Twitter and Facebook less influential for news

We're constantly hearing how Twitter and Facebook are the keys to driving website traffic, but new figures suggest the vast majority of adults aren't using those tools to keep up to date with news. Highly-paid SEO experts have gone to great lengths to inform humble reporters that a finely-tuned social networking strategy will automatically result in ballooning page views. However, PaidContent reports that only 9 per cent of adults are using the social networks "often" as part of their news consumption routine. The numbers come from the Pew research group, who surveyed 3,000 people and found that 36 per cent of people still pick up the majority of their online news by heading straight to websites or apps. Search engines and aggregators still more popular Beyond that, 32 per cent of digital content viewers often get news by typing keywords into search engines, while 26 per cent prefer to go through a news organising website or app like Google News. The report does say that smartphone and tablet owners are far more likely to use Twitter and Facebook as a primary means of accessing the latest news. However, that number falls for users who rely solely on a laptop or desktop computer. Have the importance of Facebook and Twitter been overstated? Twitter especially has become a vital tool for those looking for up-to-the-minute breaking news, but it's clear that the majority of folks aren't relying on the service for reports.