{"id":119233,"date":"2018-11-22T12:10:34","date_gmt":"2018-11-22T11:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=119233"},"modified":"2018-11-22T12:10:34","modified_gmt":"2018-11-22T11:10:34","slug":"how-to-use-whatsapp-to-spread-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/how-to-use-whatsapp-to-spread-news\/","title":{"rendered":"How to use Whatsapp to spread news"},"content":{"rendered":"

WhatsApp is increasingly being used by news outlets to share content. The Reuters Digital News Report 2018<\/a> revealed another year-on-year increase in WhatsApp being used for news across the world.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This report also found that people use the words \u2018honest\u2019 and \u2018reliable\u2019 when describing WhatsApp, in comparison with \u2018creepy\u2019 and \u2018ego-centric\u2019 for social media\u2019s big news-sharing platform, Facebook.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not just Facebook\u2019s \u2018creepy\u2019 side that is making it less relevant for news. Changes in the Facebook algorithm mean news is less of a priority in the platform and has forced publishers to look for an alternative way to distribute news.<\/p>\n

In light of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook also now faces issues with trust, whereas WhatsApp\u2019s use of end-to-end encryption means that messages are only seen by the sender and recipient, and cannot be intercepted or changed.<\/p>\n

Of course, it\u2019s worth noting that WhatsApp is owned by Facebook, so gains by one platform are not necessarily losses for the other.<\/p>\n

Reach plc\u2019s Nottinghamshire Live is an avid user of WhatsApp for sharing its top news stories. At newsrewired, Natalie Fahy, digital editor at the outlet, talked about how they make the most of the channel.<\/p>\n

Natalie explained how they started by sharing \u2018what\u2019s on\u2019 and lifestyle news, but people were calling out for the \u2018real news\u2019. They set a format of sending one teatime message a day \u2013 in order not to overload people \u2013 containing links to three news stories.<\/p>\n

They found this process worked especially well for building a more loyal audience and encouraging people to regularly click through to the news stories. People were more engaged on the channel, even providing additional information in relation to published stories.<\/p>\n

Natalie has written<\/a> about how Nottingham Live uses WhatsApp, growing the service to over 3,500 subscribers through trial and error and the introduction of breaking news alerts.<\/p>\n

For PR professionals, signing up to news outlets\u2019 WhatsApp channels can be a great way to stay on top of the news that is important to you, spot trends and seize on opportunities for additional comment and brand information. However, this blessing can also be a curse because \u2013 due to the encryption \u2013 news on Whatsapp can\u2019t be monitored.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WhatsApp is increasingly being used by news outlets to share content. The Reuters Digital News Report 2018 revealed another year-on-year increase in WhatsApp being used for news across the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":119234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7365,350,7272],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119233"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119233"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119236,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119233\/revisions\/119236"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}