One person who should be glad to see the back of 2018 is Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg.
It's fair to say that last year was a catalogue of disasters for the social network with massive data leaks and privacy breaches, fake news and Russian trolls hitting both the headlines and the share price.
So where does that leave us, the users? Well first up, we in the media should be cautious. We've invested much time and effort in nurturing audiences on Facebook but audiences are losing trust, giving up and getting out. Anecdotally, and having trained thousands of journalists and other businesses over the years, I've heard of an increasing number of people shutting down their Facebook accounts. Others readily admit they don't trust it and are using it less often but can't quite #deletefacebook because friends and family are still there and if nothing else, FOMO means they still feel the need to check in from time to time.
Where are they now and which platforms are they using?
Sue Llewellyn, Social Media.
Year of reckoning The question is if people are moving away from Facebook where are they now and which platforms are they using? Well the answer depends on who you're trying to reach. Instagram has continued to see massive growth and user engagement especially with a slightly younger demographic. Instagram Stories are huge, unlike Stories on Facebook where the format just doesn't seem to be taking off no matter how hard Zuckerberg pushes it.
2018 was pretty rosy for Instagram but 2019 could be a year of reckoning for the Facebook-owned behemoth. The founders have left, reportedly unhappy with the relentless Facebookification' of the site. I tend to agree and personally believe this could mark the beginning of a slowdown as feeds and Stories become infested with adverts, quirks of the algorithm and more Snapchat-like features. I also feel that people will begin to wake up to the so-called Influencers' accounts, often with heaps of fake followers, that somehow demean the site with grossly inauthentic sponsored posts.
Social networks are both a boon and a blight Call me a cynic, it goes with the job of being a journalist, but I still love Instagram and still believe you can genuinely nurture and grow a valuable community; it's a bit like Twitter in the early days but you need to be strategic and have a clear plan. Niche and micro-niche works far better than a broad brush approach of sticking anything up there.
But the pendulum has swung from a very open use of social networks to a mass adoption of closed networks like WhatsApp and Telegram and with that comes a whole host of new problems including fake news' and even murder.
So where does that leave us journalists? I have always recommended not putting all your eggs in the Facebook basket and suggest that everyone be far more cautious about personal privacy settings and what you choose to share with any social network. For us, social networks are both a boon and a blight. It's a great way to find new voices, original stories and to reach audiences but if you do one thing this year, it's polish up your verification skills and keep your eyes open. Watch how people are using social media, how behaviour and use of technology is changing and be flexible; be prepared to adapt your strategy, try new things and don't forget to stay curious. Happy New Year!
Journalism Now Thomson Foundations Journalism Now programme is a series of CPD-accredited online interactive courses designed and led by industry experts providing the latest in digital and multimedia skills.
Popular courses
Social Media Strategy
Social Media Newsgathering
Journalism Across Multiple Platform
Sue Llewellyn Digital and social media
Sue specialises in training in digital and social media. A former BBC journalist, she has been voted one of the Top 50 female innovators in digital journalism.
We get around. Explore our project map
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
01/06/2026
Designed to solve a common problem in broadcasting, the automated workflow detects, identifies, removes, and documents copyrighted music
AudioShake has introdu...
01/06/2026
The sports-analytics company combines its data with proprietary AI to help leagu...
01/06/2026
Category line-up & sponsors announced
Photo: Paul Clarke
The Production Music Awards (PMA) have announced that submissions are now officially open ahead of...
01/06/2026
New hybrid sample/synthesis instrument revealed
Excite Audio have just released the latest instalment in their Evolve series, which has been developed in co...
01/06/2026
Latest TONEX expansion captures three rare vintage amps
The newest addition to IK Multimedia's ever-growing TONEX line-up introduces a set of three incr...
01/06/2026
Musically intelligent soft synth gets upgraded
Scaler Music will be probably be best known to many for their music theory tools, but their product range al...
01/06/2026
SBS confirms its broadcast sponsors for FIFA World Cup 2026
1 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS has secured Hyundai, Hisense, Macca's, Rexona, bet365, Com...
01/06/2026
Rohde & Schwarz Satellite Industry Days 2026 guided by the motto From Earth to ...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Marshall Electronics is showcasing a comprehensive lineup of next-generation POV cameras, purpose-built to power today's connected AV environments, at InfoC...
01/06/2026
Adobe Announces Concept to Vector
Deepa Subramaniam June 1, 2026
0 Comments
One of the biggest frustrations we hear from designers is how difficult it...
01/06/2026
Vampire Feature Night Patrol Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton June 1, 2026
0 Comments
Colorist shapes dark, gritty tone for horror thri...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Mardi 2 juin 14h00
FilmLight (ARRI), 10 rue Ren Boulanger, 75010 Paris
Rejoignez-nous pour d couvrir comment FLAPI (l'API FilmLight) peut transformer e...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
31/05/2026
Olivia P rez-Collellmir to Premiere Original Work at Gaud Centennial in Barcelona The Berklee graduate and faculty member will debut her choral symphony with...
31/05/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Wins 15 Awards at the Canadian Screen Awards - See Pho...
31/05/2026
Taiwan is home to more than 500 NVIDIA ecosystem partners. More than 1 million N...
31/05/2026
As factories move from isolated automation to plant-wide intelligence, manufacturers need AI systems that can connect live machine signals, quality systems, wor...
31/05/2026
The NVIDIA AI Cloud ecosystem is accelerating the global buildout of AI factory infrastructure. Partners are expanding capacity to meet growing demand from ente...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Zero in on one that says yes (and no)
Andy Marken May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image courtesy of Deposit Photos
For content creators the most difficu...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
One person who should be glad to see the back of 2018 is Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. 
