social media

The CBS O&O leads Charm City in social media actions over the last six months according to data from audience insight firm Shareablee. What’s its secret to success? Being attentive to what your audience wants, powerful visuals, choosing quality posts over quantity, and, sometimes, stories that bring a smile.

Nestled alongside the cliffs of Laguna Niguel, Calif., at the Digiday Video Anywhere Summit, both digital and traditional media companies had a lot of things to gripe about. They also shared a lot of insights into what works and doesn’t work on social and streaming video platforms, as well as finding the right video talent. Here are some of the best things discussed at the event.

With another quarter in the books, Share Rocket tracks the performance of the top local broadcasters. 2017’s third quarter featured several major news events, but perhaps the biggest stories in the U.S. were centered on natural disasters including Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. Coverage of those events and the fallout after the storms had passed led to overall increases in engagement compared to the second quarter of the year.

Facebook, Twitter and Google acknowledged that their platforms were used by Russia to try to  create division over such disparate issues as immigration, gun control and politics.

With another quarter in the books, Share Rocket looks at the top five U.S. markets to track the performance of the top local broadcasters. 2017’s third quarter featured several major news events, but perhaps the biggest stories in the U.S. were centered on natural disasters including Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. Coverage of those events and the fallout after the storms had passed led to overall increases in engagement in the country’s top markets compared to the second quarter of the year.

Facebook, Google and Twitter are on Capitol Hill for marathon hearings over the next two days. All three already admitted that Russia’s use of their platforms to sway the American electorate was bigger than previously acknowledged.

Mark Zuckerberg’s company is trying to tell Congress — and the American public — that its ads are not especially effective.

WLTX, Columbia, S.C.’s CBS affiliate owned by Tegna, leads the market in social media actions over the last six months according to data from audience insight firm Shareablee. WLTX has just almost 3.2 million actions on social, 48% of the total engagement generated by the DMA (No. 77), with more than 6.5 million social actions

I think it makes all the sense in the world for journalists to bring the same sensibility to social media that they do to their day jobs. Providing tough, fair-minded coverage is a discipline that is undermined once you disclose your own biases. It’s not just that your audience’s view of your work changes; it’s that you change, too.

Facebook announced the rollout of new ad transparency features on Friday amid its push to boost accountability on its platform. Starting next month, the company will let users see all the ads a Facebook page is running, even if the user checking is not a part of the group targeted by the ads. Advertisers who want to run election ads on Facebook will also be required to verify their identities with the company.

Spotify is pulling the plug on its original video efforts and heading back to the drawing board, according to a report today. The company isn’t leaving video altogether; Spotify plans to reboot the initiative, marking just the latest shake-up in a meandering, and at times uncertain, gamble on original content.

Twitter has agreed to submit to the Media Rating Council for accreditation consideration — all coming in the midst of plaguing issues regarding digital media measurement. The MRC says Twitter has agreed to submit a set of key measurement metrics — the first phase of the accreditation process.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show host came under fire after wishing Roar singer Katy Perry a happy birthday — by tweeting a photo of herself staring at Perry’s breasts.

The move follows similar steps by Facebook and the introduction of a bill that seeks to bring more transparency to online political ads in an attempt to lessen the influence of Russia and other foreign entities on U.S. elections.

Snap has told Snapchat shows partners that it plans to bring in more programmatic ads after struggling to fill space inside the programming. According to three sources, including two media executives who have aired shows on Snapchat Discover and one ad buyer who has knowledge of Snap’s plans, Snap plans to inject more programmatic ads within Snapchat shows.

Stations don’t need to confine their news coverage to what’s happening in their backyards — on Facebook, it pays to think bigger. Last month, Fox’s Chicago O&O WFLD (Fox 32), was ranked the most engaging news publisher on Facebook in September in part by sharing national content, averaging 3.16 likes, comments and shares per user that month, according to NewsWhip.

The Fox O&O has just over 13.5 million actions on social, 36% of the total engagement generated by the DMA, with more than 37 million social actions. It was also first in actions per post on Facebook, according to Shareablee data.

How Facebook and Google became mercenaries — and now casualties — in the information war. Before the election threw a harsh spotlight on the politicization of digital media platforms, tech companies themselves were chasing profit from politics with abandon

What drives social media engagement in New Orleans? WWL-TV says weather — and sometimes gumbo, of course. WWL has just over 3.3 million actions on social, 25% of the total engagement generated in the market, with more than 13.6 million social actions. WWL also was first in actions per post with 259.

Donald Trump’s Twitter feed has become a news service for political junkies. It’s also raised a tangle of new ethical and legal questions for reporters covering the White House.

The truth is that while many reporters knew some things that were going on on Facebook, no one knew everything that was going on on Facebook, not even Facebook. And so, during the most significant shift in the technology of politics since the television, the first draft of history is filled with undecipherable whorls and empty pages. Meanwhile, the 2018 midterms loom.

Facebook, Google and others positioned themselves as bettering the world. But their systems and tools have also been used to undermine democracy and now they are under fire for creating problems instead of solving them.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg seems to be realizing a sobering reality about virtual reality: His company’s Oculus headsets that send people into artificial worlds are too […]

Former New Republic Editor Franklin Foer ruminates on the power he sees large tech companies holding over media outlets — a power he believes is detrimental to journalistic neutrality, the pursuit of truth and intellectual rigor. He talks about the dependence of media organizations on large tech platforms, his views on subscription-based models, and how he thinks journalism institutions should think about data and algorithms.

The president mocks a Republican senator’s height, challenges his secretary of state to an I.Q. contest and keeps the audience on the edge of their seats.