Mobile. Social. One-to-one. Communication in the modern era continues to evolve, and media companies are constantly battling to stay relevant in an ever changing landscape.
Last month at Social Media Week in New York City (SMWNYC), these topics were in the forefront as marketers and artists shared their beliefs, supported by raw data and sheer gut, on the best ways to engage and interact with customers and fans.
Although little was said about sports on the program, there were perfectly good lessons for content creators and distributors of all stripes.
1. Social Is Publishing
Two executives of Internet media company Buzzfeed made a presentation on how the brand is wildly successful on multiple social platforms around the Internet. By adapting original content so that it fits the platform it's being published to, Buzzfeed creates unique experiences for its readers and fans, whether they are visiting the Buzzfeed site, watching its YouTube channel, or reading its Tumbler blog.
We want to embrace how people are using the Internet and not fight it, said Summer Anne Burton, editorial director, Buzzfeed. With that in mind, we don't really think of social media as a way to direct traffic to our Website or a way to build our brand. Those are both bonuses if we are successful at what we do, but social now, for us, is publishing. We publish our work natively to said platform, whatever that platform may be.
Said Rachel Christensen, managing social media editor, Buzzfeed, When they think of Buzzfeed, they think of whatever platform that they love and are using anyway,
2. Messaging Apps
Check the app store on your mobile device, and you'll notice a trend: six out of the 10 most downloaded apps in the world right now are messaging apps.
Michelle Klein, head of marketing, North America, Facebook, pointed out during her keynote that the social-media giant has taken notice of the messaging craze, hence the popularity of its Facebook Messenger platform.
The best technologies offer something that makes things better; connects people through storytelling; is immediate, expressive and immersive; and adapts and changes, she said. Messaging apps, like Facebook Messenger, are real-time and now [technologies]. She then discussed the expressive, illustrating how images help us navigate the world and tell stories in a simple and fast way.
3. Sharing Is One-to-One and Going Mobile
Keeping with the theme of social messaging, Brewster Stanislaw, head of attribution at social-analytics company Simply Measured, discussed the shift in one-to-one sharing of social content.
At the advent of social media, sharing was someone one did to an entire network. These days, that behavior has shifted into a behavior that can be tougher to track and analyze.
When people are clicking URLs and sharing URLs within chat apps, they arrive with no referral, Stanislaw noted. Thus, they're direct traffic driven by social. That's a lot of people driving traffic in a way you're not measuring today.
Statistics he referenced showed that 70% of social sharing falls into this category, described simply as dark.
If you're counting sharing numbers, you're missing 70% of that, he explained. Think about how often you're texting, e-mailing, or chatting? That is the dominant paradigm for sharing, and it's something we miss entirely.
4. Big Brands Are All-In on Snapchat
Snapchat is the current social darling, and that was true at SMWNYC. Major national brands NASDAQ, American Airlines, and Sour Patch Kids were among the many brands whose Snapchat strategies where analyzed or referenced.
American Airlines' game plan, for example, showcases different travel locations. NASDAQ's shows the floor of the stock exchange.
It's staggering how quickly the platform has gone from a suspect reputation in its infancy to being an essential part of any large company's social plans. Companies are building teams around attacking tent-pole events with Snapchat content. Brands are investing heavily in graphic designers to help create content for the platform.
5. Future Revenue Lies in Engaged Followers
It's no secret that, in social media, content creators develop a loyal following in which one segment of will be highly engaged with the content. Those users should be valued.
Candice Charleton, senior manager, Global Social + Community, Hootsuite, emphasized that having big-time social fans can prove lucrative down the road when they are properly cared for.
Eighty percent of your future revenue will come from 20% of your current customers, she observed. Increasing your retention rate by 5% can increase your profits and revenue by 95% over the long term. This is huge. Increased engagement on your community sites can result in a 25% increase in revenue. Having someone that can go ahead and follow up on the conversation can have absolute direct impact on the bottom line.
5 . Pizza Rules the Internet
Nostalgia. Cute animals. Celebrities. They're all low-hanging fruit in the social-media world, and tying them into your content greatly increases its sharability.
According to Buzzfeed, though, the data shows that there's nothing the Internet loves more than food, specifically pizza. So, there's that.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Mobile. Social. One-to-one. Communication in the modern era continues to evolve, and media companies are constantly battling to stay relevant in an ever changing landscape.
