SBS’s social media offering shares stories, videos and other diverse content that connects Australian audiences to the world of SBS.

SBS’s social media profiles generated 25 million engagements in 2018-19, extending the reach of SBS’s content and raising awareness of the SBS brand and its unique offering with new audiences.

SBS’s social media strategy focuses on audiences’ preferred platforms, providing information about upcoming programming as well as the latest in news and current affairs, also engaging users through creative formats that drive conversation, including Facebook Live streams and polls. SBS’s Instagram offering continues to deliver significant growth year on year for the largest profiles, SBS Australia (up 128 per cent) and SBS Food (up 54 per cent), with the new SBS News profile already reaching audience targets within six months of launch.

SBS’s focus remains engaging Australian audiences, but the network has also started a number of global conversations through social media. In February, SBS live-streamed Eurovision: Australia Decides on Facebook and Twitter, reaching its biggest social media audience ever and giving European viewers the opportunity to watch and get behind the Australian talent ahead of the Eurovision public vote in May. In March, SBS’s livestream of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade ensured hundreds of thousands of people could watch and feel included in the celebrations, regardless of where they were in the world.

Audiences are continuing to come to SBS platforms from social media. In 2018-19, SBS’s social networks drove more than 14 million unique visitors to the SBS website.

While social media brings communities together, in some circumstances it can also become a magnet for hate speech. Immediately following the Christchurch terror attack, some discriminatory comments were posted on SBS’s social media pages. SBS established a 24/7 roster in the days following the attack to keep the largest SBS profiles free from hate speech. SBS Arabic24 also moderated comments to keep pages safe for its online community. SBS’s comprehensive social media moderation response was noted at Senate Estimates in April 2019.