Have you scrolled through your Facebook feed lately? If not, take thirty minutes today and do it. What you’ll find is a lot of clutter. Feeds are now full of ads, content from pages you didn’t request that Facebook’s AI thinks you’d like, and drastically reduced are posts from your friends and the brands you enjoy following.
In the past month, I saw JJ Surma, Matt Nahigian, and Amy Lawrence all mention how their pages had become a mess. Noticing the same myself, I decided to investigate to see if it was a short-term thing or regular problem. It’s the latter unfortunately.
What you’ll discover often is the following sequence: Post from a friend, promotion of Threads, People You May Know section, promotion of Reels, promotion of a page you didn’t like, Ad, promotion for another page you didn’t like, Ad, another Ad, promotion of another page you didn’t like, another ad, etc.. It’s a complete mess.
I logged on and off of my account ten times to see if the pattern changed, and it did slightly. Nearly twenty posts stood between a friend posting a comment or picture, and the next friend sharing something similar the first time I reviewed. The second login attempt showed me four friends posts per twenty. The best experience I had saw eight friends posts out of twenty. With over 4,000 connections on the platform, I’m sure I’m missing 99% of posts from people I follow.
There are tricks to reach more of your audience. For example, after submitting a post, you can add @highlight or @followers in a comment below, and it will alert a number of your connections that you’ve posted. Facebook’s algorithm is not a fan of it though. Two of my posts went through unscathed, but the third got blocked and returned with a warning.
Clicking on the feeds section and posting in groups can also help but most people live on the main page. Facebook has turned its main hub into a wasteland, and there appears to be no end in sight.
Why does that matter? Well, if you run a brand, and you’ve spent years building an audience, trying to keep people aware of your audio, video, and written content, how are you supposed to reach them if the platform isn’t showing your content to your fans? Have you looked at your impressions, and engagement numbers lately? If you did, they’re likely down. I’ve seen that consistently across numerous brands I work with, and the story is the same for Barrett Media‘s accounts.
What’s become clear is that Facebook and X both want video and high profile people commenting on their platforms. They also want you spending money to be seen. If you rely on organic posts and don’t have a paid social strategy, good luck. The platforms also value celebratory news and feel good moments. Those don’t happen every day though.
The story isn’t much better on X either. Reach and engagement per post are way down. I reviewed how publishing brands and radio stations performed for a few full days, and the percentages were abysmal. For example, Axios had an average of 20K in reach per post for a full day last week. The brand tweeted 24x in 24 hours to their 680K followers. This means they reached roughly 3% of their audience on X. With most of their tweets pushing articles, X has no interest in sending people off of its platform to read their content.
The Hill experienced a similar fate. Though much more active with 140 tweets over a full day, 138 of which were promoting articles, the news publisher averaged just 8,800 per post. With 4.4 million following the account, that means their content reached less than 1% of their audience over 24 hours.
Rolling Stone and The Athletic weren’t much different. For a full day, The Athletic tweeted 37x generating an average of 30K in reach per post. They mixed up their posting strategy, using 5-6 video posts, a handful of images, and mostly articles, but with an audience of 558K on X, they reached roughly 5% of their audience. Rolling Stone on the other hand tweeted 36x over a full day, landing 21K per post. All of their posts promoted articles. With 6.1 million followers, they reached 0.3% of their audience.
Large market radio stations faced similar issues. WFAN for example posted 26x on X on Friday. 4 were video posts, 3 were images, 1 was an audio clip, and 18 promoted articles. Collectively they generated 19K impressions per post. The good news, two of their videos performed 3-5x higher on average per post. WFAN has 158K following on X, so when you look at an average of 19K per post, it means they’re reaching 8% of their followers. Pull away the two videos though that delivered 165K combined, and the average falls to 13K per post.
I also looked at ESPN LA on X, and they too are feeling the sting of organic reach being suppressed. The station has 97K followers, and over the span of 24 hours, they pushed out 27 tweets. Those posts included 12 videos, 2 GIF’s, a few promotional texts and a poll. They recorded an average of just 2K per post, and slightly above 2% per reach per post. Facebook, which is where ESPN LA especially shines with over 521K following, also had problems. The brand did a great job of pushing out a ton of video, but even the engagement and reach of their videos has been drastically reduced.
Using 2015-2020’s social media strategy in 2024 isn’t going to produce results for brands. Platforms have made massive changes, and with artificial intelligence now part of their business model, the game is changing rapidly. Media companies have greatly valued social media over the past decade, often to the detriment of their own networks, stations, podcasts, and websites. As the percentage of reaching people shrinks, it reminds us of how important it is to have a direct relationship with your audience. Whether that’s through you’re over the air product, podcasts, newsletters, text databases or in-person events, you’ve got to have a fan to brand strategy.
By the way, search is going to go through transformation in the future too. Google last week lost a landmark case, the first antitrust decision against a technology giant in the modern internet era. What happens when the content you’ve been creating for SEO search on Google has different rules for different search engines, and AI influencing what gets boosted and diminished?
Most media outlets don’t depend on social media for revenue. They use the platforms to ‘market’ their content to fans in the places they gather. Social media still has billions of people on it, so to suggest that it’s not important would be foolish. The point of this column is to open your eyes on how much harder it is now to be seen. Many of the brands I cited earlier are all successful, and even they are feeling the sting.
YouTube has far greater value right now, because people are watching content on the platform more than they are television. You can also monetize your videos if you have a decent subscriber base and regular viewing. Having said that, we are renting space on all of these platforms. If Facebook, X, YouTube or any other social media platform decides to change their rules, rates or reach, it’s on you to adapt. Otherwise, you risk losing relevance, and potentially revenue.
What brand leaders and executives need to be asking is ‘how much promotion is necessary’, ‘what type of content matters’, ‘how much should we be spending to market our content’, and ‘how do we use these platforms to grow our business?’ Do you need 5-10 people in a digital department if 50% of your reach continues evaporating? Are you helping your brand prosper by focusing on written content if platforms are making sure less people see the content? Do you need 50-100 posts per day if you’re literally spitting into the wind?
Executives have to do a better job of defining their digital strategies. Are you focused on live video audience, total video views, podcast listens or downloads, website/article pageviews, newsletter open and click rates, app sessions, social media reach or something else? You can call it all digital but some offer limited return on investment. Others provide greater bang for your buck. All require different strategies though.
These are the issues that should keep you up at night. As a publisher myself, I know how difficult it is. It’s why we’ve placed greater focus over the past year on our newsletter and events strategy. Even then, we don’t have it all figured out. As Rowdy Roddy Piper once said, just when they think they know the answers, I change the questions. Facebook and X are doing just that. It’s on us to adapt or spend a lot of time and resources learning the hard way that what we’re doing now isn’t making the same impact.
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BNM Summit Update
Our full schedule for next month’s show in Washington D.C. is now posted on BNMSummit.com. I listed a copy below too. Six more speakers have been added to the lineup, bringing our total to forty seven. For tickets, visit BNMSummit.com. For sponsorship questions, email Stephanie@BarrettMedia.com. My thanks to Josh Leng and Talk Media Network for signing on as an event partner.
I’ll be contacting all speaker groups this week to allow everyone to connect, ask questions, and get prepared for the show. I hope to see you in the nation’s capital. It’s going to be an excellent conference.
News, Notes and Reactions
- Give our own Jeff Lynn a shout to thank him for an excellent job on Barrett Media’s ‘20 Brands in 20 Days‘ series. It was a good introduction for music radio folks to our site, and showcased some great brands and leaders. If you didn’t read it, click the link above. Up next, a series titled ‘Behind the Voices’. It debuts today, and will run through the middle of next week.
- Congrats to all involved at 610 Sports in Kansas City on the move to the FM dial and rebranding as 96.5 The Fan. With the Chiefs on a historic run, and interest in sports in KC consistently strong, it makes sense for the market to have a larger presence on the FM band.
- Lots of positive feedback on the socials for Morning Show Bootcamp in San Diego. Congrats to Don Anthony and his team on pulling off another great event. I’m hoping to make it to the 2025 event. Events that support the industry deserve support in return.
- A tip of the cap to Drew Anderssen at Audacy Dallas on the masterful job reshaping KRLD. With Chad Benson, Joe Kelley, and Will Cain added to the lineup, the radio station has added exceptional talent to continue serving its Dallas listeners. Well done.
- Taylor Swift cancelled three shows in Vienna after police spoiled a terrorist attack, which was planned to occur at one of her concerts. What took place outside of her hotel afterwards demonstrates the power of connection between artist and fan. Truly awesome.
- Layoffs are never good but I wish companies put more thought into when they executed them. iHeartMedia cuts came out last week on the same day that the company revealed its first uptick in revenue since 2022. That’s a PR move that just doesn’t look good.
- Congratulations to Susie Hedrick on being named the new CEO at WideOrbit. Hedrick previously led vCreative before joining the company. She’s well respected, and has had time to learn the ropes under Eric Matthewson who is transitioning to a strategic role on the Board of Directors for Lumine Group Inc. which bought WideOrbit in 2023.
- Props to Nick Wright for his remarks last week on YouTube. Wright said Colin Cowherd is the face of FS1, and to suggest otherwise is inaccurate. No disagreement here. As I said on social media Monday, Nick’s points were fair, and FS1 execs have many strong options to consider as they determine the best path forward for their new lineup.
- Oliver Darcy left CNN last week, and announced the launch of a new newsletter, Status. I’ve signed up for it. You should too if you like staying informed on media industry happenings. Go here to do so.
- Is there any artist doing more right now than Jelly Roll? He’s got his own songs topping the charts, appeared on singles with Eminem, Falling in Reverse, and MGK, showed up at WWE Summerslam, and his single ‘Get By’ was chosen by ESPN as the new College Football anthem for the 2024-2025 season. The guy is on fire, and a brilliant songwriter.
I’m Hearing
- Fox Sports 1 would like to debut their new on-air lineup on Monday August 26th.
- The city and date for the 2025 BSM Summit are nearing the finish line. Expect an announcement in September.
Reality Check
Broadcasting trade sites continue to decline. That’s not good news for the media industry. Axios laid off 10% of its staff last Monday morning, and hours later Broadcasting & Cable and Multichannel News announced plans to shut down. That follows changes within the past year at TV News Check, The Big Lead, The Messenger, All Access, and others.
I hope our readers and industry friends understand that our existence isn’t guaranteed. We work our tails off to keep the lights on, and it isn’t easy. A simple gesture like sharing our stories on social media, passing along a news tip, or supporting our work by sponsoring our newsletters, website or conferences matters. Media companies have not done a great job of supporting trades who tell their stories. I remain optimistic, but am also realistic. Here’s to hoping we’re on the right side of this game, and not following in the footsteps of others who did great work but were forced to exit.
Until next week!
Jason Barrett is the President and Founder of Barrett Media since the company was created in September 2015. Prior to its arrival, JB served as a sports radio programmer, launching brands such as 95.7 The Game in San Francisco, and 101 ESPN in St. Louis. He also spent time programming SportsTalk 950 in Philadelphia, 590 The Fan KFNS in St. Louis, and ESPN 1340/1390 in Poughkeepsie, NY. Jason also worked on-air and behind the scenes in local radio at 101.5 WPDH, WTBQ 1110AM, and WPYX 106.5. He also spent two years on the national stage, producing radio shows for ESPN Radio in Bristol, CT. Among them included the Dan Patrick Show, and GameNight.
You can find JB on Twitter @SportsRadioPD. He’s also reachable by email at Jason@BarrettMedia.com.
