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A study that ran for one week in February last year (2016), involving 2,000 adults in the US. who got at least some of their news from online sources, found that people were equally likely to get news by going directly to a news website (36% of the times they got news) as getting it through social media (35%).

Furthermore, according to Pew, people were "less likely to access news through emails, text messages or search engines. And most people favored one pathway over another. Nearly two-thirds (65%) of online news consumers had one preferred pathway for getting most of their online news".

The news experience that most inspires people to action - such as sharing, searching for more information or talking about the news with others - is when it comes in the form of emails or texts from family and friends, when 73% of instances were acted upon. That's more than news found on social media (53%) or direct visits to a news outlet's website (47%).

Mark Zuckerberg has gone on record to say that he does not consider Facebook to be a traditional news source.

"Facebook is a new kind of platform. It's not a traditional technology company. It's not a traditional media company," he said during a live video chat with Sheryl Sandberg in December last year. "We do a lot more than just distribute the news, and we're an important part of the public discourse."

And that's it in a nutshell. Facebook is a source of news for many people, with many getting news articles from traditional media they have connected with on the social network. So, that 10% of people cite Facebook as a news outlet doesn't necessarily mean they believe Facebook to be a media outlet, it is purely a portal through which they are exposed to media stories.

Tags: media outlet, news gathering, social media, trends

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Pew: 10% of people cite Facebook as a news source - BizReport

Social media has already acquired over 2.3 billion users in a decades time. A medley of stuff is expected to happen on social in 2017. For starters, platforms will evolve further, social spend will increase, and competition will heat up. As digital marketers, you must stay on top of the trends to engage users in innovative ways.

Here are top 18 predictions that will influence social space in a big way:

1) Social media automation must for every organisation

Big businesses with huge budgets have automated almost all their social marketing efforts. However, according to IMCS 360, as much as 92% small businesses are still missing out on social automation. 2017 will very likely see them automating their efforts. Social media automation is must because businesses have to be consistent while targeting diverse demographics across multiple networks.

2) Native advertising spend will increase

According to a survey conducted by Socialbakers, businesses are promoting posts 120% more on native now than they did 3 years ago. Its predicted that over 30% more Internet users will be using ad blockers. Native advertising is theonly way to stop ad irritability.

3) Employee advocacy on social will rise

Social media employee advocacy programs have grown by 191% in last three years. Brands are now realising this and will invest more on social media advocacy. Employee advocacy will help you benefit from your employees channels in a very credible way. Your employees may turn out to be your best micro-influencers in 2017.

4) Live streaming on social will grow

The Internet saw 81% more live-video consumers in 2016 than in 2015. Tubular Insights reveals - viewers spend 8X longer with live video than the archived video. 2016 has set the trend for live-streaming through Twitters Periscope, Facebooks Live, Meerkat, Blab and a few others. Itll only grow in 2017. More and more video consumers will switch from TV to social streaming, unleashing a vast opportunity for video marketers. According to Guy Kawasaki, 2017 is about Live video, live video, and live video.

5) Social messaging apps on arise

30% of smartphone users prefer messaging apps over SMS. Now, about 900 million people are using Facebook Messenger app. Its predicted that over 2 billion people will be using several such apps by 2018. People are preferring it to other means such as SMS, calls and emails. A number of ad options such as stickers, sponsored moments and geo filters have been introduced to monetize messaging apps.

6)Content co-creation

User-generated and co-created content boosts customer satisfaction score up to 80%. Social media recognises this trend, and the platforms have become advanced enough to enable brands to create content through users through right incentive and context. Theres also an option to work with non-competing businesses to co-create content. 2017 will fully utilise this on social media.

7) Social selling will grow multifold

Businesses having a strong social media presence close 78% more sales than those who dont. The catch is now they can use social media to reach 93% of millennials, the social junkies, and sell products on their chosen platforms. Twitter already has a Buy button, others are following suit.

8) Social chatbots will talk to you

Since the real-time response is the need of the hour, smart bots will play a greater role on social media. Beyond increasing customer support effectiveness, cutting manual effort and operational budget, they will serve as personal assistants to users. A case in point is the success of KalaniBot. US Makeup Brand Covergirl simulated celeb Kalani Hilliker into an AI bot and hosted on its messaging app Kik. KalaniBot became a hit, clocking up 91% positive sentiment among users. It also helped Covergirl generate 14-times more conversation on social media.

9)Augmented reality on social will be a big factor

Pokemon Go has shown the way and others are not far behind. Go Pro, Oculus and vTime are getting much attention from major social platforms. Augment.com survey reports 40% would be willing to pay more for a product if they could experience it through augmented reality. That means augmented reality on social platforms will get huge investments. Facebook has an exclusive Social VR (virtual reality) team working to help users share their experience in totality. Augmented reality is going to be a sweet spot for marketers.

10) Social focus will shift to mobile

Mobile is where almost 80% of the time is spent on social media. Whats more, the number of smart phone users is predicted to increase to 6.1 billion by 2020. Ad spends on mobile is going to increase 72% by that time. Needless to say, platforms will focus more on mobile users than they ever did before. The push has been there to drive users to mobile social apps.

11) Influencer marketing on social will increase

A recent survey proclaims 84% of marketers will execute at least one influencer marketing campaign during in 2017. Adweek reports keyword search for influencer marketing has increased over 90 times since 2013. If we look at the web carefully, content propagation on social has been constantly on the rise ever since it all started. To clean the clutter and grab attention, better content through influencers on social platforms is going to be the de facto option in 2017.

12)Social budget will rise and eat into search

In the battle for attention, every business will spend more on social than search. The ad spends on social is expected to increase to $36 billion in 2017 depicting a steep rise of 20% from 2016. Needless to say, paid social strategy will take away some budget from search marketing.

13)Social will mean real-time

When social has already become the staple for your marketing efforts, marketers must respond everything real-time on platforms. Social care, listening or problem resolution; everything is going to be real-time on social.

14) Personalization will grow

Search result and content feed experiences on social have been personalised to some extent. In 2017, the personalization will still refine itself leaving less scope for undesired or ambiguous experience. Social platforms will improve personalization in such a way that the content must resonate with the users.

15) Content curation will drive innovation

Ever-growing content as a whole creates clutter on social, but not every bit of it is clutter per se. Social platforms are creating innovative methods to make sense from old yet meaningful content. Be it Snapchat stories, Instagram stories or Facebook memories; it will be all about making expired content meaningful on the social.

16) Social platforms will merge

There cannot be a multiple level playing fields on social. To command innovation, stay relevant and influence the market, social media must consolidate platforms. This is happening for the last couple of years. Facebook now owns WhatsApp and Instagram, Twitter owns Periscope, Google owns YouTube, and Microsoft owns LinkedIn. Therell be more such mergers and acquisitions in 2017.

17)Social news feeds will overtake mainstream

People dont have enough time out of their busy schedules to go through the press news. Besides, they rely more on social media than mainstream. This trend is growing at an alarming rate. Users will consume bits and pieces of interesting stories on social platforms, and they will venture out to traditional media only for exclusive stories.

18) Quality will be the priority on social

Brands cant put anything just like that on the social platform. And fake posts will die a natural death. Only authentic and relevant content will make it to the social. Fake news was a big menace in 2016. But not anymore, all major platforms and search engines are taking concrete measures to curb fake and irrelevant content.

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are solely of the author and ETBrandEquity.com does not necessarily subscribe to it. ETBrandEquity.com shall not be responsible for any damage caused to any person/organisation directly or indirectly.

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Here are 18 social advertising predictions for 2017 - ETBrandEquity.com (blog)

WWD

Cond Nast Buys Social Data and Marketing Platform WWD The acquisition helps the publisher broaden its audience-targeting and data capabilities beyond its own properties to social platforms, such as Facebook. Translation: The company's advertising and marketing partners will, in theory, be better able to ...

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Cond Nast Buys Social Data and Marketing Platform - WWD

As 2017 unfolds, small businesses should take a look at what didnt work in 2016 and find ways to improve in the upcoming year. While you work to control spending and shed some of the holiday pounds, dont forget about making social media resolutions for your business.

Social media in 2017 will really be a defining factor in successful marketing strategies and strong businesses. In 2016, social media boomed for businesses. It was part of marketing strategies in previous years, but new advertising updates for social platforms and business-friendly changes made it easier than ever for organizations to make connections and offer valuable customer service.

This year, social media will be even more important, particularly as far as your strategy is concerned. You wont have the competitive edge of being the first to use social marketing to its full advantage, so youll have to find ways to stand out as a business and create a more powerful strategy.

Online marketing and business building guru Gary Vaynerchuksays social media should be the biggest marketing target for small businesses, adding:

In 2017, if you are a business or organization of any kind that wants to be heard in the world, refocusing on the content you put out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, LinkedIn, Medium and whatever else has the markets attention at the time is a huge factor.

Overall, Vaynerchuk believes that social media for startups and small businesses is the best channel for your marketing budget because of the connections to be made and networking to be done.

If youre a small business, theres probably a lot more that you can do for your marketing campaign on social media. As you make some goals for a more effective business year, dont forget to include these useful resolutions.

Social media is all about communicating with your target audience, and there are certain applications that can make the process easier. Whether youre looking to communicate internally or across channels, here are some of the most highly recommended communication appsavailable:

Through these apps, you can make face-to-face connections, send SMS messages, voice broadcast and chat instantly to make your social interactions that much more powerful.

Investing in your content should be a top priority in the new year, particularly when it comes to posting across multiple channels. Delivering inconsistent content is all too common with small businesses, making your strategy appear unreliable and unprofessional to consumers. Vaynerchuk says:

Quality content is so important to marketing to anyone under the age of 40 right now. Anyone in that demographic discovers a business for the first time by either Google searching or finding their content on social media. If you are not crushing it and focusing on the content that you put out on the most important social platforms, youre going to become mute and obsolete in the modern day of doing business.

Demonstrate that youre committed to posting useful and regular content to your clients. Use a content calendarto help you stay on track with your content and make sure its split evenly across all channels.

Another important part of posting content on social media is tailoring the information to match your target audience. If youre selling products meant for stay-at-home moms, for example, marketing your content to 22-year-old bachelors wont do your strategy much good.

Make 2017 the year you finally develop customer personasthat guide your marketing efforts. This information will show you demographics, trending topics, and favorite social channelsmaking your marketing easier in 2017.

Even if youre only spending $200 per week, your paid media dollarscan make your content skyrocket. This is particularly true for YouTube and Facebook video content, which receives billions of views every day.

Just remember that its content that carries your strategy forward. Your social media budget should allocate about 75 percent to content creation and about 25 percent to content amplification through paid advertising venues.

No amount of paid media is going to turn bad creative into good content, says Vaynerchuk, and this is a principle that should be a primary focus in 2017. Youll see far more value in your social efforts if you focus on building your content.

Larry Altonis an independent business consultant specializing in social media trends, business, and entrepreneurship. Follow him on Twitterand LinkedIn.

Image courtesy of eli_asenova/iStock.

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4 Social Media Resolutions for Small Businesses Adweek - FishbowlDC (blog)

Applying social marketing principles leads to behaviour change projects that work, based on real insight into people's lives and motivations.

Social marketing enables you to develop products, services and communications that fit peoples needs and motivations. Child safety seat usage by Hispanic families in West Dallas was raised from just 19% to over 70% through a programme that properly understood parent's motivations. Read more...

Social marketing helps to ensure policy is based on an understanding of peoples lives, making policy goals realistic and achievable. Research into how people used water, and where it was wasted, led to a focus on improving plumbing systems, rather than calling for individual action. Read more...

Social marketing enables you to target your resources cost-effectively, and select interventions that have the best impact over time. Carefully mapping out target groups and delivery partners allowed the Department for Health England to plan effective interventions with groups best placed to have an impact on the people most at risk. Read more...

In West Dallas, Texas, efforts to increase the use of child car seats and safety belts among the Hispanic population kept failing. Just 19 per cent of young Hispanic children were placed in car seats, compared to 62 per cent of children from other groups. This led the Injury Prevention Center of Greater Dallas (IPCGD) to try a new approach.

Research with the target audience revealed insights that enabled the IPCGD to greatly increase their programmes effectiveness. As well as barriers such as lack of language skills to interpret safety information and lack of awareness of the law, they found that mothers had a fatalistic attitude towards road safety. They tended to believe that their children, and therefore their destinies, were in Gods hands, causing them to not appreciate the importance of child safety seats.

This led the programme developers to ask local priests to bless subsidised car seats before they were distributed to families. Alongside free traffic safety and child safety seat training workshops, community action with mothers and a police woman, and demonstration events, this helped the intervention to achieve impressive results. By 2000 (after just three years), car seat use rose to 72 per cent outstripping use across the other communities combined by three per cent.

Notably, this approach did not work when the IPCGD applied it to the African American community. It was only effective for the Hispanic community, based on the unique insights from their particular circumstances.

Rationing was already in place before Jordan experienced a serious water shortage between 2000 and 2005. The government proposed laws to raise the price of water in order to reduce demand. They assumed that people were using too much water but Jordanians already used it more sparingly than most other people in the world.

Research revealed some important insights. People tended to blame the lack of water on neighbouring countries, not Jordans rapidly growing population, industry and tourism. People also did not feel they should pay more for water if the government was not doing its bit they did not see why they should bear a bigger burden on their already strained finances.

The governments response took all these factors into account. A survey revealed the largest water consumers: mostly public buildings and private clubs, with some private residences. Water audits were conducted and a simple auditing tool was developed, highlighting weaknesses in how the government billed for water and providing information to help improve it.

The audits showed that the high consumption was mainly due to out-of-date, poorly installed plumbing not to over-use. If 3 aerators were added to faucets, a buildings water bill would be reduced by 30 per cent.

The simple message that adding a cheap device to your faucet could save you money was therefore chosen and targeted at all consumers via trained volunteers. This approach had the added advantage of being straightforward to measure and monitor: buildings fitted with aerators should show cost savings of 30 per cent after one year, and sales of the devices should increase.

However, actually installing the devices was rather complicated. In order to keep people on side, the government redeveloped its policy, creating a new national plumbing code. This ensured all new buildings would be built with water conservation in mind. To inform it, a competition was launched to see if consumers could correctly identify their buildings requirements. Prizes such as computers, as well as colourful, lottery-style cards distributed by community volunteers, got people interested.

This imaginative approach to research and promotion delivered the information needed to develop the new code, and created a positive, engaging buzz around the campaign.

The Department of Health (DH) in England uses strategic social marketing thinking to tackle lung disease. Also known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), it currently kills over 30,000 people every year. Thats a higher death rate than breast and prostate cancer combined but most people have never heard of it.

The key to early prevention and treatment of lung disease is behaviour change among those affected or at risk. The strategy has a two-pronged goal: to reduce peoples risktaking activities and encourage them to take up more healthenhancing behaviours; or to recognise and act on the symptoms.

2.7 million people have the disease without knowing it, so the biggest challenge is how to achieve earlier diagnoses. Also, 75 per cent of cases are caused by smoking, a notoriously difficult behaviour to shift. Simply raising awareness would not be enough.

DH identified the segments or groups of the population who are at risk, using insight and data to establish how best to design interventions for changing, adapting or sustaining individuals behaviour. This approach ensures that behaviour change activities fit tightly defined population segments and local needs.

The strategys segmentation model unusually grouped individuals into overlapping segments, based on their lifestage, social and environmental factors, job status and social group, and health motivation. These segments are then engaged by the individuals and organisations best placed to do so depending on whether they have well-established communications channels, provide services to or are trusted partners in the eyes of the particular segments.

The programme developed a quick reference risk model to help planners and commissioners understand how a one size fits all approach would not work. As an individual progresses along the spectrum of risk, different interventions will be required in order to deliver different changes in behaviour.

The strategy recognises that the environment in which lung disease services are provided is complex. Understanding the different drivers and motivations for providers and other partner organisations is as important as understanding those of target populations. Consequently, the strategy highlights a range of benefits for partners of early identification, including better patient self management, cost-reduction and efficiency

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Social marketing examples | The NSMC