As news organizations face increased financial pressure, it’s become a mantra to be more “data driven” in business operations. But making good data-driven decisions depends upon getting good data. Social video presents one of those strategic challenges.

Since the emergence of social video, news organizations have struggled to decide how to prioritize and allocate their most precious resource: staff time. Is it worth the time to have anchors, reporters and digital teams create and publish these social videos? If so, to which of the myriad platforms? And for what purpose? Are these branding strategies, for audience development or for driving traffic?

Chartbeat has supported newsrooms with digital data insights for years, but tracking social video performance was hard. Its acquisition of Tubular offers a new level of data detail to help newsrooms prioritize when, where and how when it comes to social video. Jill Nicholson, chief marketing officer for Chartbeat, shared some of the key findings from these datasets with members of the LMA Digital Club. The research offers valuable insights for any local newsroom trying to make strategic decisions about investing in social video.

The headline is: While social referrals to news sites might be declining, social video is thriving.

“Consumption of social video is growing twice as fast as social referrals are declining,” noted Nicholson. The platforms where video consumption is increasing — YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, for instance — “are not inherently link-sharing platforms” the way Facebook has been, said Nicholson.

Yet the growth in video consumption on these platforms is significant. In the past year, media and entertainment creator views on YouTube rose globally by 118%, from only a 5% increase in uploads. “Demand is growing faster than the content is being added,” noted Nicholson, who observed that “YouTube is fast becoming the new ‘linear TV’ of that [younger] generation.”

These video platforms are also increasingly relied on for news. Nicholson noted that TikTok users under age 25 say the platform is their primary source for news.

These data trends create opportunities for local news organizations, as well as hazards.

“An approach of ‘just post it everywhere’ is not worth the time,” said Nicholson, because users are platform-specific and demanding in their expectations.

Nicholson called out three areas of opportunity for local media outlets, supported by data from Tubular.

First, identify and fill “content gaps” where there’s a mismatch between audience demand and video uploads — a gap where a news organization has a right to win on content. Nicholson gave an example from TikTok, noting an undersupply of health, fitness and parenting content on the platform relative to the interest in those topics.

Second, invest in long-tail “evergreen” content. These are videos that might not initially get a spike in views. The typical news story might hit its peak reach in its first 24-36 hours, said Nicolson, whereas these evergreen videos might take seven days or more to peak, but because they are evergreen they can have a long life and be shared repeatedly over a longer time horizon.

Third, Nicholson pointed to the shift by these platforms to accept longer-form video as an opportunity for local publishers. Gone is the era where social video is only short-form or “snackable.” Nicholson shared data showing that longer-form videos are resulting in longer engagement from users across platforms.

All of which still begs the question: Is it worth a newsroom’s time to invest in creating these videos and posting to these platforms? That depends upon the video, the platform and the goal.

None of these platforms is optimal for link-sharing or traffic driving. For those such as broadcasters who create lots of video, Nicholson said YouTube was a natural fit because of its direct monetization options. But she also argued there were good strategic reasons to invest in other social video platforms as an audience development strategy. After all, she noted, these are the next generations of news consumers and it’s important to develop those relationships with our brands.

Nicholson gave the example of NPR’s Tiny Desk concert series, and how that specific “channel” has enabled NPR to develop a relationship with a significantly younger audience than its traditional news formats reach.

Is social video worth the time? The answer will depend on a news organization’s staffing, its capabilities around video creation, its audience goals and its business model. But the data is clear that these platforms are, increasingly, a destination for news for current and future generations of news consumers.