Mustang News: Why I Still Like Facebook

While it may not be as *trendy* as it once was, Facebook proved to remain an important touch point for Mustang News. While our audience regularly viewed our Instagram Stories, we were able to constantly reach new audience members by creating viral content on Facebook and strategically placing content.

Explainer videos are an important way for Mustang News to combat the Facebook algorithm and ensure our content is prioritized in our audience’s feeds. These short, visually stimulating videos receive high volumes or views and shares. They also included text motion graphics so that audiences could fully consume the story without having to listen to the sound. These videos cater to the needs of students by breaking stories down to their essential elements, serving as stand-alone stories and ultimately saving time. Our top performing explainer video of the year received 34,989 views, 199 shares,double our average reactions and more than 12,000 referrals to the Mustang News website. Furthermore, 12 percent of viewers watched the video from beginning to end, proving that our content is suiting the attention spans of our audience.

According to our Facebook strategy, where content is placed is just as important as how it is crafted. Our team sought out to find where different communities of students, faculty, alumni and student supporters aggregate into Facebook pages. Once we identified key Facebook pages and groups, we strategically shared applicable Mustang News social media content directly within those communities. By directly bringing these communities the stories they are interested in rather than hoping they would find our content on their own, we sparked high levels of conversation and other engagement surrounding our content. Consequently, referrals to the Mustang News website were positively affected by these efforts as well.