A leading news magazine in the US and a fixture in global news since 1933, Newsweek hardly needs an introduction. Readers worldwide turn to Newsweek for coverage and analysis of current events, in both its weekly print edition and on its website, which draws in more than 80 million visits each month on average.
As Deputy US News Director and Senior Digital Strategist at Newsweek, Adam Silvers is responsible for Newsweek’s social media strategy and the company’s relationship with digital platforms. He also helps shape content in the newsroom to be shared on these digital platforms.
We interviewed Adam to learn more about the challenges his team faced with social media management, and how artificial intelligence gave Newsweek the upper hand. Read on for an inside look at Newsweek’s approach to winning the social media game.
A robust social media presence is key for Newsweek
“Social media plays a crucial role in helping to expand Newsweek’s reach and reputation. Our followers and fans are our audience, and we try to deliver news and insights that will help them make better sense of the world we’re living in,” Adam says.
This audience numbers in the many millions across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Reddit. In addition to building strong relationships with audiences on social media, Adam says his team works constantly to stay up-to-date with best practices and take advantage of the new features that these platforms regularly release.
Seeking a better way to manage social media publishing
With the large amount of content Newsweek produces daily, the social media team used to devote nearly all its time to curating, testing, optimizing and distributing this content on social media. “When doing everything manually, virtually 90% of a social media coordinator’s time is spent testing, posting and recycling content,” says Adam.
Before adopting Echobox, it was necessary for Newsweek to spend significant time manually managing content distribution on social media. This meant less time for other key activities.
“With a manual social media publishing tool like SocialFlow, Sprout Social or Sprinklr, it takes a lot of time out of the day to post new content, recycle a ton of content, and everything else you’re supposed to do in an 8-hour workday,” he adds.
Requiring a more efficient solution, Newsweek sought a social media publishing tool that would best suit its needs and goals and therefore selected Echobox.
AI gives Newsweek more time for audience engagement
Echobox is the world’s first social media solution built from the ground up for publishers and powered by artificial intelligence. Echobox algorithms are tailored to each client, meaning that each publisher, including Newsweek, benefits from AI tailor-made for its publication, its editorial guidelines and its particular audience. This customized technology results in greater social reach, more traffic and engagement, and significant time-savings for publishers.
“We were extremely impressed by the idea of using AI technology to help expand Newsweek’s reach and engagement on social platforms,” Adam recalls. “In addition, we also saw the opportunity to gain time back for our social media team to focus on other engagement initiatives.”
Adopting Echobox has meant Newsweek now spends less time on social media publishing and more time on audience engagement, an area of growing importance for the team.
“Echobox has freed up members of our relatively small team to focus on other engagement opportunities with our audience,” says Adam, citing time-intensive initiatives like “creating Twitter polls, interacting with comments, or staying on top of trends happening at large on the platforms, with competitors and with other social media content producers.”
He estimates that his team saves at least 20 hours a week using Echobox, which has become so instrumental that it even feels like a virtual colleague: “I view Echobox as another team member in that it performs a function, it does it quite well, and it gives time back to other members of the team.”
A rapid and substantial boost in traffic
In the first three months of using Echobox, Newsweek saw its traffic from Facebook double. Adam also notes that Newsweek has observed higher engagement with social posts since adopting Echobox.
“We’re thrilled to see these results in such a short period of time. The impact on our business has been a positive one. As our traffic grows, so does our reach and reputation, which is a core Newsweek objective,” says Adam. “It also allows us to have success in other avenues. I really see it as a knock-on effect.”
As Newsweek continues to expand its digital reach and engage audiences in new ways, Adam says Echobox will remain a crucial element in Newsweek’s social media strategy: “There’s no question about the benefit. We’re now big believers in the Echobox AI.”
