Hitwise Finds Facebook Users Like Broadcast Media

Small business owners who are wondering how best to attract the attention of Facebook users might want to favor video and images over lots and lots of text.  Fresh Hitwise data shows that Facebook users prefer broadcast media over print sources when it comes to news, at least.

Heather Hopkins recently thought to look at what news and media websites Facebook users most often visit after getting their social media fix.  The list includes the Weather Channel, CNN, Yahoo News, MSNBC, People Magazine, Fox News, Google News, AccuWeather, Topix, and the Drudge Report.

Hopkins observed as a result, "A larger proportion of Facebook’s News and Media traffic is directed toward Broadcast Media websites compared with Google News.  The following chart illustrates this point nicely.  The chart shows upstream visits to Broadcast Media websites from Facebook and Google News over the past year."

It may be, then, that Facebook users are more likely to pay attention to content if it comes packaged in a flashier-than-average way.  This idea falls in line with the way Facebook deals in bite-size pieces of information.

Small businesses that have a Facebook presence and can produce videos cheaply should consider the option of going all audiovisual, anyway.