Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have become rapidly growing news sources as news organizations adapt social media to disseminate news. University of Nebraska-Lincoln journalism Professor Sue Burzynski Bullard found that news outlets must interact with audiences beyond simply posting links to stories.
He found that those social media editors who interact and engage readers gain audience readership or audience growth as a social media use. For engaging readers, the author found assigning manpower to the post of social media editor in the news outlet and posing questions on the outlet’s social media page can spark conversation or interaction with audiences.
Rapid growth of readership often occurs after a media organization names a social media editor, Bullard found. Readers and journalists talk to each other using social media; it’s no longer a one-way delivery method. In a survey of 376 senior editors from U.S. print broadcast and online news outlets, 98 percent said they primarily use social media to post links to stories on Facebook and Twitter.
To read the full text of the study:
Bullard, S. B. (2015). Editors Use Social Media Mostly to Post Story Links. Newspaper Research Journal, 36(2), 170-183.
