Social-first media strategies – why they’re risky
Many brands, especially those targeting under-35s, are opting for social-first media strategies. There is a belief that younger consumers pay no attention to traditional media. The media habits of teens are, of course, vastly different to those of the boomer generation. Metricomm examined the latest media consumption trends from Ofcom, and came to the conclusion that social-first strategies may risk missing significant media opportunities.
There are plenty of reasons why we shouldn’t dismiss the influence of traditional media. In our experience across sectors, engagement with ‘traditional media’ is not declining as quickly as social platforms and some PR agencies would have us believe. Yes, the media landscape is shifting and becoming more polarised at the same time. Yet online versions of traditional media remain the most impactful when it comes to driving business results executives care about. They move consumers along the path to purchase, increasing brand search, website visits, brand consideration and sales revenue. In some cases, they can amplify the results achieved by paid social strategies.
Brands should be cautious about leaning too heavily on the social-first approach, even if their audience includes a younger demographic:
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More than half (52%) of UK adults report using social media as a news source. This is growing, but nobody is claiming that 52% of adults use social media exclusively as their source of news
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Trusted and accurate news remains extremely important to people. Traditional platforms outperform social on trust, accuracy and impartiality rankings
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The BBC website remains the most influential medium in the UK. People talk about the decline of public service broadcasting, but this resource still underpins our news consumption, reaching 59% of adults who access news directly from a publisher. This is followed by online versions of Sky, the Guardian and the Daily Mail
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Online news consumption (70% of adults) is now on a par with television (70%). This is far from saying that broadcast news should be discounted in media planning. Metricomm findings show that broadcast content still has the highest audience impact, although this decays far more rapidly than online news
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Even among teens, the BBC has the largest reach, used by 36% of this age group, compared to 30% for TikTok and 21% for Instagram
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Digital natives have no clear preference for a single ‘most important’ source of news. Their platform choices are fragmented and include BBC One, whereas consumers aged 55+ have a clear preference for BBC One
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Teens also rate the credibility of traditional media more highly. 77% of teenagers using TV news said it ‘provided trustworthy news stories’, versus 45% of those using social media for news
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Social media, except for X, are consumed for ‘lighter’ news about sport, music and celebrities, fashion and beauty. Access to global and UK politics and current affairs, science and technology is a lower priority than news classed as ‘entertaining’ for consumers on most social platforms.
News consumption is complex, with many people seeking balanced views by reading a mix of sources. Newspapers (including online versions) and TV are in decline, but they remain massively important. The audience engaging with content from dailymail.co.uk or theguardian.com remains much greater than the audience for most posts on social media. Their overall audience is so big that the readership per article will still be high enough to make a real difference to campaign outcomes or brand reputation.
Social media acts as a catalyst or an amplifier, but rarely as the main source of an impactful news story. If a story is truly important, it will always find its way into the mainstream. If it is very important, media contagion in the mainstream media will ensure that a high percentage of the population is exposed to it and likely to engage with it.
Relying on social media may become even riskier. Bots are increasingly driving news on social channels, making it extremely unreliable. Bots are designed for spreading and amplification of news, including fake news which is intended to manipulate opinions and behaviour. We see this especially around polarising but important issues, including climate change, politics and medical research. This is one reason why even younger people still turn to mainstream media for balanced content, written and disseminated by genuine journalists.
Our conclusion is that social-first strategies are fine for certain types of product and influencer marketing, but it’s wise to back them up with traditional media relations. The data suggests that we are probably still a decade away from being able to rely on social alone to fulfil campaign objectives. And things can and will change again in that time!
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