How much effort should journalists put into Twitter?

If you’re strapped for time, a Facebook post will likely do more for your website than a tweet.  That’s according to research released on the NiemanLab website by Parse.ly, a social analytics tool used by hundreds of news organizations.  The key finding from monitoring traffic referral sources for about 200 of Parse.ly’s client sites?  Just 1.5% of traffic for typical news sites comes from Twitter.

Screen Shot 2016-04-13 at 2.45.16 PM

The graphic above shows Facebook and Google as the big dogs when it comes to traffic drivers.  However, Parse.ly maintains Twitter does play an important role in the news ecosystem.

“Though Twitter may not be a huge overall source of traffic to news websites relative to Facebook and Google, it serves a unique place in the link economy,” the report said. “News really does ‘start’ on Twitter.”

Share

2 comments for “How much effort should journalists put into Twitter?

Comments are closed.