New research from Takumi on US, UK + German users found that a quarter of consumers are more likely to source news updates from influencers over journalists + established news outlets.

Journalists need to be influencers too - on YT, IG and TikTok. Not just here. That's my take.

Influencing takes a huge amount of time - all the personal content creation I do is outside of my job. The number of people who duetted my debunker on the TikTok ban on the app last week shows there's a lack of impartial news on there & we are wanted!!!

There are tonnes of journalists my age who do great Instagram promo of their work. They're all women. That's not a coincidence and linked to this piece I post every year by @alanalevinson. https://medium.com/matter/the-pink-ghetto-of-social-media-39bf7f2fdbe1

Are you in the comments sections of your articles and videos? Are you even making videos? Are you posting and using seeding to share on other platforms like Reddit, IG, TikTok? Are you just on here the whole time? What is the point?

And yes you do have to do all this while maintaining the editorial guidelines of your employer even if you're doing it in a personal capacity. And that's why journalists need to be in this space - because you have that training! Influencers don't. Show them how it's done.

ages ago @CharlieBeckett told me about how journalists should consider joining the passion economy where influencers already exist. I'd never heard of that phrase before but it really chimed with me