Although each of these platforms are great and help CNN with producing and spreading news effectively, they each excel in their categories of effectiveness. With X being the first one because of their massive follower base and Facebook being the second because it being their main platform, these two are the best at reaching an audience. YouTube is great for the demographic of people who like longer watch times. TikTok dominates in reaching the younger audience and trends and for visuals/photographic/cinematic posts, Instagram is great. If we were to look at the best performing one, it would be X because it's platform is able to accomplish all the other tasks that the other platforms provide.

Long Lasting Accounts or Short Lived?

Without a doubt, CNN is great at maintaining their platforms. Although responding to comments and DMs is difficult on a global scale, they make up for that in their ability to maintain their posting pace and keep fresh news coming in rapidly.  They have consistent daily posts across all platforms and work well in crisis handling. One great example of this was in 2024 when TikTok accounts were being targeted, TikTok and CNN worked together to spread awareness and work on restoring access. (Reuters 2024).

How Good is CNN at Engagement?

Because CNN is a massive organization, they are very well equipped to handle news coverage. Below are a couple examples of how they continue to engage with the audience while continuing to produce news coverage.

• Employees that explain as they travel. Their videos on YouTube and Instagram have reporters that break down news for audiences to digest and keep up with complex stories no matter where or when in the world.
• Personalized on-screen text. Specifically on Reels and TikTok, users will see that their videos have on screen texts that aren't just casual boring copy and pasted titles/captions. They put time and effort into their news content and the user can easily tell that it isn't just generated.
• Community. CNN knows what audience they want to reach and how to reach them. They use data analytics to tailor their content accordingly. For example, on TikTok, the main audience tends to be on the younger side so they'll personalize their content to be more appealing to the audience, vice versa with Facebook, a platform with a demographic of older individuals. photo credit: community

Produsers

Social Media Unique Checklist

• Choice: CNN publishes everywhere. Audiences can choose what form of content they want to consume and what platform they prefer since CNN is practically everywhere.
• Conversation: Threads, Comments, X, Replies. These all have constant back and forth feedback whether from the audience or CNN themselves. There is always real time conversation on a topic.
• Curation: CNN offers packages to deepen the users experience. They have playlists and also packages that allow more personal use/research for those who like long reads.
• Collaboration: It is very easy for them to get a collaboration because of their reputable platform. They have special guests, travel explainers, content creators and even audiences. They all help with spreading content and awareness.

Conclusion

I believe that CNN is a great competitor in the realm of news & coverage but also the social/digital media industry. However, I don't think they are the best. Since it's launch, they were arguably the best organization when it came to 24-hour news. Nowadays, that is the bare minimum and it's hard to keep that legacy without social media presence. Now, they do operate on every major platform which I think is a great move. Here are my thoughts on it's strengths and weaknesses using the SWOT model.

Strengths:

• Massive Multi Platform Reach: They have millions of followers on every major platform.
• High Posting Frequency: CNN posts dozens of times per day on these platforms and is even better at it during breaking news days.
• Strong Coverage and Storytelling: They simplify complex topics to make content digestible (especially for the younger audience).
• Credibility and Global Recognition: Over the years, they have built credibility based on their ability to push out credible information. Their reputation is unmatched against growing competition.

Weaknesses:

• Over-Reliance on Breaking News: Although this approach is great for breaking news, not all news is "breaking." This can get repetitive and make audiences choose a different source when it comes to basic news.
• Bad Response Rates: Unfortunately, it is very difficult to reply to an audience on a global scale. Because they are such a big organization, they can't respond to everyone.
• Tone: This is both bad and good but mainly bad. Their tone on each platform is different because they tend to tailor towards the age of the audience using the platform.

Opportunities:

Usage of AI to personalize their content further: I think AI is a great tool for this and before pushing out content, they can use AI to see if there are any suggestions to tailor their content since AI is very effective at this when paired with usage of analytics.

More Collaborations!: Especially with more content creators. I think nowadays, Gen Z trusts personalities more than institutions. If CNN were to start collaborations with more content creators, this could be great at reaching the younger audience.

Threats:

Declining Trust in Mainstream Media: Audiences have started to depend more on independent creators because they are more transparent. CNN has to continue being transparent to avoid accusations of being bias and keep their audience.

Deepfakes: Unfortunately, as helpful AI is, it's also detrimental to society when used wrong. Newer AI has grown tremendously and has gotten really good at making fake videos and spreading fake news.

Information Overload: There are tons of news outlets. From independent creators, collaborators and giant mainstream corporations, this surplus of information can lead to CNN being drowned out.

Personal Opinion