Social Platforms as News Powerhouse
Jinfo Blog

11th August 2010

By Nancy Davis Kho

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Despite the doom and gloom predictions, it seems that the appetite for news hasn't really changed - only the platforms on which they're shared. A new series on Mashable.com sponsored by IDG shows just how social news is becoming (http://mashable.com/2010/08/10/personalized-news-stream/). With recent figures from the Pew Internet & American Life Project (http://digbig.com/5bcebf) showing that a whopping 75% of people who get their news online do so via email forwards or on social networking sites, and 52% themselves forward or share news-related links via social platforms, there's no question that a shift in how news is filtered is taking place. There are two big factors at work: personalisation, and trust. The built-in filtering role played by friends and contacts who forward relevant news helps online news seekers deal with the overwhelming volume of information available on the Web. It's hand-curated personalisation, based on real relationships. At the same time, the Mashable story points to a higher level of trust in the people we know than in news organisations. Having trusted friends vet the news and point us towards the stories that should matter to us adds a level of assurance that what we're reading is accurate. Savvy publishers are trying to make it as easy as possible for their content to be shared on any and all social media. The Mashable story highlights National Public Radio, which found in a user survey that '72.3% said they “expect” their friends to share links to interesting information and news stories with them online,' and that Facebook was the platform they turned to most for such sharing. Facebook itself says that more than 30 billion pieces of content are shared on the platform each month. Facebook's tools for Media (http://www.facebook.com/media) show that the company is eager to help publishers use their network to succeed, whether it's by adding a "Share" button on the page or embedding friends' comments alongside a given story via a Facebook Plugin. With social network growth continuing to climb across the globe, social tools around news are going to be increasingly critical to publishers of all stripes.

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