“Spiderman’s the best!” 

“Nope. Batman is.”

“D.C. Comics are lame. I’m Team Marvel all day!” 

People love their opinions and often make their consumption choices in direct correlation. Superhero arguments aside, the reality is sources play a huge role in the acceptance of their content. Whether it’s The New York Times versus The Wall Street Journal, CNN versus Fox News, or Marvel versus D.C., Americans are highly-opinionated, picky, and skeptical about the information they ingest, especially depending on where they get it. Good luck convincing Uncle Earl at the barbecue that your favorite news blog is better than his trusty channel-of-choice.

During a tumultuous and politically-polarized 2020 election season, Gallup and the Knight Foundation released a study, NewsLens 2020: How Americans Process the News, that measured US attitudes toward different online news sources. The purpose was to examine the extent partisanship played in how people engaged with online news content and to deduce whether solid journalism could cross the political divide.

To measure engagement, Gallup and Knight used an experimental news platform and aggregator originally developed in 2017. The experiment conditions were simple: randomly feed more than 1,500 partisan readers articles in both natural and blinded conditions (labeled or unlabeled with source cues). Content was supplied from Democratic-leaning, Republican-leaning and no-lean sources. More than 44,000 article clicks and 27,000 ratings were registered. The results were published with the hope of providing useful insights to journalists, policymakers and academia.

Let’s dig in and snack on a few of the findings, shall we?

Despite Partisanship, Readers Source Choices Varied

Surprisingly, despite their political leanings, readers chose content from both sympathetic and adversarial sources, even when source cues were visible.

In the natural condition, out of every 20 articles served, the click rate of users with partisan commitments registered:

• 4.6% Sympathetic outlet
• 4.1% No-lean outlet
• 3.8% Adversarial outlet

In the blinded condition, the click rate demonstrated a marginal difference:

• 4.7% Sympathetic outlet
• 4.0% No-lean outlet
• 4.4% Adversarial outlet

Defying the theory of cognitive dissonance, the study found that while partisan selective engagement was present, the margin of selective exposure was modest. With the source visible, out of an average 100 articles, a hypothetical partisan user chose 36 from sympathetic outlets, 33 from no-lean channels, and 31 from politically adversarial sources. Gallup and Knight concluded that regardless of political affiliations, readers were not inclined to remain within their own echo chambers.

The Messenger Carries More Weight than the Message

With the overwhelming volume of news available today, a news source and its agreeableness to the user often dictates the perceived level of credibility more than the content itself. Think about your own political stance and how just the mention of CNN, MSNBC, Newsmax or Fox News might immediately frame how you would judge their content.

NewsLens examined reader ratings of news stories and discovered that when source labels were hidden, users gave articles from politically sympathetic news sources a higher rating versus adversarial outlets. However, readers gave even higher ratings when source cues were visible. Displaying the news outlet contributed to more than half of the variance in user ratings between “friendly” and “hostile” news sources. The takeaway: for readers with a defined political stance - the specific news outlets shaped their impression of the material more than the actual content itself.

Perceived Relevance Bolsters Impression of Journalistic Quality

As readers, we often subconsciously judge news stories across a range of benchmarks:

• Overall quality
• Perceived Fairness
• Personal Relevance
• Completeness
• Accuracy

NewsLens examined whether readers distinguished between these various components using a five-star rating system. Readers rated articles similarly across all five criteria, with half of the content receiving the same rating across all categories. However, using a control variable in the model that factored in the relationship between journalistic quality and the residuals of each criteria allowed NewsLens to discover a statistically significant and positive association between personal relevance and perceived journalistic quality. 

With all factors considered, readers responded more favorably to material that was “covered in a way that mattered to them,” thus boosting perceived journalistic quality of the material.

Wrap-Up

The NewsLens report makes it crystal clear: partisanship strongly informed how open and receptive readers were to news stories based on the outlets they come from. However, some common ground remains — especially for what readers judge as good journalism. The NewsLens findings are insightful and we invite you to check out the actual report to dig further into the findings and better understand how end users engage with online news.  

Now, only one question remains…

Are you Team Marvel or D.C.?

Want to try the original news media video workspace for yourself? Try us free for 7 days to search and clip the biggest news moments as they happen.

Social media algorithms are having a moment in the spotlight. Or rather, under the harsh light of the interrogation lamp.

From last year’s documentary, The Social Dilemma, to this week’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, the algorithms powering the major social media platforms are under scrutiny. These algorithms drive which pieces of content users watch and read. And in our current landscape where the number of information sources is high and media literacy is low, disinformation can spread like wildfire.

That said, it will take time to see whether we’ll see significant changes to the way social media platforms use and tune their algorithms. For now, content creators of all kinds still need to stay aware of the routine updates made by each platform in order to maximize reach and audience engagement.

What are Social Media Algorithms?

Social media algorithms are what determine which posts a user sees in his or her feed. Algorithms utilize a variety of factors - including user behavior, post engagement, content type, and source -  to determine which content is most relevant to the user. The higher the relevancy, the more likely the content is to appear at the top of the user’s feed.  

Social media platforms use data science and machine learning to power and constantly tune their algorithms with the intent of providing an ever-better, more highly targeted user experience. Fortunately, it doesn’t take a data scientist to understand what kinds of content and behaviors the platforms’ algorithms favor. Most are pretty transparent about it and provide best practices for content creators, news media organizations, and marketers to follow. 

Here are 4 key things to keep in mind when posting newsworthy content across the various social platforms.

Seize the Moment on Twitter

Recently, Twitter’s big push has been around disinformation shared on its platform. Late last year, Twitter  updated its algorithms to focus on limiting the spread of misleading information or fake news. 

For legitimate news organizations, that means less noise and more opportunity for real news to take back the top spots in users’ feeds.

To make the most of this moment, news media and public affairs organizations should leverage every opportunity to deliver tangible proof and context in their Twitter posts. Give your audience the ability to hear directly from the source whenever possible. 

Experiment with New Social Platform Features

Social platforms will often give higher visibility or promote content that leverages new features. This can be a particularly useful tactic in expanding your followers and reach.

While Instagram hasn’t officially confirmed that its algorithm is promoting Reels (its response to the popularity of TikTok), users are seeing gains in their engagement when opting for Reels over traditional videos in the feed. In fact sports organizations have gotten major traction using Reels, with the NFL seeing 67% higher engagement. 

Since we're talking about Instagram, it’s also worth noting the platform provides greater real estate on its Explore page to Reels-based content, making it more likely for a new user to discover you and your narratives.

Redouble Your Efforts Around Social Media Best Practices

While social media algorithms are constantly evolving, there are ingredients that remain fairly constant in determining relevancy and where your post will appear in your users’ feeds. 

Audit your best-performing posts from the past few months and look for the following patterns:

Day and time - do you get better performance on certain days of the week? Are there peak times for engagement? Sure, there will always be breaking news that needs to get posted right now. Beyond that, aim to post content designed for your core target at the times where they are most likely to engage.

Conversation starters - which posts get comments or start conversations among your followers? Most platforms’ algorithms favor content that engages users with one another or prompts a response that transcends a simple like. Examine which post types and copy structures most frequently engage your audience to comment.

Impact of video - most platforms’ algorithms favor video-based posts. Look at what percentage of your posts featured video content and aim to increase it month over month. Most news organizations find that video content performs at least 2x better than text- or photo-based content.

Skip the Algorithm Entirely

Facebook not only continues to be the primary news source for many Americans, but it also offers a feature that is essentially exempt from its algorithm. Facebook Stories aren’t governed by the platform’s algorithm. Not only that, but Stories are featured at the top of the page, no matter what.

Facebook Stories are also a great mechanism for driving users to your website to look at other news stories. Per Facebook, 58% of users say they’ve gone to a company’s website for more info after watching a Story. Make sure your Story content is easy to understand, as 52% of users rated this as the top priority for this particular type of content. Leverage stories for breaking news, quick hits, and concise narratives.

Social media platforms will continue to pursue a more perfect user experience by way of algorithms. Though with the potential for greater oversight or regulation, it remains to be seen what the long-term future looks like for this approach. For the time being, understanding and keeping pace with what your audience wants most - and what the algorithms favor - is vital to maximizing audience reach and engagement for news media organizations of all sizes.

Video connects us. From lighthearted TikToks and Zoom happy hours to the sobering images from Black Lives Matter protests and the insurrection at the US Capitol, moments captured in video drive our conversations and shape our opinions.

The social isolation and turmoil of 2020 only reinforced the importance of meaningful connection and shared experiences. While we continue to be physically isolated from each other, journalism and technology have kept us current and engaged with the world around us. Reliable information has been crucial in the face of an ongoing global pandemic and tumultuous political climate.

However, bias and misinformation has called journalism’s ability to provide impartial, transparent information into question. With the very definition of truth up for debate, we saw a meaningful increase in video usage and viewership as people looked for ways to validate the news with their own eyes.

More Video Means More Video Clips

At SnapStream, we saw increases across all our usage metrics in 2020 - from video recording and search to clip production and social sharing. 

SnapStream customers created 25% more clips compared to the prior year, with a significant uptick in the months preceding the presidential election. News outlets, think tanks, and other media providers leveraged key moments to inform and persuade voters as they navigated a relentless influx of both facts and fiction.

SnapStream Clips Created 2020 v. 2019

Tweets Featuring Video Improve Engagement by up to 3X

According to Reuters, “[2021] will be a year when text-based newsrooms invest more heavily in online audio and video content, in data journalism, as well as the snackable visual ‘stories’ that work well on social media.” 

We already know people rely on social media to get their news. More than 70% of Twitter users say they use the network to stay informed. In 2020, the number of tweets posted with SnapStream featuring a video clip increased nearly 100% over the prior year. 

SnapStream Tweets with Clips 2020 v. 2019

Tweets including video clips proliferated for a simple reason - they perform. Readers are far more likely to engage with social content powered by video proof.

Tweets with video receive:

• 2X more likes

• 3X more retweets

• 2.5X more replies

Video proof gives the reader a level of context for the information they’re consuming that quotes or static images can't match. As Graham Lampa of the Atlantic Council says, “Bite-sized pieces of easily consumable video content come packaged with incisive commentary that situates the source material within a broader political, cultural, and journalistic context.” 

This tweet sent via SnapStream by Oliver Darcy generated ~500K engagements and 8.6M views

What's in Store for 2021?

The pandemic and concerns about misinformation during 2020 has altered how we interact with the world. We've seen that these themes will continue well into 2021, which will keep journalism and news at the forefront. We expect usage of and engagement with video moments to continue to accelerate as video can uniquely help newsmakers deliver their audiences vital context quickly and maintain the engagement and connection we all crave.

SnapStream 9.4 brings you a new clipping interface, pre-roll and post-roll branding on clips, integration with Kaltura, and many other bug fixes and improvements. You can see these new features in action by watching our on-demand webinar. Here’s what we’ve added and improved: 

A few of the highlights:

• New Clipping Interface 
• Pre-roll and Post-roll Branding on Clips 
• Kaltura Integration

New Clipping Interface 

SnapStream 9.4’s new, snappier clipping interface will look familiar to former SnappyTV users. It gives you more fine-tuned control of in and out points during clip creation. You can configure SnapStream to automatically create an out point once you pick an in point (you can customize this—for example, you can set the automatic out point to occur after 10 seconds each time). Then, refine that out point and you’re done. 

The software will also show you a zooming trackbar that automatically sizes to the length of that clip. You can then go forward or backward by frame or second. The in and out point thumbnails allow you to quickly preview the clip’s start and end frames. You can also loop the whole clip or loop the last 2 seconds. 

To begin, use your mouse or keyboard to select an in point on a video. 

Pre-roll and Post-roll Branding on Clips

Give your brand one look in one place. With SnapStream 9.4, you can easily add custom branding, such as your company’s video intro, to your clips—no need to spend time using an additional video editor.

Simply upload and save your desired brandings for pre-rolls and post-rolls. Then, select the specific brandings you want to use from a drop-down menu as you create clips. 

To get started, go to the “Admin” tab and choose “Brandings” on the left-hand menu.

Kaltura Integration 

Natively export your clips in SnapStream to Kaltura. Kaltura is our newest integration with an OVP. SnapStream now has native support for 14 cloud storage, OVP, CDN, and MAM services—and is always adding more based on customer requests. 

To start using our newest integration, go to SnapStream and set up Kaltura as an external account. Don’t use Kaltura, but are curious? Learn more.

More

SnapStream 9.4 has many other bug fixes and improvements, like updates to the clipping hotkeys and the option to auto-minimize task pop-ups. Please read the full release notes.

Schedule Upgrade to 9.4

(Usually 1 hour) 
SnapStream’s support team will perform the upgrade via a remote session.

Watch On-Demand Webinar: SnapStream 9.4

See SnapStream 9.4 in action. 

The deadline for finding a SnappyTV alternative is approaching. SnappyTV will shut down on December 31. Twitter LiveCut, the tool Twitter has replaced it with, has limited functionality. 

To keep your momentum on social media, it’s important to find a powerful SnappyTV alternative that enables you to record, clip, and share moments from live video and broadcast TV. 

With SnapStream, you can do everything you did with SnappyTV—and more. Here are three SnapStream-powered sports social media posts that got over half a million views. 

1) LSU Football's FB Clip of Marcus Spears's ESPN Appearance 

LSU Football alumnus Marcus Spears appeared on ESPN’s Get Up! show after the LSU Tigers won their first game against the Alabama Crimson Tide since 2011. Using SnapStream, LSU Football clipped his appearance on the show and posted it on its Facebook page. 

The post got more than 600,000 views, close to 9,000 shares, and almost 10,000 likes. 

2) The St. Louis Blues’ Tweet of the Stanley Cup Final

The moment many have waited a lifetime to see happen!!! Celebrate, St. Louis!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/xTzDHsiO8Z

— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) June 13, 2019

In June 2019, the St. Louis Blues won the Stanley Cup for the first time. 

Their social media team tweeted a video clip of the final few seconds of that fateful game—and the players hugging each other and celebrating their historic win. That tweet garnered 2.2 million views, more than 15,000 retweets, and close to 50,000 likes. 

3) SportsNet New York’s Tweet of a Quinnen Williams Moment

No comment @QuinnenWilliams 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/BIFB7BYQLc

— Jets Videos (@snyjets) August 3, 2019

During a press conference, Quinnen Williams, a defensive tackle for the New York Jets, had an awkwardly funny moment. 

SportsNet New York clipped and instantly posted that video on Twitter. It went viral, getting 3 million views, more than 7,000 retweets, and more than 28,000 likes. 

Looking for a SnappyTV alternative?  With SnapStream, you can ingest HLS and RTMP streams, natively export content to a variety of third-party services, record and search TV, and do a lot more. 

SnapStream Product Demo (watch now)

SnapStream makes live video and  broadcast TV social. Our technology lets users instantly capture, create, and share video clips, GIFs, and screenshots to Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, as well as create square and vertical clips for Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok. SnapStream's customers include BuzzFeed, Major League Soccer, and the Arizona Coyotes.

SnappyTV is going away December 31, 2019—meaning users have just several weeks left to find an alternative (LiveCut, the tool Twitter is replacing SnappyTV with, has limited functionality). 

You should ask these three questions as you search for your new solution.

What kind of streams does this tool support? 

Depending on your organization’s needs, you might use either RTMP or HLS streams, or both. However, Twitter LiveCut doesn’t support HLS streams—it only supports RTMP streams. 

When doing your research, ask what streams the product you’re considering supports. Having the option to use multiple types of streams gives you and your team flexibility.

Does this tool have broad native support for CDNs and OVPs?

You might also want to be able to natively export the clips you create to a variety of third-party services, such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and YouTube. Twitter LiveCut does not support natively exporting to any third-party platforms. 

If you need to use OVP, CDN, and MAM services, make sure the tool you’re considering natively integrates with them. That way, you won’t have to resort to manually downloading clips and then uploading them to third-party services.

Does this tool record TV in addition to live video? 

Having recordings of broadcast TV in addition to recordings of your own video feeds can give you more content to use. You can bolster your organization’s social media accounts by creating and posting video clips, GIFs, and screenshots from your own feeds as well as from broadcast TV. 

Make sure that the tool you’re evaluating has a built-in Electronic Program Guide (EPG) to easily schedule recordings of different channels. Closed caption-based search is another powerful feature. It can make finding great content easy. 

For example, say a leader at your organization gets invited as a guest on a news program. A tool that enables you to search through the closed captioning data to find that TV appearance, create a clip of it, and share that clip to your organization’s social media accounts can ultimately lead to more engagement from your followers. 

Looking for a SnappyTV alternative?  With SnapStream, you can ingest HLS and RTMP streams, natively export content to a variety of third-party services, record and search TV, and do a lot more. 

SnapStream Product Demo (watch now)

SnapStream makes live video and broadcast TV social. Our technology lets users instantly capture, create, and share video clips, GIFs, and screenshots to Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, as well as create square and vertical clips for Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok. SnapStream's customers include BuzzFeed, Politico, and the Arizona Coyotes. 

In July 2019, Twitter announced that it would be sunsetting SnappyTV by December 31, 2019, and replacing it with LiveCut, which is now part of its own Media Studio. 

If you’re looking for a SnappyTV replacement for your social media team, SnapStream might fit your needs. We’ve been making TV social since 2015. Here are some of the features our hundreds of customers, including BuzzFeed, Politico, and Talking Points Memo, use to share TV and live video to Twitter, Facebook and a variety of other OVPs and CDNs.

Tweeting and More Direct Social Sharing

Using SnapStream to tweet a moment from ESPN. 

With SnapStream, you can clip a video or create a screenshot or GIF and instantly share it to your Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube accounts—all within one interface. No need to manually download a clip or open a new tab. 

You can customize permission settings to control which users have the ability to share content to your organization’s social media accounts. 

Editing Tools

Using SnapStream to vertically crop a clip to a 9:16 aspect ratio. 

You can vertically crop clips within SnapStream for Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok. You can crop clips to a number of dimensions—square, 9:16, 16:9, and 4:3. 

And regardless of which social media channel you want to push your content to, you can use SnapStream to add watermarks (such as your organization’s logo) and meme text.

TV Search and TV Alerts 

Searching for TV mentions of the term "Microsoft" with SnapStream. 

Need to find an exact moment of TV? SnapStream’s TV Search uses closed captioning text and program guide data for all the TV shows you’ve recorded to instantly find “a needle in a haystack” on broadcast TV. 

SnapStream’s TV Search can comb through your entire library in seconds (even if your recordings go back for years). The advanced language algorithms correct the transcripts and make them more readable. They also identify syntax clues that make your search more reliable and useful. 

You can search for your organization’s name, the name of a public figure, and more. You can also refine your search using boolean and other operators (for example, you can search “White House” or “Oval Office.”) 

If you want to keep track of a particular keyword, such as “Houston Rockets,” you can create a TV Alert and get a notification in your inbox whenever that keyword is mentioned on TV.

Integration with 3rd Party Services

The 3rd party services SnapStream supports. 

With SnapStream, you can get your video files where they need to be by natively exporting them to a variety of cloud services. 

SnapStream has native support for a broad set of cloud storage, OVP, CDN, and MAM services: 

• Box.com 
• Dropbox 
• Google Drive 
• OneDrive
• Google Cloud Storage
• Amazon S3
• Azure Blob Storage
• YouTube 
• Vimeo
• Ooyala 
• Brightcove 
• Sony Ci Media 
• Frame.io

After you push your video files to a cloud service, you can archive them to save storage space within SnapStream.

Workflows

An overview of how SnapStream's Workflows feature works. 

Workflows in SnapStream let you save time by swiftly automating tasks using simple dropdown menus. 

You can configure Workflows to trigger on certain events (such as “Recording Finished” or “Clip Created”) and then take a sequence of actions, such as moving or copying a file, or exporting a file to a third party cloud storage provider. 

SnapStream Product Demo (watch now)

SnapStream makes TV social. Our technology lets users instantly capture, create, and share HD quality video clips, GIFs, and screenshots to Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, as well as create square and vertical clips for Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok. SnapStream's customers include BuzzFeed, Politico, and CNN.

If you're not following The Maury Show on Twitter, you're missing out on some quality entertainment. The show has been around since 1991, and just aired it's 3,000th episode. The success of The Maury Show isn't waning anytime soon as they continue to make strides via social media and fan engagement. 

Paul Faulhaber is the executive producer of The Maury Show and realizes the importance of social media in the daytime television landscape.  He decided to bring in Snapstream as a tool for the digital producers, Eric Hanson and Kristin Scheele, to grow the social media presence of The Maury Show.

Kristin and Eric spoke with us about how The Maury Show is harnessing the passion of their fans to deliver real-time engagement

Q: Can you tell me a little about your role at NBCUniversal?

Kristin: I am a field producer and one of the digital producers. Eric is the head person and I help him create original content for our different social platforms. I do a lot of behind the scenes shooting during tape days and create original content with that. I also helping with the daily social posts, whether it's grabbing funny moments off of SnapStream and posting them or creating GIFs, memes, things like that.

Eric: My role is to take the content from the show and bring it to the second and third screen. Taking what the viewers experience in live TV and putting it on social. Allowing the viewers another way to experience the show.

"My role is to take the content from the show and bring it to the second and third screen... Allowing the viewers another way to experience the show." 

- Eric, Producer, The Maury Show

Q: How did SnapStream get implemented at The Maury Show?

Eric: Paul Faulhaber, the Executive Producer of Maury, was instrumental in incorporating SnapStream into the show.  Paul gets social media and the value it adds to our show.  When he first introduced us to SnapStream we were sold.

Kristin: Paul was so excited about Snapstream, it was contagious.  We were fired up and couldn’t wait to incorporate it into our workflow.

Q: What does your social workflow look like?

Eric: We're kind of like a big "think tank". We throw out ideas, between the whole staff. We actively encourage everyone from the producers to the interns and the office managers to help us come up with ideas on what to post. But ultimately, I decide with our Executive Producer, Paul Faulhaber, how and when we'll encorporate that into our platform.

Q: How does SnapStream fit into this workflow?

Kristin: Over the summer, every day we would do a live chat on Twitter which we used SnapStream for. We would pull stills from the show, creating GIFs, using the live Twitter feed. 

Does Jay look like a liar? #MaurysOn pic.Twitter.com/9HvCg56AiF

— The Maury Show (@TheMAURYShow) April 25, 2016

SnapStream is a valuable tool for us. We have three other shows in Stamford (where we're located) and they can't wait to start using it as well. We (The Maury Show) has been used a guinea pig, but it's gone so well.

Q: What other aspects/features of SnapStream do you find the most useful for Maury?

Kristin: One of the other major things that we do is put clips directly onto our Facebook page from SnapStream. It's great that SnapStream includes the closed captioning, native in the video. 

We also have an agreement with Amazon Fire, so we upload clips from SnapStream into YouTube, and that aggregates directly to our Amazon Fire account.

Eric: SnapStream has been really wonderful because we incorporate anything we want to use in our social workflow. It also allows us to stay really engaged with our fans. Content is king, and our viewers want new content, fresh content. We may be airing back episodes, but we can still create fresh social content with those episodes. 

Kristin: The search function has really been helpful. We're starting "Out of Control Teen Tuesday" this week. Now that we have a backlog of Maury shows built up in the SnapStream library, we can go in there and do a search for "out of control teens". We can see every show that we've done that includes that search term and post it directly to our social media platforms. 

We have a lot of moving parts here, and everyone is so busy. So instead of having to ask other producers or managers to go search for a clip, we can just do a quick search in SnapStream, grab it and share it. 

Eric: Another thing that we do with SnapStream is grab stills from the platform and use them in our weekly "caption this" contest. 

Q: What was the workflow like before you had SnapStream?

Eric: It was very cumbersome. We'd have to have someone go to the editing bay, mark clips, have them pulled. Then we wait 24-48 hours to have someone pull them, mark them and send them to us. 

Now, as I watch the show, I'm pulling and archiving clips, deciding when and where I can use them. A lot of people are incredibly thankful for SnapStream, because it makes our jobs so much easier.

"We were able to go into SnapStream to find all the clips of Searcy and pull those. We can continue the conversation, adding more content to fuel the fire."

- Eric, Producer, The Maury Show

Q: Can you think of any particular posting or episode where SnapStream was instrumental?

Eric: We just celebrated our 3,000th episode, so we played a lot of Maury's favorite episodes and guests through the years. We would pull those directly from SnapStream and share via social. 

A lot of times when something goes viral, it's not always because of us. For instance, a reddit user said one of our guests looked like Ted Cruz. So, we were able to go into SnapStream to find all the clips of Searcy and pull those. We can continue the conversation, adding more content to fuel the fire. 

Kristin: We love seeing how creative people can be with our clips.

Eric: Since we've introduced SnapStream into our platforms, it's really revitalized our social presence. It really makes us stand out in comparison to other shows. We have this immediacy that sometimes other shows lack.

It's nice to have a library, or an archive of our shows. Sometimes something will go viral that we didn't even think about. A lot of times,  you just don't know what is going to hit. Now we can go back in and add that extra content to the conversation, engaging with our followers and our fans. 

"Since we've introduced SnapStream into our platforms, it's really revitalized our social presence. It really makes us stand out in comparison to other shows."

Government agencies have a unique challenge managing their presence on social media. It's not easy to balance a trustworthy and informative presence with a human voice - and maybe some occasional fun. Check out how these government agencies are keeping their audiences informed and engaged with the power of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Twitter

NASA (@NASA)

It's one of the most followed government accounts with over 8 million followers. NASA does a great job of interacting with fans, and are a continuous example of how a government social media account should be handled. NASA has helped a new era of citizens stay engaged and interested in space exploration via social media.

Explore the Asteroid Redirect Mission & preparations for next @Space_Station crew launch on This Week @ NASA. Watch: pic.twitter.com/2P1yEqMfxQ

— NASA (@NASA) September 16, 2016

PIO Mike Jachles (@BSO_Mike)

Mike Jachles serves as the primary PIO for the Department of Fire Rescue and Emergency Services within the Broward County Sheriff’s Office in Florida. Citizens should keep a close eye on his twitter feed for updates to breaking news stories and heartwarming animal rescues.

#animalrescue @BrowardSheriff #FireRescue saves #cat from house #fire 1300 blk SW50Av #media @peta pic.twitter.com/KuFU3rsJua

— PIO Mike Jachles (@BSO_Mike) September 19, 2016

City of Las Vegas (@CityOfLasVegas)

They're continuously sharing up-to-date information on city events, hosting Twitter chats, and live-tweeting major events. They stay engaged with the residents by encouraging feedback and responding to comments. They're keeping their audience informed and simultaneously telling an amazing story about their city. (We also think their GIF game is super strong! 💪) 

@seosmh @longislandtonv Yes! We already have some biking paths that go from one end of town to the other.

— City of Las Vegas (@CityOfLasVegas) September 13, 2016

Instagram

U.S. Department of the Interior (@usinterior)

No one shows off the beauty and diversity of America quite like the Department of the Interior. And there's no better place to do it than on Instagram. Don't let the name fool you, prepare youself for truly beautiful landscapes and the thing the internet loves the most... adorable baby animals. 

 

A photo posted by U.S. Department of the Interior (@usinterior) on Sep 12, 2016 at 8:28am PDT

 

A photo posted by U.S. Department of the Interior (@usinterior) on Feb 4, 2016 at 11:43am PST

NASA (@NASA)

Yes, we've included NASA twice. They do such an amazing job that when recounting the best government agencies on social media, it's hard not keep coming back to NASA. Instagram is the perfect way for the agency to share the beauty of space with an entirely new generation of Americans.

 

A photo posted by NASA (@nasa) on Jul 10, 2015 at 10:07am PDT

TSA (@TSA)

Before you go rolling your eyes as you remember your last encounter with TSA... get a new look at this government organization through the lense of Instagram. Both entertaining and informative, they regularly post tips and tricks (#TSATravelTips), as well as bizzare and interesting finds (#TSAGoodCatch).

 

A photo posted by TSA (@tsa) on Jun 3, 2015 at 3:32pm PDT

 
Facebook

FEMA (@FEMA)

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Started in 2005 as a print publication, The Washington Examiner is today one of our most active social customers. They're dedicated to engaging readers by bringing them the latest in breaking news and politics.  

One of the driving forces behind this engagement is Sean Langille (fun fact about Sean, he started writing for his city newspaper when he was in 2nd grade). He was nice enough to chat with us about best practices for social engagement and what life was like before SnapStream.

Q: Can you tell me a little bit about your role at the Washington Examiner?

Sean: I have the title of Digital Engagement Editor, so I work a lot with social media and different ways to digitally market our product. But I also work with vendors to find ways that we can enhance our product. Part of my job is helping to drive digital strategy in Facebook and Twitter and our multi-media content, working with interns to help curate that content.

Q: What is your thought-process behind portraying a visual strategy?

Sean: When we tell a story we try to move beyond just using the text. It’s about using infographics, photos and videos. For instance, just now I was using SnapStream to clip the president saying that Donald Trump was “unfit and woefully unprepared”. We understand that people are going to read text, but we have to offer our audience infographics, imagery and video elements. If they can click through and watch a video of Obama saying the quote, then it provides a much stronger presentation.

"When we tell a story we try to move beyond just using the text. It’s about using infographics, photos and videos".

Q: Can you tell me how you and your team are using SnapStream? How do you find that it is most effective?

Sean: The way it usually works is that we have interns help us use SnapStream. Usually myself and the other digital editor will  watch videos and speeches and we’ll call out to the interns and say “hey, Obama said this…”. When we’re at the conventions and there are speakers, we’ll all be monitoring it. We actually have a dedicated "Slack" channel that is actually called “SnapStream”, and we can post in there “hey, so-and-so said this, who can grab it?”. The interns cut that up, and then I go through that in the library and further fine-tune it. From there, we put it out to Twitter or Facebook, using "ShowSqueeze" to put it out to Facebook.

We use a social distribution platform called “SocialFlow”, so sometimes we’ll do a combination of directly publishing from SnapStream or sometimes we’ll put it directly into SocialFlow to best optimize when that video should go out. We’d love to see an option to recycle from within SnapStream (UPDATE! This functionality is now available in SnapStream 7.2). For instance, we had one yesterday… Pat Smith was on CNN and we tweeted it out and got 300+ retweets with just that video. We know that kind of content is popular with our audience so it would be great if we had a way to re-package that.

"Now that we have SnapStream, within minutes or seconds of someone saying something newsworthy, we can get that out and be ahead of our competition".

Sean: Prior to SnapStream, during a debate or big event night, we would know when these videos happen so we’d be clipping off of some live stream, literally screen grabbing and then getting it to our video team and then have to wait for editing to push that out.

Now that we have SnapStream, within minutes or seconds of someone saying something newsworthy, we can get that out and be ahead of our competition. If we’re the first one to it, then it takes off. It’s something as simple as Trey Gowdy on "Meet the Press" saying “I endorse Donald Trump”, we take that phrase, put it out there and we’re one of the first. With the amount of social engagement it can drive… I don’t think we could live without it.

Q: Can you tell me about the team workflow?

Sean: Myself and my digital editor will tell the interns about someone being on tv, or a speech, or event. We’ll have interns monitoring these events, and we’ll notice certain soundbites, telling them to pay attention to when a particular person speaks, or to look out for certain terms. What we usually have them do is pay attention to the newsmakers or the broader bites. But with their own initiative, they’re able to look at more content and ask us what we think of additional items. 

Sometimes it’s not about what is being said, but physical reactions. People make weird faces, or we’ll catch interesting things like when CSPAN flashed WikiLeaks during Hillary Clinton’s speech. So we’re able to go back into these clips and create GIFs to capture these interesting little moments… like when we captured Hillary Clinton’s weird reaction to fireworks. 

Q: How do you manage the timing of social posts? Social happens in an instant, how do you make sure that you’re heard?

Sean: It’s about staying in time, but sometimes offering a little bit different. Can we capture the side that no one else is looking at, getting the contrarian viewpoint. Showing the different sides of the story and not just the one that is popular.

Q: How are you using this for conventions?

Sean: We have setup VPNs, so that people can log into SnapStream wherever they are. This is what we did at the conventions. Overall, things were functioning well and we were able to log in and clip things, as well as coordinate with the interns back in DC.

Q: So, you being away from the office isn’t constricting your ability to post videos and GIFs on Twitter and Facebook?

Sean: No, not at all.

"We’re using SnapStream to transform the way we do social".

Q: How are you framing the conversation, how are you getting the best reactions?

Sean: It’s about keeping track of what everyone else is doing. We use a lot of listening tools to see what the competition is doing. But we’re trying to advance the story. There is the story of Trump fighting with the Kahn family, as compared to the woman who lost her son in Benghazi speaking at the Republican National Convention. We wanted to see what the reaction was to the media coverage of both, and we were one of the few that was using SnapStream to put those videos out there. It’s about being aware of the storyline that everyone else is doing, but what are the other emerging storylines coming out of this.

Sometimes it’s about going beyond the other clips that everyone else is putting out. We want to be thought of as a place where you know you can go to get a good snapshot of what was said at the conventions. Essentially, you have a highlight reel of what everyone said. If you look through our Twitter stream and what we did on Facebook during the convention, we put out 100’s of SnapStream videos, using it as a tool for engagement. 

Q: Why is this something that you are passionate about, where did this need to “show both sides” come from?

Sean: I have always been of the mindset that everyone else is covering it the same way, let’s advance the story and see what the other voices are. There are so many voices saying the same thing that in order to differentiate yourself, you have to find ways and find the content that will balance that out. But also, there are stories that will get buried because people are so wrapped up talking about one thing. 

What I’m most passionate about is telling the story well. You have to have all the elements to do that, whether it’s infographics, video… because news now isn’t just text. When you click on a news story, what’s going to keep you on the page the longest? We want to establish ourselves as an authority for a certain kind of content. So that if you want this kind of content, we are where you go. 

Q: Thank you so much for speaking with me Sean, is there anything else you wanted to add or talk about before we wrap up?

Sean: We’re using SnapStream to transform the way we do social. We’re trying to reach a society that’s a little bit ADD, and entice them to actually read a news story. I think the larger story is how news outlets are using every tool at their disposal, especially SnapStream, to make sure that news as a written medium doesn’t die.

About Sean Langille

Sean Langille is Digital Engagement Editor for the Washington Examiner. He also serves as an associate producer for Fox News Channel, where he aided in the launch of the Fox News First daily political email newsletter. Sean also has an extensive radio background having produced "The Laura Ingraham Show" and working as an on-air host in Virginia and Massachusetts.