Q3 2016 MEDIA Regional Insights & Benchmarks About Socialbakers Socialbakers is the trusted social media analytics partner to thousands of enterprise brands and SMEs, including over 100 companies on the 2015 Fortune Global 500. Socialbakers’ solutions help companies of any size ensure their investment in social media is delivering measurable business outcomes and Turning Digital Relationships into Growth. With over 2,500 clients across 115 countries, Socialbakers is the industry leader in social media analytics, tracking over 8 million social profiles across all major social platforms including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+, and VK. Socialbakers has been a Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer since 2011. About the Analysts Michaela Branova Michaela Branova is the Market Insights and Analytics Manager at Socialbakers. Her expertise is in looking for patterns and insights in social media data to uncover impactful conclusions for today’s social media marketers. Phillip Ross Phillip Ross is a Social Media Analyst at Socialbakers. He has written extensively about the intersection of marketing, social media, and data for the Socialbakers blog and in numerous white-papers. Phil is also passionate about politics, and has been quoted in the press about the impact of social media on democratic elections. This report looks at the Media industry on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. We identify the quarter- to-quarter changes in a number of key performance metrics between Q3 2016 and Q2 2016. Our team of analysts have identified the three major changes that you need to keep an eye on for each region in Insights by Region, while the Benchmarks and Top Content chapters provide you with context for your social media performance, as well as inspiration for creating even better content from your industry’s top performers. Social media is a constantly-evolving landscape. You need the latest data to give context to your performance and plan for the future. Contents Insights by Region Facebook Benchmarks North America Facebook Top Content Latin America Twitter Benchmarks Brazil Instagram Benchmarks Europe, Middle East and Africa Japan & Asia Pacific Australia & New Zealand Executive Summary North America Promoted Posts up nearly 50% from Q2, and gaining speed. In North America, Media Pages promoted 49.4% more posts than they did in Q2 2016. For the year, social media marketers for Media Pages have promoted 26% more than they did in 2015. Unlike for other industries, this growth actually indicates a maturing market for Media. Though Media Pages historically promote very little content because the content cycle moves so quickly, increases in post promotion mean that marketers and publishers are becoming quicker to recognize which posts are their top performers, and could stay in the public discourse longer. If Media marketers are not yet publishing often and setting performance benchmarks for their content, they should be now that their competition is rapidly doing so. Media marketers should look to not only see how many interactions their posts get, but should see how extended each post’s accrual of these interactions is. The longer that post lives on in their audience’s News Feeds, the more likely they should promote it. Facebook Videos experience 2.5% growth in engagement in Q3; and 63.8% growth from 2015. While photo posts earned more engagement in Q3 than in Q2, only videos were more engaging in 2016 than in 2015 - and by a large margin. With 2.5% quarterly growth and 63.8% annual growth, videos are the clear future for Media marketers. Comparatively, photo posts are being interacted with 21% less often this year; links, 25% less often; and statuses, 51% less often. A major part of this shift has been because of the introduction and adoption of Facebook Live videos, which are perfect outlets for bringing reporting, event coverage, and interactive news desk shows to audiences’ News Feeds. We expect this trend to continue at a steadier pace in the near future as new media outlets and traditional broadcasters alike are recommended to integrate existing shows into social media platforms, and begin “socialcasting” new shows as well. Interactions on Facebook grow slowly at 2.2% from Q2. In Q3, Interactions on North American Media posts grew by only 2.2%, and were down by 11.3% from Q3 2015. This is not a dire issue, though: not only did Facebook’s algorithm shifts early in the quarter prioritize shared content, likely affecting some (but not all) Media content’s performance, the more likely source of the decline is actually tied to the rise of Facebook Live. For Facebook Live socialcasters, Interactions are not nearly as important a metric as Total Viewership and Peak Viewership. When these metrics become available, and as the format may shift to include other live streaming video innovations, Media marketers will be able to get a more accurate reading of their posts’ effectiveness. For now, we recommend that Media marketers publish Facebook Live videos and encourage their audiences to engage with them through trackable measures - either on the post, their Page, or their site. Executive Summary Latin America Follower Growth on Twitter slows by 29% from Q2, 49% from Q3 2015. Twitter growth slowed down more in LATAM than anywhere else in Q3. Down to 3.8% from Q2 2016’s 5.4%, it still represents a fast pace of growth, but as with any slow-growing platform, it means that marketers need to adapt their message for a more fluent audience. LATAM Media Publishers Tweet More Than Twice As Often As Any Other Region. The median LATAM Media publisher Tweeted 1,561 times in Q3 - or more than twice as often as the next most-talkative region - but that was actually 7% less than they Tweeted in Q2. A lot of this activity could be coming from new media and radio, which are common in the region, and which often see new accounts get established and build up Follower bases with heavy activity. As the media market matures and saturates, this should drop a little bit - but expect the number of Tweets out of LATAM to stay well above any other region for the foreseeable future. LATAM Media Publishers promote only 3% of their Facebook posts. That figure is the lowest in the world this quarter, but also represents a 16.8% increase from Q2. As Media publishers adapt to new post types and figure out what content mix works best for them, that number will rise - maybe not in Q4, but soon after if not. For now, Media publishers should perfect their content mix, and figure out what post types get them the most efficient engagement and drive their goals most effectively. Executive Summary Brazil Links to other websites gained 18.5% more engagement in Q3 than in Q2. In Q3, the median link from a Brazilian Media Page would have had 248 Interactions, or 18.5% more than they did in Q2 and 58% more than they did in Q3 2015. While engagement on links has tended to decline around the world, their success in Brazil re-emphasizes the importance of individual benchmarking. For each media publisher, benchmarking should dictate whether linking to your website or posting directly to Facebook is optimal. To see how effective link posts are for your page, try benchmarking social metrics against clicks to your website, and see which post type really got your content the most attention. Video engagement is only up 58.7% from Q3 2015. Considering how quickly most of the rest of the world has engaged with video posts on Facebook, that increase is on the low side. This could mean that Brazilian video has room to grow. Changes to Facebook’s algorithm several months ago should make that likely, as posts that Fans share will take priority in News Feeds over content posted by Company or Media Pages. As content becomes widely shared, more Media publishers will begin to recognize high-quality videos, and the trend will pick up speed. Brazilian Twitter growth has slowed to 2.2%. That rate of Follower growth on Twitter is the world’s slowest, and a year-over-year slowdown of 64% is also the world’s most drastic figure. But Brazilian pages also have the world’s most Followers on average, with a median figure of 89,795 Followers per account. That means the Brazilian Twitter environment is mature, and Media publishers should expect this number to continue declining while overall community sizes remain healthy. To cater to this experienced, fluent audience, Media publishers should post a mix of content and track where their posts travel across the social web. Executive Summary Europe, Middle East and Africa 2,169 Media Publishers on Twitter, growing at a rate of 4%. There are more Media publishers on Twitter in EMEA than anywhere else in the world - almost 3x as many as the next busiest region - and they are adding Followers at a 4% growth rate, which is the world’s highest rate. But with a median of only 41,074 Followers for each account, EMEA media publishers also run some of the world’s smallest Twitter operations. Follower Growth has slowed steadily throughout the year, with a 19% decline from Q2 growth, so two things will likely happen with this proliferation of accounts: either more accounts will open to smaller Follower bases as large Media publishers open specialized, targeted accounts, or large Media publishers will condense their already-diverse networks of accounts into fewer, easier-to-manage Twitter accounts. Interactions on Tweets are up 48% for the year. While EMEA Media publishers experienced a slight decline in engagement this past quarter, their overall engagement is strong, particularly considering the small median community size of an EMEA Media account.