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When it comes to generating referral traffic or building brand awareness for publishers, Facebook is way ahead of the other major social platforms, Digiday found in a recent survey of 124 publishing executives.
In spite of a spate of missteps, controversies and investigations, Facebook’s value to publishers is still unquestionably high. 17 out of every 20 respondents voted Facebook #1 in traffic generation, with none of its closest competitors, including Twitter and Google AMP, even coming close.
“Even though we see a lot less from Facebook than we used to, it’s still our number one social traffic provider. It was so far ahead of the other platforms that even a significant drop meant it would still be number one,” Samantha Melbourneweaver, Audience Engagement Director at The Los Angeles Times, told Digiday.
Facebook’s scale also means it’s never going to really not matter as a traffic referral, especially for consumer-focused publications.
Mark Weiss, Digiday Research
Facebook is also publishers’ most important platform for building brand awareness, the study found. Around 15 out of every 20 publishers consider the platform their best bet for growing audiences. Half of the respondents also found Instagram—owned by Facebook, Inc.—useful for awareness building.
“Our main use of Facebook is to get our journalism distributed widely — we also use it as a paid marketing channel to promote our subscriptions — and we’re perfectly happy with that relationship,” New York Times CEO Mark Thompson previously told Digiday.
Click here for more details on the survey findings.