CASE STUDY

Facebook Lauds Firstpost in a Global Case Study

About Firstpost

• Firstpost is India’s first and largest digital newsroom. With a strong focus

on politics, sport, business, technology and entertainment, it has now

transformed its image from a niche portal to a more youthful, social,

opinion-led destination, with considerable strength in social and shareable

content

• It reaches more than 10,001,112 lakh+ unique users per month on

desktop and 10,610,114 lakh+ unique users on mobile

Facebook Case Study

• Firstpost, after successfully leveraging Facebook Live as a tool to broadcast

news on its platform during Assembly Elections, is the only Indian news

portal to find an honorable mention in a global case study created

by Facebook on publishers who have found great success with FB Live

Strategy

Assembly Elections Live Coverage

During the counting of votes, Firstpost turned its newsroom, production facility and regional bureau into a ‘television studio’, broadcasting on its website and to Facebook Live from Guwahati, the NCR, Chennai, Trivandrum, Kottayam, and New Jersey

On May 19, Indians in five states cast votes to elect leaders to the legislative assembly

How did Firstpost use Facebook Live during Legislative Assembly Elections

• Through innovative use of technology, Firstpost used FB Live for covering

the legislative assembly elections, live from five states, and thereafter

generating a highest of 158,198 page views during the elections

• For over 5 hours, Firstpost created an impromptu newsroom and decoded

the Assembly Elections 2016 through constructive analysis on Facebook,

as well as on their news portal, thus setting a benchmark

Legislative Assembly Elections DataIn May, Firstpost witnessed maximum views during the elections

• For the first time ever, the home page of Firstpost was a live video feed

that broadcasted election results and analysis

• A week before the election result day, Firstpost decided to explore live

video in a format that was never executed by any Indian digital news

organization. As the counting began on the day from 8 am, Firstpost

brought news and views to its audience live from its make-shift studio

Highlights of the Live Streaming

Outcome

Outcome

Another MilestoneUS Elections Coverage

Live coverage of US Elections

• The news website live streamed the US elections, as well as provided

minute by minute live video coverage, online polls, social media trends

and dynamic updates all throughout Election Day

• The website grossed highest single day uniques of 1.77 million and 4.1

million page views on November 9 and 10, two of the biggest news days of

the year

Live coverage of US Elections

• On their way to the new milestone, Firstpost broke their own previous

record of garnering 1.45 million uniques and 3.4 million page views during

the Rio Olympics 2016 on August 19

• On the two consecutive days of the US elections, Firstpost crossed 40,000

concurrents, which is a feat that has never been achieved before

Video S. No Video views PostEngagement

(Likes and shares)

Audience reached

Minutes viewed

Peak live viewers

Duration

Live 1 (5:00 am) 5022 293 26,178 3041 73 1:02:45

Live 2 (6:00 am) 4627 274 23,832 2167 63 1:00:53

Live 3 (7:09 am) 18,272 541 48,081 6922 159 59:32

Live 4 (8:18 am) 12,324 454 65,447 5,771 148 1:25:19

Live 5 (9:44 am) 55,095 2.2k 1,21,059 29,413 613 1:51:59

Live 6 (11:41 am)

18,961 758 84,122 8,289 491 1:06:23

Facebook LiveTotal number of six videos that ran on the Facebook pageNone of the lives were boosted

Campaign that ran overnightCampaign Name Reach Engagement Website clicks

US Election 2016 Live 38,774 2359 310

Clinton casts her vote 37,808 2224 71

Women don white to support Hillary

21,279 3385 94

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange 15,924 741 87

Bernie Sanders votes in Vermont 3,789 320 59

Trump won 24 electoral votes 33,459 1044 135

Trump surged past 200 votes 25,907 4806 69

Clinton wins New York 52,724 1492 142

Final verdict – Trump 45th US President

1,07,049 67,808 398

Facebook Live

• During November 3 to November 9, 2016 (the time around which the US Election campaign started), we had an average reach of 60, 42,001

• 2-3% of the audience were from the States, mainly New York and California (these are audiences who have been coming back to our page from the past 30 days)

Setting Benchmark One After Another• For consistently setting benchmarks one after another and hitting new

highs with every successful outreach, the news portal was lauded by Facebook in a global case study, for its extensive and successful use of Facebook Live

First Lady- Facebook Live activity with Tisca Chopra which got more than 18K likes

Firstpost Gameplan-

Facebook Live with

Cricketwallah

Setting Benchmark One After Another

Facebook Live with Imtiaz Ali which generated 4.6 K views

Setting Benchmark One After Another

• On a weekly basis Firstpost continues to broadcast 15 FB live sessions on a weekly basis regarding a diverse set of subjects ranging from cricket, football, politics, films to socially trending topics

Thank You