According to an analysis done by Hitwise, less than .2 percent of people who use Twitter visit news and media sites from their Twitter accounts. But research also showed that Facebook users accounted for 3.64 percent of the visits to news and media sites – roughly 15 times the amount of traffic that Twitter accounted for.
So why the difference in social media referral success? The news and media sites simply don’t make good use of the social network to promote their content. Sure, updates and a large number of followers show popularity. But how much audience engagement actually occurs through their Twitter accounts? In most cases, very little.
Twitter followers are only going to follow links to news and media websites if they feel it provides them with information that they deem as useful or important. News headlines are great – but they’re a dime a dozen. With only 280 characters to put your point out there in the Twitter world, it’s essential to remember that every letter counts. You need to capture your audience in very little time. In a generation where there are five knockoffs of every product or service, it’s essential to find a balance between expressing your message and capturing your audience. Perhaps the news media needs to re-evaluate their marketing tactics on social media networks like Twitter and find strategies to meet both of these needs.
