Social media is about community sharing, promoting, and engaging- and of course, a user’s aims differ depending on whether they’re a brand or individual, and which sites they use. Regardless, it’s one of the best ways to publish and share news stories, which Facebook is hoping to capitalize on with its latest resource.

Facebook is not generally known as a tool for world news, with users likely to head to Twitter for breaking current affairs. Now though, the social platform has launched Techwire, a feature that will center around events from the tech industry. Powered by Storyful, a post accuracy verification tool, Techwire will share news to its viewers from key figures on Facebook, alongside embeddable pictures, videos and status updates, which journalists will then be able to utilize. It’s interesting to note though that while Twitter is our go to platform for news, a recent Pew Research study found that a greater number of people receive political news from Facebook rather than Twitter. Perhaps this is to do with Facebook’s larger user base, and also now down to the fact that Facebook has had success with introducing hash tags and Trending Topics. Also, Techwire is an extension of Facebook’s popular feature, Newswire, which was launched earlier this year, although while Newswire features newsworthy social content from all sectors, Techwire is (as the name suggests) focused specifically on tech news.

So how will Techwire help Facebook? According to Pew Research conducted earlier this year, 78% of Facebook news users mostly see news when on Facebook for other reasons. But the introduction of Techwire in accordance with Newswire should make news a go-to destination, especially amongst journalists. And it’s publishers, rather than users, which Facebook is focused on for revenue. The site is already driving around 20 percent of traffic to news sites, and with Techwire, this figure is surely set to increase. Secondly, Facebook simultaneously offered publishers a mobile hosting deal which will see the site hosting articles on its mobile app. Participating publishers will be set to split revenues with the site, and most likely grow their readership from Facebook’s 1.3 billion user base too.

And how are other social platforms becoming greater news sources? While Twitter has always been the frontrunner with its capacity for live-tweeting, immediate updates as news unfolds, brevity and immediacy, others have been playing catch-up. These include Pinterest, which we mentioned in a blog post from last year, was becoming more frequently used as a news platform to appeal to publishers, with the site’s introduction of “rich pins” to include content such as reviews and articles. International publications such as The New York Times, The Guardian, Telegraph and Huffington Post had established successful Pinterest accounts, and at the time, (September 2013), 5 million articles were already being pinned to the site each day. LinkedIn is also hot on the heels of its rivals, especially amongst industry professionals who use the site as a news source. One of its latest updates saw the site add Pulse, a news integration feature, which now delivers customized news depending on the sources and topics users choose.

Do you use social media as a news discovery platform? And which is your favourite site for keeping up to date with world affairs? We’d love to hear your thoughts as always, so please tweet to us @PracticeDigital and share your comments on our Facebook page.