• by Melynda Fuller , May 10, 2018

For the past few years, publishers have been relying on Facebook traffic to keep revenue streams strong. When developers changed the algorithm, many publishers scrambled to determine how to make up for what was lost, including laying off staff and in some cases, closing up shop.

This week, Magazine Media 360° released its social-media report for the first quarter of 2018, which includes a new metric that measures audience engagement. The report reveals how much power Facebook still possesses in the publishing sphere and how other social media platforms, including Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest, stack up against the giant.

It also reveals an audience increasingly more engaged with brands across platforms.

With exclusive data provided by SocialFlow, tracking approximately 30 media companies, the report shows an increase of +2.0% across magazine brands, up from the prior quarter. Related, Likes/Follows increased over 20 million to total 1.1 billion among magazine brands.

According to the report, Facebook remains the leader among social platforms by a wide margin, accounting for almost half of the entirety of magazine audiences regarding Likes/Follows.

Among the four social media platforms tracked, Facebook had a total of 486 million Likes/Follows, Twitter 280 million, Instagram 261 million and Pinterest 29 million.

Instagram saw the biggest increase in Likes/Followers with 10.2 million new followers.

As of March 31, 2018, Facebook held 46% of the total magazine media industry Likes/Followers, Twitter held 26.7%, Instagram held 24.6% and Pinterest held 2.7%.

The newly introduced metric measuring audience engagement found that magazine media brands outperform non-magazine brands across the board. 

The report stated: “The implication may be that editorial integrity, authority and inspiration create a unique connection that successfully translates across print and digital platforms to social-media communities.”

Across social-media platforms, magazine media brands engagement metric came up highest on Facebook, with an engagement factor of 269. Twitter had an engagement factor of 24, Instagram 4,090 and Pinterest had an engagement factor of 10.

The new metric is calculated by comparing actions such as likes, comments, favorites, retweets, repins and sharing across social platforms to publisher’s posts.

To be included, both magazine and non-magazine brands met four criteria. Brands must have posts that qualify for measurement; provide metrics for social actions and publisher posts relevant to the time period; post across social media an average of 90 per quarter or one per day; and have social actions that equal either 900 per quarter or 10 per day.