This Friday, 20th November 2015, Twitter will be retiring the share count figure on their buttons along with the associated API used to retrieve it. This means after Friday it will not be easy to see the number of times an article has been shared on Twitter. We know many of our users value this count, so we have been working on a new way of calculating and providing the number of Twitter shares.

Introducing the BuzzSumo Chrome Extension

We suspect many people will not be aware of the change and come Monday there may be many asking “where do I find my Twitter share count?” or “how can I see how many people shared my post on Twitter?”.

In order to assist we have developed a BuzzSumo Chrome extension that people can install which will show the share data, including the number of Twitter sharers, for any web page. You can download and install the extension here.

Are Twitter Shares Important?

We believe that Twitter shares, like other social shares, are important. If a thousand people have shared an article it indicates that the article has more value and relevance than an article that has been shared by say just five people.

We accept that Twitter share counts can be inflated by bots and by multiple sharing. There is also no guarantee that someone sharing a post has actually read it. That said we still believe there is value in having Twitter share counts as they are one indicator of social proof and value. They can be combined with other data to provide a more comprehensive view but social shares are an important element within any assessment.

This is a view shared by Facebook. The Facebook News Feed uses likes and shares as part of their algorithm to determine relevant content. According to Will Cathcart, Facebook News Feed Director, the ‘most powerful determinants of whether a post is shown in the feed’ include:

•      How popular (Liked, commented on, shared, clicked) the post creator’s past posts are
•      How popular the current post is with everyone who has already seen it

The Retiring Twitter Share Count Was Not Perfect

Whilst we are sad to see it retired, we accept the previous Twitter share count was not perfect. There were some issues of accuracy that have been acknowledged by Twitter. It appears that links were not always resolved back to the canonical url which meant not all shares were counted or rather they were not added together for an article.

Twitter have also outlined some the technical issues with maintaining the share count API in their article here.

Calculating Twitter Share Counts In Future

From 20th November there will no longer be an easy way to access share count data. It is possible to buy data from Gnip (Twitter’s data arm) using their 30 day feed, and consume a stream of tweets, but a lot of work is still required to filter and calculate the number of shares for articles. 

We now purchase Gnip data and run filters on this data to identify content shares and sharers. We are using this share data, combined with data from other sources, to update our current database of Twitter shares. This enables us to provide an ongoing count of Twitter shares for articles. For our Pro customers we will also provide details on the Twitter sharers. The good news is that our new approach has improved and enhanced our sharer data.

Due to the costs of collecting Twitter share counts, both in time and data fees, we are restricting the frequency of our updates. Our data shows that the majority of Twitter shares take place in the first three days after publication. Thus we will regularly update Twitter share counts during this period. After this period we will only update the Twitter share counts periodically. This means after the first three days of publication, our count may understate shares between updates. We are still working on the frequency of updates which will depend upon the popularity of the article on Twitter i.e. we will update popular articles with lots of shares more frequently.

For those domains that would like their Twitter share counts to be updated constantly, we can provide this service for a monthly fee that will cover buying, processing and storing the data from Gnip. For further information please contact us at help@buzzsumo.com.

Download the BuzzSumo extension here.

What content is engaging people in your industry right now? Trending stories reveal what matters to your audience. Trending content is content that drives engagement, passion, shares and comments. When content trends and stories break, you need to be part of the conversation and share your own passion and insights as early as possible. Last to the trending party? You may as well not show up.

Trending content is a feature of every industry. Gaining insights into trending content is a challenge but being the first to know what is engaging your audience and what stories are about to trend gives you a major competitive edge. By knowing what content and stories matter right now to your audience  – or are about to matter – you can create a deeper level of engagement. You can be the first to share viral content, the first to comment and share viewpoints, to create content quickly around the stories that matter most to your audience. In short, you build credibility.

We look at how you can create a competitive edge with the new BuzzSumo Trending content tool.

Introducing BuzzSumo Trending

To stay on top of trending stories in your industry you may currently use a mix of tools such as news readers, Twitter lists, LinkedIn groups, RSS feeds or Facebook feeds. Now with BuzzSumo Trending you can monitor the content and articles that are trending in any topic across all social networks in a single feed.

You can view today’s trending content for all topics and for major categories such as News, Sports, Technology and Entertainment. You can also see today’s trending videos. You can sort content by trending (the velocity of shares) or the most shared stories today.

Find Trending Stories and Act Before Your Competitors

With BuzzSumo Trending’s advanced filters you can also filter by time: For example, you can see the content published in the last two hours or four hours that is already trending. Once you have identified the content that is resonating you can share or create and publish your own content around the topic such as a viewpoint or different angle.

We have already seen great case studies where people using this feature are increasing their shares and retweets. We are also seeing examples of companies jumping on a trending topic and creating content that goes viral.

Create Custom Trending Feeds For Any Topic

With BuzzSumo Trending you can create a custom feed for your own topics such as your sports team, favorite brands, interests or major events. Trending allows you to monitor and curate trending stories in any area. So you can be the first to know, to share and to act.

BuzzSumo’s  Advanced Trending Package provides multiple custom feeds. So you can create multiple feeds for topics you are monitoring from fashion to sports. You can also set up feeds for clients and their brands. See examples of custom trending dashboards for:

• Apple and Apple Products
• Star Wars
• UK General Election
• Start-ups
• Marketing

You can share your custom trending dashboards with colleagues, relevant groups and clients. Or make them publicly available via your site or on social media.

Create Custom Feeds For Website Domains

You can also create custom dashboards to track trending content on a specific website or group of websites. So if you want to track a group of fashion websites or a specific set of newspapers just type in their urls and create a custom feed.

In this way you can now monitor what is working for your competitors in real time. If there is nothing trending today you can still use BuzzSumo’s top content search to see their most shared content for any competitor domain over the last year, six months, week or any specific period.

Create RSS Feeds

Another of BuzzSumo Trending’s advanced features is the ability to create RSS feeds for any feeds including your custom feeds. Thus you can use tools such as Feedly, IFTTT or Flipboard to monitor trending content.

Summary

Knowledge is power, especially when it comes to Trending stories and content. It’s a race to get to the source of power first. Tracking, curating, sharing and acting on trending content gives you the competitive edge. You can create a deeper level of engagement by understanding what content and stories matter to your audience right now.

Try BuzzSumo Trending

Sign up to attend our webinar on Wednesday April 29th, at 11am New York/4pm London where we will run through the key features of BuzzSumo Trending. Register here https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5768301148628875009