Yasmina Al-Gannabi
audience development manager Deutsche Welle
Sebastian Katthover
head of audience development Deutsche Welle
Erika Marzano
audience development manager Deutsche Welle
TikTok is probably the biggest social media success story of the last few years, especially among young users. Few platforms have had the immediate impact that TikTok has among the Gen Z audience; they’ve taken to TikTok to be entertained, to interact with each other and to get the news.
In a clear pattern, other platforms have tried implementing TikTok features that make it so unique. One of these is Instagram. The Instagram Reels feature, launched in the summer of 2021, capitalizes on short videos that users can create and accompany with music, sound effects and a variety of filters. Sounds familiar? It does to publishers too.
But how does Instagram Reels compare with TikTok and does Instagram succeed in making the copy more successful than the original, as it did with Stories?
In this panel, Deutsche Welle Audience Development team members thoroughly compare TikTok and Instagram Reels with each other and reveal how their newsrooms (DW Espanol and DW Euromaxx on Instagram and DW Berlin Fresh and Deutsch Lernen) manage to attract the eyes of under-25s, looking at data from accounts with a strategy on both TikTok and Instagram Reels with a big focus on what topics are the most successful on each platform and why?
Social media users do not necessarily scroll through their feeds looking for news, however, they stumble upon it while checking other content and connecting with others. The bottom-line is should a publisher produce content that belongs both to TikTok and Instagram Reels? And how to turn a user from a scroller to clicker?
Organised in association with Deutsche Welle.
