News, entertainment, and sports publishers still have the largest audience on Twitter.
Key Details
- An Axios survey of 82 news, entertainment, and sports publishers revealed that the media publishers still dominate the Twitter space and have a strong hold on Facebook and Instagram.
- Some outlets are looking to increase followings on newer platforms with younger audiences like TikTok, but Twitter remains the stronghold. The newer platforms have some success, but fewer followers than the more established social media platforms.
- Around one-quarter of the outlets surveyed had no official TikTok account, and those that did had low follower counts. Many of the publishers have YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn accounts.
- Every outlet has a Twitter account.
Why it’s news
Media publishers continue to have success on Twitter with large, established followings, though the low interest in TikTok may be due to limited attempts to invest.
Publishers haven’t made a strong effort to establish themselves on the newer platform. TikTok is also traditionally geared toward entertainment rather than news, which may be a factor in the low follower count.
TikTok’s algorithm is more difficult to work with than Twitter’s, creating a learning curve for the outlets.
The amount of success a publisher has on a platform does largely depend on the type of media, the study found.
Business and finance outlets had greater success on LinkedIn, sports related content has greater success on Instagram and TikTok, and TV focused news outlets are more successful on YouTube and Facebook.
Surprising statistics
National Geographic has 340 million followers across six social media platforms, the largest social media following of those surveyed.
BBC is the next most popular, with 150 million followers on its main accounts.