Newscred study

Looking for the best times and content types to post to social media can be a time-consuming activity for any company. There are several articles out there with their own opinions that can really help. In addition, there is now an incredible new study by NewsCred on these questions. It shows concrete examples of excellent sharing times and the content that can help bring in more clicks, traffic, social shares, and revenue. I am going to sum up this study just for you to help you learn all that you need to and also give some points to help you apply this study to your own social strategy. What is NewsCred’s Social Media Study All About? NewsCred decided to team up with two different companies to create a study to see what type of content was shared most, and when. This was a way to not only help the companies come up with great content ideas and when to post them, but to also help other companies figure out how to change their content for maximum results. They looked at Fractl and BuzzStream’s social content over the months of June through November 2014. By looking through all of the data, NewsCred, Fractl, and BuzzStream were able to see the most successful content formats and what months were the best for different formats. I am going to look into their findings and help you learn different ways to share you content and get the most out of your social media campaign.  What Types of Content Get Shared Most? Some of the more popular content formats for Fractl and BuzzStream were list posts and how-to articles. They also saw significant success with videos for their clients, as well. However, the type of content and its success varied from month to month. Posts that focused on a “what” instead of a list, how-to, or why tended to not be as popular until October. While this might not seem like it shows much, it does show that you need to make sure you are mixing up your content formats to match each month and get more traction. It can be easy to get settled into one format such as a list, but that can become detrimental if you don’t mix it up with how-to articles or explanation posts about products, services, and more. However, this does show that if you are not focusing on sharing lists or how-to articles, you should make some changes. These are great because they offer value to all readers, and it is easier to read through a list and share if the person is busy or on a commute. NewsCred also notes that evergreen content did the best because it was a theme that remained constant and offered value to readers no matter the month or year. Evergreen content is a great idea for all business blogs because it can be just as valuable years from now as it was on the day it was posted. It will help your search engine rankings and will bring in high traffic for your website throughout the coming months and years.  What Months Should You Post Certain Content to Social Media? Learning the best times to post to social media can be helpful but sometimes you might be wondering if certain content does better on certain months. This is what NewsCred looks at and shows the variations of content and the months that did the best. Let me break down their findings to help you learn a few great tidbits of information: (Note that the months are listed from most successful first.) Fractl and BuzzStream saw that list posts did very well in June, September, and October. They saw that posts referring to travel or entertainment were shared most, accounting for 25 to 32 percent of social shares. Posts that answer a “why” question were shared more during November, September, and October with 22 percent of the shared posts referring to travel or news. Videos did great in September, November, and October, especially those with an entertainment or educational factor. How-to posts were most often shared in October, November, and August with how-to articles in news, entertainment, and business getting the most shares. Posts answering a “what” question were shared October, November, and August with posts that focused on news, technology, and entertainment accounting for 15 to 26 percent of social shares. The findings show that October was a very popular month for all social shares with everything but videos ranking in at over 20,000 shares. While this is incredible and a great insight into consumers’ minds, you should make sure that you don’t limit yourself to these findings. You don’t want to keep all of your marketing for fall, nor do you want to ignore certain months entirely. This formula and these findings might not work for your business, which means you need to tweak and change things to find months that are perfect for different content types and social shares. However, this is a great starting point.  Which Platforms are the Best for Social Media Use?  While the NewsCred article does not go on to explain the social platforms you should use, I have found an excellent infographic from QuickSprout. Social media is an interesting marketing format because there are many different variables to consider with each of the major channels. The best social channels to use for businesses that have a B2B model are Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google Plus. These provide you with a quicker access point to your customers and other businesses, helping them find you and choose your business for their needs. If your business is more visually driven, channels such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest are a great option. You can share pictures of your products with links to blogs, products, or services. You will have a higher likelihood of getting things shared on those channels if you utilize images or videos, providing excellent visual content for your clients. However, it is important to … Read more