yahoo, YouTube, and ME Studio, according to MediaPost.
In publishing? Social media strategy in place? Let us know what’s working for you in the comments!
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