Social Publishing Platforms: A Siren Song for Publishers

Facebook Instant not a scary proposition for some magazines; Kik also among attractive social publishing platforms … plus, Condé Nast turning over a new digital leaf

Social publishing platforms are all the rage for publishers looking to repurpose content, cultivate audience, and drive traffic, and providers’ offerings are becoming more sophisticated and specialized. Or, in Facebook’s case, irresistibly too big to fail, for now.

In the meantime, other brands and publishers, like Adobe and Condé Nast, are focusing on in-house digital solutions.

Let’s take a look at four recent Digiday stories that cover all of this ground. And be sure to check out our own best practices for publishers trying to establish a social media presence.

Facebook Instant: Bogeyman or Boon for Publishers?

The jury is still out on whether Facebook Instant, the new feature that allows magazines to publishing articles directly to Facebook as a content partner, will be beneficial to the industry, but that isn’t keeping a good number from flocking to the service – especially after Facebook has made some click and revenue concessions, Digiday reports.

“Every publisher I’ve spoken with is impressed with the product,” Bustle Founder Bryan Goldberg told Digiday.

“For nearly six months, the entire publishing community has been holding their collective breath about this, and the final result couldn’t have been better. It just looks awesome. The revenue dynamics are the real key, though. The business half of this will make it all possible.”

But it doesn’t sound like Goldberg spoke with enthusiast publisher Evolve Media.

“The danger of all these big platform plays is, they open it up, they encourage you to put your content on their platform, they aggregate the audience, but at the end of the day, they’re building loyalty and engagement for your content on their platform,” Evolve Co-Founder and President Brian Fitzgerald told Digiday.

“It’s extremely difficult to pull people off YouTube. The more publishers put content on Facebook, the less they will depend on any one particular publisher.”

Can Kik Compete With Established Social Publishing Platforms?

A while back, we mentioned Kik as another emerging option for magazines in need of social publishing platforms. Digiday reports that the messaging app has gained ground quickly when it comes to convincing publishers to purchase promoted chats and other friendly features geared at Kik’s Millennial user base.

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Adobe Creating a Podcast for Selling White Papers

We love this example of repurposing content: Adobe is hiring Malcolm McDowell and other actors to narrate marketing white papers for podcasts, Digiday reports! While you might not be able to afford legendary thespians, you can still get creative with your content.

Condé Nast’s Company-Wide Digital Shift

Great interview with Condé Nast President Bob Sauerberg by Digiday‘s Ricardo Bilton. In it, Sauerberg discusses the digital turnaround still in progress at the legacy magazine publisher. Here’s a snippet that we couldn’t agree with more:

“Premium means a different thing in each platform you publish on. We define premium in magazines through photography, through our voice. In digital, it’s getting the right content to the right person and getting that at scale. It’s reaching the audience and getting them the content they expect and connecting them to relevant advertisers.”

What are your preferred social publishing platforms? Let us know in the comments!

To read more news about social publishing platforms, visit Digiday.

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