Twitter_user perception as a news resource

Double the user base of Twitter in the U.S.Branding lens

Bianca Ennes. Pawan Gupta, Lana Ibragimova, John Kniespeck and Aleksei SmetannikovDate: 5/12/2015

While users read news on Twitter, the broader audience rarely consider it as a news source

29%

30%

67%

68%

70%

52%

51%

50%

News

Information

Politics

Status update

Entertainment

Activism (e.g. protests)

Social connections

Friends

% of respondents agree

…but not a news source at the first

place

“What comes to your mind when you hear “Twitter”

Source: MIT Sloan team survey, 206 respondentsSource: PEW Research Center

Twitter 52%

reddit 62%

13%LinkedIn

Tumblr 29%

Google Plus 30%

Facebook 47%

Percent of each social network users who ever get

news on the site

Users read news…

Users view Twitter and other social networks as relatively non-trustworthy news source

NYT

26%

Facebook

23%

51%

Twitter

39%44%

18%

40%

27%33%

Trustworthy Non-trustworthy

Trustworthiness of a headline “Vin Diesel considers entering California's

next race for governor”, by source

Source: MIT Sloan team survey, 206 respondents

49%

NYTFacebook

Twitter

63%

26%

12%

48%

28%24%23%

28%

Non-trustworthyTrustworthy

Trustworthiness of a headline “Google announces launch of

commercial drones in 2017”, by source

As a news source Twitter is not structured enough and lacks a breadth of topics (1/2)

I find too much of a certain theme, such as too much social-

political and activism

Lack of certain themes, such as cultural news I care about

Low usability, like it’s hard to filter the topics, hard to

navigate categories

It’s for FUN nothing serious should be there

Posts on Twitter are not real news

2.3

1.5

1.6

2.2

2.3

respondent response rating

“I would not use Twitter as a news source because”

Lacks a breadth of topics

Lacks features for structuring/filteri

ng the news

Source: MIT Sloan team survey, 206 respondents

It’s possible to follow friend, journalists or media. As for personalization of my twitter feed - it’s hard to see news categorized by business related topic, politics related, my favorite sport related, etc. (Female, around 40)

I’m not that interested in celebrities life facts. I would rather check news related to oil and gas industry, or high tech industry since my finance portfolio is all about those two fields. I want to get most recent news and act accordingly (Male, 35)

I like twitter. All my life is there. I can see my friends status, topics they are interested in, read fun stories, etc. … But with all this information, real news are kind a buried under… (Female, 27)

As a news source Twitter is not structured enough and lacks a breadth of topics (2/2)

Source: MIT Sloan team customer interviews

Meet Cradle: news service by Twitter

Positioning map: a trustworthy news aggregator with a strong social network component

News Aggregator

Independent news source

Trustworthy

Non-trustworthy

Sweet SpotTIME

NYTWSJ

The Washington PostThe Huffington Post

BuzzFeed

The Daily Show Tumblr

GooglePlusFacebook

Twitter

GoogleNewsLinkedIn

Reddit

HIGH social network componentAverage social network componentLOW social network component

Cradle is about aggregating reliable news with simplicity How it differentiates from existing news sources?

The quality and categorization of the New York Times with the consolidation of Twitter

Cool features like verified news sources and user ratings for news articles

Easy to categorize posts (finance, business, science, political, technology etc.)

Viral sharing feature targeting specific Twitter users following news resource and sharing in different social sites

The communication should target the following audience: Male and female In large USA capitals 25 to 50 years old College graduate, Mid-level professionals or higher

2-stage product adoption: start from existing users, then expand into new and more “mature” segments

Target EXISTING users Use Twitter API to tap Twitter

friends network Increase daily usage of Twitter Polish the service functionality

01020304050

65+

18-29

50-64

30-49

30%17%

13%5%

01020304050

65+

50-64

30-49

18-29

6%20%32%35%

Current* 2018

*2013 Source: stata.com

Twitter penetration rate by age groups, among US Internet user, including Cradle

*Including Craddle

1 2Phase Phase2015 2016-2018 Target NEW users

Older, “serious” users Working professionals

Launch as a stand alone brand

Recent standalone successful Twitter brands

PR and Communication: Case Studies

Vine: A 6-sec video sharing service, acquired by Twitter for a reported $30M

Periscope: A live video streaming service, purchased by Twitter for a reported $86M

PR and Communication planThe quality and categorization of the New York Times with the consolidation of Twitter

Communicating value to users with ~zero marketing dollars is a touch problem to solve

Partnering with reputed news sources like NY Times, Washington Post, Forbes, Huffington Post, Colbert Show requires marketing resources and value sharing to both parties

Ability to share posts to Facebook, Reddit, LinkedIn, Flipboard and media sources would be the key

Getting your word out in popular online news sources and growth hack site requires viral stories and media relations

Major threats to a new business model Customers and News Sources will consider Cradle to be

another Twitter: non-serious and non-trustworthy Customers will not recognize a value of Cradle and a user base

will not achieve a critical mass: Cradle fails to come up with a usable and straightforward user

interface Cradle fails to differentiate content format from actual Twitter (Vine

used 6 second video format) Cradle fails to educate users about value of the product

A competitor social app will attempt to create a similar service High expectations with Twitter’s 2 recent successful standalone

products: Vine and Periscope

Appendix

I WOULD use Twitter as a news source because (rank the options from most important to least important)

Statistic It is both information and news source (not news only)

It provides faster and more concise news than Facebook

I can instantly share my own opinion about news headlines with my followers

It allows me to follow famous and influential people I like

It is one stop shop for news, social connections, entertainment

Min Value 1 1 1 1 1Max Value 5 5 5 5 5Mean 2.79 2.74 3.03 3.10 3.35Variance 1.92 1.93 1.87 2.13 1.95Standard Deviation

1.39 1.39 1.37 1.46 1.39

Total Responses

206 206 206 206 206

✔

I WOULD NOT use Twitter as a news source because (rank the options from most important to least important)

Statistic Lack of certain themes, such as cultural news I care about

I find too much of a certain theme, such as too much social-political and activism

Low usability, like it’s hard to filter the topics, hard to navigate categories

It’s for FUN nothing serious should be there

Posts on Twitter are not real news

Min Value 1 1 1 1 1Max Value 5 5 5 5 5Mean 2.67 2.67 2.78 3.39 3.50Variance 1.32 1.79 2.09 1.73 2.44Standard Deviation

1.15 1.34 1.44 1.32 1.56

Total Responses

206 206 206 206 206

✔

What comes to your mind when you hear “Twitter” (scale the options from least important to most important)

# Answer Min Value Max Value

Average Value

Standard Deviation

Responses

1 Information 0.00 100.00 51.57 30.37 2062 News 0.00 100.00 51.30 30.61 2063 Social

connections (professional connections)

0.00 100.00 63.57 27.84 206

4 Entertainment 0.00 100.00 69.74 24.66 2065 Activism

(protests, uprising)

0.00 100.00 53.98 28.52 206

6 Politics 0.00 100.00 49.85 29.25 2067 Status update 0.00 100.00 67.68 27.33 2068 Friends 0.00 100.00 66.67 29.79 206

✔

✔

Twitter User Profiles *References from Victoria (classmate) slides