A study on social recommendations may be important news to marketers – the findings indicate that brands consumers associate with news content get more word-of-web referrals and overall uplifts on social channels. As businesses plan their content strategies for the holiday season, CNN's report offers insight on click-catching news.
News content made consumers more receptive to companies, according to CNN. The global survey revealed that people who received news content via social media were 19 percent more likely to recommend the brands advertising around stories. Moreover, nearly one-third (27 percent) personally favor brands affiliated with news
According to the report, online news sharing occurs most frequently on social channels, with sites including Facebook and Twitter accounting for 43 percent of shared news. This stat is in keeping with Brafton's earlier reports that news drives the most traffic to Facebook and Twitter, and researched content distributed on social channels sets apart business leaders from laggards in terms of generating leads.
Marketers looking to seed their social sites with news content should consider that ongoing news stories may be the most “shareable.” News falling into this category accounts for 65 percent of shared content, while breaking news represents 19 percent and “quirky or funny” news accounts for 16 percent.
The study also showed that the average consumer of online news shares 13 articles each week and receives about 26 stories via social sites and/or email. At the same time, a recent study from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press reveals that more Americans are increasingly devoting their online time to following the news.
According to Pew, roughly one-third of U.S. consumers go online to find news on a given day, and those who drive national increases in time spent reading news are highly likely to turn to digital sources. While businesses should share news via social channels, it is also important to remember to optimize websites with this content. Pew says one-third of consumers use search engines in their news-gathering habits.
