Digiday+ Research: How social platforms stack up for publishers

To find out where different social platforms stand with publishers, Digiday+ Research surveyed more than 40 publisher professionals this summer on their social media usage and ad spend, and how social platforms play into their revenues and branding.

In terms of usage, Digiday’s survey found that Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube and TikTok are the top five social media platforms among publishers. Ninety-one percent of publisher pros said this summer that their titles posted content to Facebook in the last month, 86% said the same of Instagram, 81% said they posted on the platform formerly known as Twitter, 71% posted content on YouTube and 67% posted on TikTok.

Following the top five platforms, publishers’ usage of social media dropped off quite a bit, according to Digiday’s survey. After the two-thirds of publishers who said they use TikTok, just 29% said they use Threads, 24% said they use Snapchat, 19% said they post on Pinterest and 7% said their titles have a presence on Twitch.

Digiday’s survey found that publishers’ ad spend on social platforms looks different from their usage. Facebook and Instagram still lead other platforms in terms of publishers’ ad spend — 67% of publisher pros said this summer that their titles purchased advertising on Facebook in the last month, and 55% said the same of Instagram.

But X falls to fifth place when it comes to publishers’ ad spend, and by a wide margin. Just 10% of publisher pros said this summer that they bought ads on X in the last month. YouTube takes the third-place spot for publishers’ ad spend, with 29% of publishers buying ads on the platform — still significantly behind second-place Instagram. TikTok came in fourth place for ad spend, with 19% of publishers buying ads on the platform.

Facebook still rules when it comes to how social media platforms drive publishers’ revenues, Digiday’s survey found, but Instagram falls to third place for driving publishers’ revenues — tying with TikTok — and YouTube takes the second-place spot.

Forty-five percent of publisher pros said this summer that Facebook is valuable or extremely valuable to driving their companies’ revenues, followed by YouTube at 42%. Thirty-eight percent of publishers said both Instagram and TikTok are valuable or extremely valuable to driving their revenues, with Snapchat rounding out the top five at 29%.

X trails far behind in this category, coming in seventh place. Just 13% of publishers said this summer that the platform is either valuable or extremely valuable to driving revenues.

Regarding the role social media plays in publishers’ branding efforts, the ranking looks quite different, according to Digiday’s survey. Instagram takes the top spot for branding, with Facebook falling to fourth place.

YouTube and TikTok fill in the gaps in second and third place, respectively, for publishers’ branding on social media. And X comes fifth for branding.

More than two-thirds of publisher pros (68%) said this summer that Instagram is valuable or extremely valuable for branding, followed closely by YouTube at 62%, TikTok at 61% and Facebook at 57%. Digiday’s survey found that the percentages dropped off quite a bit with fifth place — 28% of publishers said X is valuable or extremely valuable for branding.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks, when we break down how publishers’ thoughts on these platforms have changed over time.