Writing to-do lists when working in both fast-paced news and social media can be a perfect storm. Even the most meticulous plan filled with Trello boards, Slack channels, and spreadsheets is never final, so we are constantly reassessing and rewriting our priorities and projects. However, there are a few bullet points that have remained top of my (virtual) to-do list. Here they are...
Navigate Meta’s algorithm and assess whether it’s here to stay, plus diversify traffic
If you want to dampen anyone’s festive season, ask a social media manager how their Facebook traffic is doing. No matter what your social strategy is, one KPI for all publishers will always be attracting users to their site via their social channels. And, as whizzy as you can be with analytics and forecasting, it sadly puts you at the mercy of the big social platforms, specifically Meta. According to Echobox, “in a six-month period from the beginning of January to the end of June, the percentage of total traffic that publishers receive from Facebook has dropped from an average of 9.3% to 5.6% — a drop of 40%.” And even after that staggering drop from Q1 to Q2, many of my peers in the industry agree that it has not stabilised.
While Meta are known for playing with their algorithms and sometimes creating a shaky month or so, it seems that this shift against publishers is here to stay. For further proof, the platform scrapped Facebook News for remaining territories in April of this year — a clear sign that their priorities were changing. Facebook was always the number one source of social traffic for every other publisher I know, so our eggs were slightly crammed in one basket, and now Meta unravelled some of the weaving, we are all scrambling to not make too much of a mess. However, it’s not all doom and gloom.
We can use the platforms again as they were originally intended for: engaging with our audience. Our followers are still delighted to see the first photo from a Princess of Wales outing on their Facebook feed (it’s why they followed us, after all!), and now Reels are monetised, there are other opportunities to focus on in the app. Navigating this evolution has meant that my strategy is constantly being rewritten, but as things hopefully start to even out, my targets in Q1 2025 will be much clearer.
Meta’s other products haven’t taken such a tumble. WhatsApp communities and broadcast channels remain steady, and Instagram provides a reliable stream of pageviews.
I strongly believe that in the era of fake news and paying for verification, social media accounts with trustworthy websites behind them must and will be prioritised. The idea that for £11 a month, you can post anything you like on X underneath a blue tick badge should concern the world, especially in an ever-polarising political landscape. Indeed, according to a report by the New York Times, Elon Musk has “involved himself in the US election in a manner unparalleled in modern history”. An MIT study found that fake news can spread up to ten times as fast as real news on social media. The best way to combat misinformation is giving (news) voices back to publishers. Anyway, this exact point brings me onto the next couple of bullet points.
Remain focused on our brand as platforms prioritise creators
It’s no secret that many platforms are prioritising people over publishers. Influencers sit on the front row at fashion shows, are bumped to the top of PR guest lists, and are chosen as panellists at media conferences. Personally, the success of creators doesn’t bother me — in an industry that is sometimes guilty of old-fashioned nepotism or creative voices being silenced by their publishing house, the self-made influencers bring a lick of fresh paint to the creative industries. Plus, they keep us on our toes, because if you can’t beat them, join them, right?
As the allure of the print editions of HELLO! magazine still remains glossy photographs from red carpets, celebrity exclusives, and access into the British royal family, our social media platforms have always reflected this too. A-list couples come to life on our Instagram, but we can’t just rely on footage from the camera pen from a premiere. So how do we tap into the creator sphere, while maintaining the same brand that our followers know and love? Making user generated content from those red carpets — and working out what really works.
Our staff may be experts on all things from parenting to beauty, and we amplify their voices in our lifestyle section, but where our collective talents lie is being celebrity experts — and this is the content sphere that we fit most naturally in on social media. We’ve tried and tested so many different ways, from how it’s filmed to which platform it’s posted on. Putting team HELLO! on as many red carpets as possible means our readers can come with us too, and it always remains our priority when planning for the weeks and months ahead.
Furthermore, my hunch is that UGC will become more and more important in the coming months because of artificial intelligence fatigue. As AI content continues to be dropped endlessly in our feeds (in often quite baffling ways — does anyone find those cartoon photos weirdly eerie?), genuine, verifiable content is more crucial than ever. So far, ChatGPT can’t turn up to a premiere, stand in a huddled press pen, and grab those bitesize interviews with the stars. Also, who wants to be interviewed by a robot? I don’t think Graham Norton needs to worry any time soon.
Distribute daily videos on each platform as appropriate
I have said in previous articles that social media apps don’t even hide the fact that they pinch ideas from each other: Instagram stories from Snapchat, Threads from Twitter, YouTube shorts from TikTok... the list goes on.
TikTok were the first to create that frustratingly addictive algorithm-led scroll in 2018, and by 2020, it was the third fastest-growing app. Of course, it didn’t go unnoticed by rivals: in that same year, Instagram introduced Reels in August, followed by YouTube launching Shorts in September. Once again, I wonder at what point they made the decision to join them rather than beat them.
Snapchat recently announced that they are moving their discovery feed to one endless scroll, similar to the rival apps. When making short vertical videos, it’s now a case of which platform shouldn’t it go on, rather than choosing which one to place it. We always keep some editing native to each app though; it’s time-consuming, but regurgitating one video six times is lazy, especially when each app has a slightly different demographic. For example, for an occasion like Trooping the Colour, Facebook is delighted with the King and Queen, Instagram loves every member of the family, and TikTok gets most excited by the Wales’s children. Looking at the Venn diagram of ‘our audience’ and the ‘app’s audience’ is how we choose where to post.
Keep resource ready for the next big app
A good tip for all social media managers: it’s very hard to be the best content producer on any app, it’s much easier to be one of the first.
Since Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter and mistrust of Zuckerberg’s Meta, I’ve been waiting for either a tech giant to drop another addictive app, or, let’s face it, an unknown Harvard dropout to think of an idea that will become part of our lexicon in ten years’ time. BeReal grew fast in 2022 but this year, monthly users and downloads are in decline. Mastodon, Discord, and Bluesky didn’t quite manage to take down Musk’s X.
TikTok launched Lemon8, which didn’t quite prove a hit to UK and US audiences when it extended its territories in 2023, and we need to wait and see what happens with their latest drop, Whee (one purely for photo sharing with friends).
Perhaps due to my age and industry, I am seeing Substack go from strength to strength, used anecdotally by adult Tumblr users, and it also encourages the same sort of lengthy opinions as Reddit. So, although their growth is small in comparison to other huge platforms, there is still potential for apps that don’t purely rely on addictive video doom-scrolling.
However, whatever happens, we are prepared for the fact that in a new quarter or a new year, there may be something else on the list. And that’s why I love working in social media. According to Statista: “As of July 2024, there were 5.45 billion internet users worldwide, which amounted to 67.1 percent of the global population. Of this total, 5.17 billion, or 63.7 percent of the world’s population, were social media users.”
5.17 billion people is a lot, but they only have 24 hours in a day. Their scrolling is precious, and it’s up to us to make it worth their time. HELLO! magazine is a heritage brand that is all about kindness and positivity, and we want our social platforms to reflect that: safe and reliable, while still uplifting and fun. See you on the next red carpet!
This article was first published in InPublishing magazine. If you would like to be added to the free mailing list to receive the magazine, please register here.
