YouGov study affirms growing clout of Facebook as a news medium
Whilst social media platform of the moment Ello has been hogging headlines Facebook has been quietly growing as a news portal in its own right, according to the latest YouGov report on the medium.
Although local newspapers and TV remain the most popular soyrces of local news Facebook has been rapidly closing the gap with a 5 per cent rise in the number of people logging into the platform to find out what’s happening near them.
The YouGov Sixth Sense report into CSR and the local community quizzed 2,000 people on their local news habits, finding that 27 per cent of respondents singled out Facebook as their primary source of local news, up from 22 per cent last year.
These apparently strong figures may prove fickle however as one in ten of the same respondents also doubted whether they would still use Facebook in two years’ time.
Trust in the platform also edged up slightly from 19 to 21 per cent – although this still lags far behind local newspapers (64 per cent) and local TV (58 per cent).
Nigel Hughes, board director at Havas PR, which commissioned the report, said; “There’s no doubting the importance of local print media, but social media is making its way into a position of more influence locally. The fact ten percent of people expect to leave Twitter or Facebook in two years’ time, however, indicates that brands will need to be ready to adapt as competition for consumer time intensifies. The data shows that producing content which can be tailored for local audiences has a better chance of building trust in a brand.”