In today’s society, many organisations have established themselves through ‘digital’ offerings, creating online specific content, allowing users to access news in alternative ways and diverging the uses of social platforms.
BuzzFeed
An American internet media company that focuses on social media, news and entertainment. Although the platform has a reputation for offering the weirdest quizzes available, BuzzFeed should not be laughed at. The organisation is worth $1.5 billion. The company has grown from strength to strength over the years, providing coverage over a diverse range of topics, from politics and DIY to animals and business.
The business is completely independent and has a very strong social media presence, utilising Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat. The content offered on their apps and website is mostly targeted at millennials. Allowing for an already highly engaged audience, to consume and share content which is relevant, factual and highly entertaining. But it isn’t the witty news articles that is gaining BuzzFeed attention at the minute. It is their digital shows that are rapidly growing in popularity.
BuzzFeed’s online video content has gained staggering momentum, with more than seven billion views per month and whilst funny animal videos can be attributed to these statistics, BuzzFeed is taking their digital content very seriously. Ellen DeGeneres has recently partnered with them to create their original movie ‘Brother Orange’. Furthermore, their YouTube channel ‘BuzzFeed Food’ is another platform that is quickly growing, with 774,104 global subscribers.
Facebook, the platform we all know and love. Sure it’s handy if you want to post a few pictures, share how you’re feeling or leave a review on that restaurant where you had your dinner. However, Facebook is much more powerful than that.
Towards the end of 2016, Facebook launched ‘Marketplace’. Informally, many ‘buy and sell’ pages have existed on Facebook for quite some time. With Marketplace, products that are being sold in your local community are easily accessed. Allowing users to discover items that are for sale, enhancing the relationship between the buyer/seller and making it easier to sell your unwanted goods.
Facebook is also heavily investing in advertising. Recently I was shopping on Amazon, I went out of the app and into Facebook and on my newsfeed there were recommendations and offers of the products I was looking at. Although the adverts are tailored and relevant to the user, many people are complaining that there are more adverts on their newsfeed rather than friends’ updates and photos.
Snapchat
Snapchat, launched in 2011, is a multimedia and instant messaging platform with over 158 million daily active users. It is one of the most popular social platforms currently available, sending photos that last for a maximum of 10 seconds. Offering users entertaining filters, instant messaging and video chats.
Recently Snapchat introduced Snap Ads, these are video adverts that are inserted between users stories or on their discover section and although annoying, there are much more visually pleasing than Facebook’s and can be skipped unlike the majority of YouTube’s adverts.
However, what is a growing use for Snapchat is journalism. Large and mostly traditional news outlets are utilising the platform, providing its users with instant access to breaking global news stories. Organisations such as The New Yorker, BBC News and The Washington Post all have Snapchat accounts.
But the content being shown by these outlets is not a simple video of the latest current events, they are taking full advantage of Snapchat’s features. Utilising stickers, emojis and filters, to highlight certain aspects of the story and engage their audience.
Evidently, there is a multitude of benefits accessing the most recent content online, however, users should ensure their privacy remains intact.
Alex Slaine is a first year CAM student at Ulster University. He can be contacted on Twitter @alexslainee