Facebook Out To Get A Chunk Out Of Twitter's News Following Market

It’s an undeniable fact: More users now rely on Social Media to get their daily news fix. In two separate research reports from Pew Research Center in July 2015, a growing rise in how users rely on social media as their source of news was detailed.

In their July 10, 2015 report, the Pew Research Center revealed that 49% of Twitter and Facebook users aged 18 to 34 rely on the social media networks for their news. For the demographic aged 35 and above, 31% use Twitter as their news source, while 34% use Facebook as their news source.

Read more on Pew Research Center: The Evolving Role of News on Twitter and Facebook: Younger News Users Rely More on Social Media Sites for News: https://www.journalism.org/2015/07/14/the-evolving-role-of-news-on-twitter-and-facebook/pj_2015-07-14_twitter-and-news_13/

In their July 14, 2015 report, Pew Research Center mapped out the jump in how users relied on social media for the news, with 2013 and 2015 figures. For Twitter, 52% of their users relied on their platform for news in 2013, which rose to 63% in 2015. Meanwhile, 47% of Facebook’s users used the platform as their source of news in 2013, which jumped to 63% in 2015.

Pew Research Center also illustrated the disparity between how heavily each platform’s users depend on the platform for news updates as they happened. In 2015, 59% of Twitter users have stayed with a news thread on the platform, while only 31% relied on Facebook to follow a news story’s timeline. This data certainly lines up with Fortune’s assertion that Twitter has been the journalist’s best friend. It was the platform of choice for sharing, tracking, and staying with breaking news.

Which is why Facebook seems determined to break into Twitter’s monopoly of being the go-to platform for news. Facebook is rolling out Signal, which is a dashboard for journalists to be able to scope out trending news as it happens.

TechCrunch notes that Signal may have taken pages off of Tweetdeck, in terms of navigation and design. Journalists can scope out trends based on public figures, politicians, and government officials that they follow, even as they can also check out trends from a universal feed. It’s the type of news scoping tool that gives both a wider and more focused perspective.

Aside from Signal, Facebook also rolled out the Mentions app, which allows verified accounts of public figures, including celebrities, athletes, and journalists, to host livestreaming broadcasts to their followers.

It looks like Facebook is aggressively going after Twitter’s share of the news-on-social media pie.

For more on Signal:

Facebook Introduces Signal To Help Journalists Source And Discover Social Content: https://techcrunch.com/2015/09/17/facebook-introduces-signal-to-help-journalists-source-and-discover-social-content/

Facebook rolls out Signal, a social newsgathering tool for journalists: https://mashable.com/2015/09/17/facebook-signal/

Facebook takes aim at Twitter with news curation tool Signal: https://fortune.com/2015/09/17/facebook-signal/

For more on Mentions:

Facebook Gives Verified Profiles Its Mentions App With “Live” Streaming And Posts Just To Followers: https://techcrunch.com/2015/09/10/facebook-gives-verified-profiles-its-mentions-app-with-live-streaming-and-posts-just-to-followers/

Facebook now lets all people with a verified account use Mentions app: https://mashable.com/2015/09/10/facebook-mentions-verified-account/

Read the Droid Report on Facebook's Three Major Developments That Will Keep Both Developer And End-User Happy: https://www.droidreport.com/facebooks-three-major-developments-will-keep-both-developer-end-user-happy-11161