The earliest recorded examples of Fake News go back to the ancient Egyptians in the 13th century (probably something about how they didn’t know who built the pyramids either). The recent interest in Fake News was sparked by the election of Donald Trump in November 2016. Prior to the election there were relatively few articles about Fake News, afterwards, as evidenced by the number of Google searches and social engagement, there was an explosion in articles and in public interest in Fake News.

In this post, we take a look at the articles discussing Fake News, examine whether we could have predicted there would be such overwhelming interest, and set out some key takeaways to consider when looking at content trends.

Background

Immediately after the 2016 US presidential election, Buzzfeed researchers discovered that the top 20 Fake News stories about the election received more social engagement on Facebook than the top 20 news stories from 19 major media outlets.

Fake News quickly became a mainstream term, and a major topic of debate.

The term ‘Fake News’ is used on both sides of the political debate. On the one hand it is used by those who claim Fake News articles helped contribute to Donald Trump’s election victory. Equally it is used by Donald Trump himself, and his supporters, who refer to the ‘Fake News’ mainstream media.

In this post we should make clear we are not looking at examples of Fake News. Instead we are looking at articles about Fake News, such as the growth in Fake News stories or how to identify Fake News or the impact of articles about Fake News.

The Number of Articles Published About Fake News

Using BuzzSumo data we have charted the number of articles published about Fake News for the period January 2015 to May 2018.

From the chart below we can see there were relatively few articles about Fake News being published prior to 8 November 2016 when the US presidential election took place.

In November 2016 we see an explosion in articles. There were over 10,000 articles published about Fake News in November 2016 rising to 19,000 articles in December 2016.

Google Searches for “Fake News”

The increase in Fake News articles appears to coincide with a jump in interest in the topic from November 2016 as measured by the Google search volumes seen below.

Social Engagement with Articles about Fake News

In terms of social engagements (shares, likes and comments) with articles about Fake News we can see a very significant increase in November 2016.

This surge of interest in the concept of ‘Fake News’ from politicians, journalists, regulators and the public has led to over 200,000 articles being published about the topic and these have gained over 79m social engagements so far.

Was It Predictable?

One of the superpowers that all journalists and marketers would love to have is being able to predict popular trends. When we look back at Fake News content, we can see some early signs that it was about to become a major issue. It can be argued that if Trump had not been elected in 2016 there would not have been such an explosion in stories about Fake News, but there were signs that it was about to become a matter of significant interest.

The number of articles in the run up to the election may have been small but they were rising and so was the social engagement, Below we have broken out these articles along with the level of social engagement.

In August there were 238 articles published about Fake News and one article by the Washington Post about Fake News trending on Facebook. It gained over 13,000 social engagements. In September there were 297 articles published about Fake News. The most shared article this month was how Facebook and Twitter were aiming to combat Fake News, this post gained over 21,000 social engagements

By October 2016 the number of articles published about Fake News grew to 442. The level of social engagement was also rising sharply. The top post by CNN on ‘the plague of Fake News’ and ‘how to protect yourself’ gained over 127,000 social engagements.

It would have been difficult to predict the extent of the explosion in articles about fake news in November but as we can see interest in the topic was growing. The number of articles being published was increasing and there was sharp increase in social engagement with those articles.

In December 2016 there were over 19,000 articles published about fake news (remember that’s compared to 238 in August) and some of these gained very high levels of social engagement. The post which received the most engagement was this post by NPR on how to self-check facts, with over 420,000 engagements. There’s no doubt that mainstream news sources covering the topic helped with its virality.

Fake news continues to generate interest and social engagement. In February 2018 the Independent’s coverage of a University of Oxford study showing that Trump supporters share proportionally more fake news stories gained over 120,000 social engagements (many of which were no doubt negative responses from Trump supporters).

See Most Shared Articles About Fake News

6 True Lessons From The Fake News Story

As we said, if we or anyone else could have predicted this explosion, we would probably have written this article last September. It’s difficult to spot emerging trends in content, but here are some takeaways and tips for content marketers and publishers next time there’s a wave forming offshore that you want to ride:

1. Track speed of social engagement: The true story is not just about the volume of articles published on fake news. It’s how quickly the early stories built social engagement. This is a good indicator of how the topic is resonating with the audience. You can use tools like BuzzSumo to track how engagement is increasing. You can track specific networks and track both total and average social engagement.
2. Track the relevant trigger events. Each topic tends to have a trigger event which causes a surge in interest and in articles. In politics these events are typically elections. In the case of topics such as Bitcoin it is the price. Interest in Bitcoin as measured by articles and social engagement closely follows the price of the cryptocurrency as we can see below. After the price of Bitcoin went above $10,000 there were over 160,000 articles published about Bitcoin in December 2017.
3. Monitor mainstream outlets: Time, NPR and Washington Post were all relatively early to publish articles on Fake News. Monitoring articles from key sources filtered by terms like “Fake News” on a daily basis using BuzzSumo or Anders Pink can help you stay on top of trending topics from key publishers.
4. Be the first data researcher: Buzzfeed’s article did very well, not because it was another opinion piece on fake news, but because it was data-driven research on the phenomenon. Original long form research backed with evidence helps you build authority early in a trend’s social lifecycle. It also lays the groundwork for subsequent content with examples and advice.
5. Be helpful and provide advice: The next step after spotting a trend is to be the best answer to these questions: Is this bad? What should I do about it? CNN and NPR’s articles on how to protect yourself was well shared because they’re practical “how to” content. We can see similar patterns in other trends like Bitcoin and AI. Being the best answer to “so what do we do about it?” is a good place to be as trends take hold.
6. Know when you’ve missed it: Our natural tendency when looking at these trends may be to wade in to try and catch the wave. Think twice before putting in the effort. The trend may be past saturation point. For example in the 6 months  Nov 2017 – a full year after the election- to May 2018 over 78,000 articles were published on Fake News. The trend is now in decline from a peak in January, though recent Facebook revelations have given it a second wind. Maybe we have missed the boat with this post but we hope the use of original data and key charts may generate some traction.

Before adding to the slew of articles on this or any other trending topic, you need to ask

• What original viewpoint or angle can I take that will build engagement with my audience on this topic? There may be areas, e.g. Fake News as it relates to your sector, or fresh research (ahem) where you can bring something fresh to the discussion
• Is my audience already saturated on this topic? If so, will yet another article add or detract from my goals in building authority?

In other words: If the trend has already jumped the shark, or everyone’s drowning in content, don’t try and catch the wave…that’s true news, folks.

If you’re sticking with your content approach from three years ago, it’s now 50% less effective. Our review of 100 million articles published in 2017 found that social sharing has halved since 2015. Independent studies have also found a reduction in referrals from Facebook following various newsfeed changes. However, while some sites have lost two thirds of their social referrals, others have dramatically increased social engagement with their content.

Our 2018 Content Trends Report reveals what has happened, and what you can do about it.

You can download the full report here (PDF 3.9Mb).

Below is a summary of the key findings.

The key content trends are as follows:

• Based on a sample of 100 million posts published in 2017, social sharing of content has been cut in half since 2015.
• Social traffic referrals have declined sharply, with Google sites now driving twice as many referrals to publishers.
• Average sharing of content on social networks fell due to increased competition, a rise in private sharing and Facebook algorithm changes.
• The Facebook changes have had a major impact on levels of engagement and the types of content that gets shared. As a result:
  • Brands and publishers are gaining less organic referral traffic from Facebook and less engagement with their Facebook posts.
  • There has been a sharp decline in viral posts that gain hundreds of thousands of shares.
  • Clickbait style headlines and listicles are far less effective at generating social engagement than they were.
• The volume of content published continues to increase, and new topic areas get rapidly saturated with content.
• In this new world of content saturation and falling social shares, the big winners are sites that have built a strong reputation for original, authoritative content.
• The majority of content gets zero backlinks but authoritative research and reference content continues to gain links. In particular, authoritative evergreen content consistently gains shares and links over time.
• There has been a growth in content sharing on LinkedIn and many publishers are seeing steady increases in content engagement on the platform albeit from a relatively small base.
• And finally, no surprise here, there is more sharing of partisan political or tribal content.

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Business to business content (B2B) is often overshadowed by consumer content that gets millions of views and shares. We felt it was time to bring it out of the shadows, to celebrate the best B2B content of 2017 and to learn about engaging business audiences.

Creating business content is complex. It has to satisfy various needs such as raising awareness, driving traffic, generating leads and ultimately converting customers. Content is often aimed at specific niche audiences of buyers and hence it doesn’t get widely shared. However, there are some types of content that engage large business audiences. We have reviewed the most engaging business content published this year and identified 10 key content types that work well to drive B2B engagement.

The too long, didn’t read summary of the top 10 most engaging forms of B2B content:

1. Technology developments. Industries can be destroyed and created by technological change, and quickly. Whether it is online banking, artificial intelligence, driverless cars or big data, business audiences eagerly consume content on technology change in their industry.
2. Future trends. These trends may be related to technology developments but they cover a wider range of trends such as customer engagement, regulation, cultural change and political developments.
3. Opinion or viewpoint posts. There is no shortage of viewpoints about business developments from ethical and moral perspectives to how to grow a business. Controversial or challenging viewpoints frequently provoke engagement. The views of successful business leaders such as Jeff Bezos also gain high engagement
4. Inspirational stories and case studies. Story formats are an increasingly powerful form of business content, particularly data driven stories and inspirational stories.
5. Practical tips and how to posts. Business audiences want to do their job better and actively look for practical content that may help them improve their performance.
6. Personal career advice. Most people want to advance their career and they actively seek out and share good career advice.
7. Research and reference content. Knowledge can become obsolete very quickly, new research findings help business audiences to understand changes. Reference content is closely related to practical and ‘how to’ content, it is helpful and a source of support.
8. Leadership. Aspirational staff aspire to be leaders and good leaders want to improve. There is a thirst for content on leadership from practical tips to case studies and reflections by current and former CEOs.
9. Industry news.  We all have to keep up with the latest developments in our industry and sectors. Thus there is always interest in company news and significant market developments.
10. In vogue topics or brands. Every year and in every industry there are celebrity brands and topics. These are the in vogue topics people actively discuss in meetings and coffee shops – sometimes in a good way, sometimes not. Recent celebrity brands have included Uber, Apple and Tesla. Recent celebrity topics have included big data and artificial intelligence.
11. Bonus Tip: LinkedIn Pulse articles. If you want to gain more attention on LinkedIn, then you need to be publishing on Pulse. Nineteen of the top twenty most shared articles on LinkedIn this year were published on the platform itself.

Some of the most engaging articles combine a number of these elements and emphasise these in their title.

For those interested in exploring the issues in more depth, scroll on down.

1. Technology Developments

Companies that don’t keep pace with technological change are likely to fail. We all know the stories from Kodak to Blackberry to Blockbuster Video. These days your products and services can be rendered obsolete by new technologies from artificial intelligence to smartphones to new communication software such as Slack. And it can happen fast. Thus business audiences are very sensitive to new technology stories and more specifically case studies. Nobody wants to to get Betamaxed.

In this first example from Bloomberg gained over 95,000 engagements. It is a story, a case study and a briefing on technology developments which may change the future of legal services. Lawyers: Maybe cut the Christmas lunch short and read this. Your billing models may need a fresh look in 2018.

This list post ‘10 Breakthrough Technologies 2017‘ from Technology Review also gained over 50,000 social shares and engagements.

2. Future Trends

When we analyzed the top headline phrases on LinkedIn, we found phrases such as ‘the future of’ and words such as ‘trends’ gained above average engagement on LinkedIn. We all want to know the future (or at least what people think the future will look like), in business we want to know so we can prepare and plan. Or say we did at least.

This next post taps into our desire to understand the future. It is a really interesting post because it was not original content but a straight lift of points made by Udo Gollub, CEO of Mercedes in a Facebook post and then posted to LinkedIn. However, the LinkedIn article was then shared more times on Facebook than the original post. It also gained over 40,000 LinkedIn shares. The headline draws the reader in, it has that fear of missing out component ‘must read’, it has an emotional element ‘dramatically’, it also appeals to us directly ‘our lives’. It works well as even through it’s business content, it has a personal appeal  – hence the traction on Facebook as well as LinkedIn.

A more traditional trends post is this next one from Tableau. This post specifically focuses on the top 10 trends in Tableau’s industry namely big data. It also did well on Facebook.

Want to see the most shared trends posts in your industry? In BuzzSumo’s most shared search feature, enter the name of your industry and add the word “trends.”

3. Opinion Content

Everyone’s got an opinion.

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They help to build a tribe around your business and content. This next article was the second most shared article published by the Economist this year. It is partly opinion but also a trends article. In addition to shares this article also gained over 670 links from unique domains. It is a referencable article – they’re far more likely to generate links than trending/of the moment content.

Controversial opinions or opinions that spark debate tend to do particularly well when engaging a business audience. This next article in the New Yorker challenged the concept of the ‘gig’ economy and of excessive working hours. It also uses wry humour in the headline  (though Lyft drivers may fail to see the funny side).

4. Inspirational Case Studies

This next inspirational post was both a story and a case study. It tells the story of Stripe, its growth into a multi-billion dollar company and its latest partnership with Amazon. This post gained over 30,000 shares on LinkedIn. And who doesn’t want to emulate this kind of success?

5. Practical Tips & ‘How To’ Content

The most engaging two word phrase that started headlines in our analysis of LinkedIn headlines this year was ‘how to’.

[clickToTweet tweet=”People want to do their job better and are hungry for practical tips and advice. ” quote=”People want to do their job better and are hungry for practical tips and advice. “]

Even if we know in our B2B hearts that there are no real quick wins or instant ways to improve, we still love a hack. Here are a couple of examples that caught our attention this year.

One of the popular topics on LinkedIn is sales content. This next post on the LinkedIn Pulse platform focused on a favourite sales challenge “sell me this pen.” The post gained almost 200,000 shares on LinkedIn, despite the fact we don’t even use pens these days. Or certainly don’t buy them. That’s what going to conferences is for.

The post has a clear promise, here is the best answer to the most well known sales challenge. I suspect it was this promise that caused many people to click through. And sure, maybe the picture of Leo helped.

Another high performing sales post was by LinkedIn Influencer Robert Herjavec, of Shark Tank. Posts by LinkedIn Influencers get a lot of extra promotion, they are more like paid posts. Herjavec’s 5 Essential Tips for Selling Anything to Anyone gained 195,000 shares on LinkedIn.

The Harvard Business Review article above reported on the research of Paul Santagata, Head of Industry at Google and referenced the company’s two-year study on team performance.  This revealed that the highest-performing teams have one thing in common: psychological safety, the belief that you won’t be punished when you make a mistake. This post sets out the six practical steps that Santagata takes to make his team feel safe, with a brief description of each one. A related post on Inc ‘Google Spent 2 Years Studying 180 Teams. The Most Successful Ones Shared These 5 Traits’ was a mix of research and advice. It was shared over 200,000 times. The title helped here – it has the promise of data-backed research.

6. Personal Career Advice

We all want to advance our career. Several of the top performing posts this year shared career advice and tips.

Advice on interview questions are popular because they serve a very specific need for people going through the interview process. This video post on What to say when a job interviewer asks, ‘What’s your current salary?’ gained over 60,000 LinkedIn shares.

Tips for success remain particularly popular, gaining shares on both LinkedIn and Facebook. This LinkedIn Pulse article on ‘13 Things You Should Give Up If You Want To Be Successful‘ was shared over 250,000 times on LinkedIn and 100,000 engagements on Facebook. Just using the words ‘Success’ or ‘Successful’ in your title helps to get traction.

More general posts on career development and advice also do well. This next post on continuous learning on Medium is part opinion, part case study and part career advice. Continuous learning is critical as we can all become obsolete as our skills, knowledge and experience degrade. The advice to spend 5 hours a week learning was shared over 85,000 times on LinkedIn. Whether people actually went on to carve out those 5 hours  – well that’s a different question.

This next post on Thrive Global’s website gained over 60,000 LinkedIn shares and will be of interest to anyone considering quitting their current job.

This more controversial article ‘If You Can’t Find a Spouse Who Supports Your Career, Stay Single” found an audience on Facebook where it received over 100,000 likes, shares and comments. A lovely one to bring up on the dating scene.

7. Research and Reference Content

This next post from Inc is a curation of a number of research reports on the productivity of remote workers. This post gained over 65,000 shares on LinkedIn proving that you don’t need original research to engage business audiences.

Reference content such as data driven reports or charts tends to do very well. For example, ‘The FT1000 fastest-growing European companies‘ gained over 14,000 shares on LinkedIn but also gained over 700 backlinks from unique domains.

This next curation example from LinkedIn is a promotional post for a site summarising business books. The post is more like an advert than an article, with a clear call to action ‘Get’, a promise of free summaries and with a link to site. This post was shared over 80,000 times on LinkedIn. 

8. Leadership

[clickToTweet tweet=”Leadership content gains attention from both existing leaders and aspiring leaders. ” quote=”Leadership content gains attention from both existing leaders and aspiring leaders. “]

For the same reason that posts on success and career advice do well: we’re all looking for tips to be better leaders.

People are particularly keen to learn the secrets of successful leadership. This post on ‘4 things that set successful CEOs apart‘ on Harvard Business Review gained over 15,000 LinkedIn shares. They are also keen to avoid making mistakes and this article on Huffington Post on ‘9 Bad Manager Mistakes That Make Good People Quit’ gained over 200,000 social shares and engagements. We suspect this post was not only shared by leaders but by those who feel they have suffered under bad managers.

9. Industry News

We all wake up dumber than we went to bed. Overnight there will have been breaking news stories, new research reports published and new products launched. Keeping pace with market news is essential for all of us.

Business news stories have reach simply by virtue that they are published on major publications such as the New York Times. This Wall Street Journal story ‘Nike Confirms Partnership With Amazon‘ gained over 30,000 LinkedIn shares.

This next article, also about Nike, on the BBC tapped into a number of business themes including marketing to muslims. It was shared over 130,000 times on LinkedIn.

10. In Vogue Brands and Topics

In every industry there are celebrity brands, CEOs and celebrity topics. In recent years celebrity brands have included Uber, despite its troubles, and Tesla. Content that combines these topics with the formats list above tend to do particularly well.

This next post from the New Zealand Herald is a great example ‘Elon Musk’s brilliant email rule at Tesla‘. It combines leadership and practical advice from a popular (possible soon to be supreme) leader.

We referred above to the leadership advice from Uber’s new CEO: ‘In Just 8 Words, Uber’s New CEO Gave a Master Class in Leadership‘ which gained over 40,000 LinkedIn shares.

Recent celebrity topics have included artificial intelligence, bitcoin, machine learning and driverless cars.

Publish on LinkedIn for LinkedIn Shares

[clickToTweet tweet=”The most shared content on LinkedIn is almost exclusively content that was published on LinkedIn Pulse. ” quote=”The most shared content on LinkedIn is almost exclusively content that was published on LinkedIn Pulse. “]

The top 20 posts measured by LinkedIn shares were all published on Pulse apart from one. This makes sense as by publishing on the platform you are ensuring your content is surfaced while people are on the platform, making it easy for them to share.

The downsides of publishing on the Pulse platform is that you are building your house on rented land and it is not easy to drive traffic to your site. Also as a general rule people do not link to content on Pulse. None of the top 20 most shared posts on Pulse got more than 20 links. By comparison the top non-Pulse posts got many hundreds of links from unique domains. The best approach in our view is to publish on your own site first, allow a few days to pass, then republish (slightly editing) on Pulse.

So there you have it: While B2B may never reach the giddy share count heights of more mainstream content like music videos and recipe posts on Facebook, there’s still a lot you can to to maximise your chances of success. We hope these 10 trends in top performing B2B content help to steer you in the right direction in 2018. We’d love to get your feedback.

What content do Facebook audiences love to share, like and comment on?

To answer this question we reviewed two billion articles and Facebook posts that were published this year. We set out our findings below, including:

1. The content (articles, videos and blog posts) that were most shared on Facebook 
2. The viral Facebook posts that gained the most engagement
3. Expert reflections on the findings and the lessons for content marketers

Reality check for the rest of us: These top articles and posts were exceptional outliers and we cannot expect to replicate their success. However, we can learn from them to gain deeper insights into the kinds of content that engages Facebook audiences. In this post we discuss the implications for content creators with commentary from marketing and publishing experts.

The two tables below show the most shared content on Facebook and the top viral Facebook posts this year. The links to the content items are in the discussion of the articles after the table.

Most Shared Content On Facebook 2017

As we can see below Facebook audiences readily share entertaining, inspiring and heart-warming content published outside the platform. Music videos topped the charts this year with three of the top ten posts. We can also observe a strong tribal element when it comes to the sharing of political and opinion content. There were two political posts in the top ten.

The Most Viral Facebook Posts  2017

When it comes to Facebook posts the top posts were almost exclusively videos. Only three of the top 20 posts were not videos. The most popular topics were:

• Practical hacks (5 of the top 10 posts were practical tips)
• Awesome and inspiring content
• Food and recipes (5 of the top 25 posts were food posts)
• Cute animals
• Music videos

Four of the top 20 most shared Facebook posts were in Spanish. One of the top 20 posts was in French.

For a detailed analysis of the most engaging videos see our previous analysis of 100m Facebook videos.

Note: The total Facebook interactions were as at 6th December 2017. and we are only viewing publicly available post interaction data. 
The table does not include game download pages, police appeals, or petitions.
The table only includes the top 3 posts of the same type e.g. music videos.

The Top Content Shared On Facebook In 2017

For the content articles below we have shown the total engagements across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest for each article. For shorthand we often refer to total shares though technically the Facebook figure is engagements as it also includes Likes and Comments, both of which can cause content to be shared. You can argue that a share is stronger engagement than a like, and a comment is stronger still, and we should weight them, but that’s a long argument, and it’s nearly Christmas. So let’s keep it simple.

To find out more on the headlines that engage people on Facebook see our review of 100m headlines and the top phrases that engage people on Facebook.

To search for the most shared content on any website or for any topic go to BuzzSumo.

Music Videos

The most shared content on Facebook this year was a YouTube music video ‘Despacito‘ by Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi featuring Puerto Rican rapper Daddy Yankee.  This song reached the top of the charts of 47 countries and was the first song primarily in Spanish to top the Billboard Hot 100 since 1996. Not heard it? Yes you have. The video has been viewed 4 billion times, yep that is billion. But why not add one more count to the pile and give it another whirl.

Music videos remain one of the most shared forms of content. This video by Ed Sheeran was the second most shared content on Facebook gaining almost 10m shares.

The third biggest music video was the Thai video ‘I’ve been crying’ by Prue Nakarin (ทุกคนเคยร้องไห้ – ป้าง นครินทร์) which gained over 4.5m interactions.

Videos by Coldplay, Taylor Swift and Enrique Iglesias also gained over 3m Facebook interactions. Disclaimer: BuzzSumo makes no endorsement of the quality or earworm-ness of these tunes. What do we know? Less than Tay Tay it seems.

Breaking News and Exclusives

People are quick to share breaking news on Facebook. Over 44% of Americans get their news from Facebook (fake or otherwise). However, the sharing can be very fragmented as there are often tens if not hundreds of articles on the same news story. In this example, the initial exclusive reporting of the suicide of Chester Bennington by TMZ gained over 7m Facebook engagements. This particular story may have gained extra traction as it is about a musician but also because it was a very tragic human story.

Viral Quizzes

Viral quizzes still appear to do well though we are seeing less engagement than in previous years. Possibly this format’s hitting saturation point, though this quiz from Women.com gained over 5m shares.

As we have reported in previous studies, viral quizzes may get shares on Facebook but no one links to them, possibly because they’re more just fun and not evergreen referenceable content. This quiz got backlinks from only 7 domains according to Majestic and only 16 links from 5 domains according to Moz despite over 5m shares. If you want to build content that gains links there are better forms of content than quizzes.

Encouraged by the success of this post in January, Women.com ran another version “Can You Pass This Advanced Grammar Test?” which gained 3.7m shares. Following the old publisher adage ‘if it works, do it again’ the site published over 200 quizzes this year, 19 of which gained over 1m shares each.

Another popular form of quiz is the personality type. Thanks to Cosmopolitan and many other magazines for this format. The trick about this is to ensure the answer makes the user looks intelligent, unique and all round amazing, so they share the results. What State Should You Move To Based On Your Personality? gained over 3m Facebook Interactions. See you in Idaho.

Travel and Adventure

One theme that runs through popular Facebook content is travel and adventure. They tend to be inspirational, visually inspiring and divert us from reality (possibly the point of Facebook?)

This next article promoting a train ride through America’s most beautiful sites clearly resonated with over 3.8m Facebook engagements.

Heartwarming Stories

Feeling good is good for you, and good for Facebook engagements. This heartwarming story of Mexican bakers supporting the victims of flooding after Hurricane Harvey was widely shared on Facebook, gaining over 2.4m engagements. It was the top post on The Independent newspaper this year.

There are other examples of heart warming, feel good stories that were shared on Facebook. For example, a video of Garth Brooks giving his guitar to a fan who had cancer had over 2.6m Facebook engagements. The top post on the New York Times this year was this post on Harvey and Irma, a couple married for 75 years who marvelled at the storms bearing their names. This post gained over 1.1m Facebook engagements. Maybe they’ll adopt Stormzy and smash the record next year.

Study and Research Findings

Articles that report the findings of studies tend to do particularly well on Facebook, including ‘science says’ style articles. This article below reported on a research study from MIT, Northwestern and University of Florida about the criminal propensity of siblings. It is the type of content that families may share for fun as much as for the value of the research. My eldest actually shared this post on Facebook and tagged his younger sister. It’s a nice example of research and tribal posts combined. And a great way to get at your siblings through social media. The post gained over 2m Facebook engagements.

A similar post “Study Shows The More You Hang Out With Your Mom, The Longer She’ll Live” reported on research from the University of California, San Francisco showing that loneliness plays a large role in the decline so often associated with old age. This post also received over 2m Facebook interactions. Another example is “Scientists Say That Being Forgetful Is Actually A Sign You Are Unusually Intelligent“. This post got over 1.4m Facebook engagements (approximately – we forget the exact figure).

The article below covered a more controversial research report on the impact and effectiveness of flu vaccines. This was a study report which may also have been shared by people to inform their friends. The post gained over 1.9m Facebook engagements.

Cute Animal Videos

Trends come and go but cute animal videos are forever. They’re well known as one of the most popular forms of content on Facebook. Marking a change from cat videos this video of a seal that likes its tummy tickled (don’t we all) gained over 1.9m Facebook engagements. Cats: You need to up your game in 2018.

As we will see below, some of the most popular Facebook posts were also animal videos.

Tribal Political Posts

The most shared article on Huffington Post this year was a political viewpoint “I don’t know how to explain to you that you should care about other people“.

Tribal political posts have grown over the last year. Two of the most shared gained over 3m Facebook engagements each. The first was this article by American Bacon on ‘President Trump requiring ‘welfare to work’ – the free ride is ending’. The second was this article ‘20 Million Muslims March Against ISIS and The Mainstream Media Completely Ignores It‘. Both are strong opinion articles. The latter article takes a specific view or opinion of the events. Some might argue a more accurate title would be “Millions of Muslims take part in mass pilgrimage of Arbaeen – in spite of Isis”. The petition to impeach President Trump also gained over 2m shares.

It appears people share content on Facebook to support their particular political tribe or viewpoint. Often political posts have far more shares than likes or reactions. There is some evidence that the more partisan the content, the more that particular tribe will share it. That has echo chamber side effects of course – the more you like content that fits your tribe, the less divergent viewpoints you’ll see. Hey, we didn’t make the algorithm, we’re just reporting on it.

Stunning Images

Inspiring or amazing images are well shared on Facebook. This stunning image from Bored Panda received over 1.6m engagements on Facebook.

Supportive Content

This next post describes the highs and lows of being a mom. It is a powerful post by Bethany Jacobs with a message to all moms. The post gained over 1.6m Facebook engagements. It’s an appeal to the most powerful tribe in the world.

Practical and Health Content

Health content is a perennial favourite on Facebook including the secrets to a long life. This next post was a practical and informative post using Lemons to demonstrate what breast cancer can look and feel like.

Opinion Posts

This topical opinion post on The Atlantic gathered over 700,000 shares but also over 2,600 links. Many of the statistics in the article have been widely challenged but the question “have smartphones destroyed a generation?” clearly resonated with Facebook audiences.

Opinion posts on in-vogue topical discussions appear to get shared widely. This next post from the New Yorker explored why facts don’t change our minds. Ironic given some of the fact-free content that’s gone viral this year. The post gained almost 500,000 Facebook engagements.

Secrets of Life and Love

The secrets to a long and happy life is another perennial favourite topic, especially when they’re in the “science says” category. We have picked out a couple of examples below.

The Most Engaging Facebook Posts Of 2017

We would emphasise again that these posts are the outliers; they are the very top most engaging posts. Many of the pages publishing these posts have huge audiences. For example, First Media Blossom has had more than 31m people like their page. This potentially enables their posts to achieve very large reach. That said, not all First Media Blossom content achieves such high levels of engagement. And, some posts from sites with smaller audiences also perform well. The most engaging post relative to page audience size was MTV Australia’s video about the millennial generation which achieved over 100m views and 2m shares, with a page audience of 770,000 likes.

Practical Hacks

This Facebook video of practical everyday hacks was the top Facebook post in 2017. It had over 400m views and was shared over 12m times. It also had over 3m likes and reactions and 186,000 comments. We have no stats on whether people actually decluttered anything after sharing this. But it feels good to know it’s possible.

This post was by no means a one off for First Media Blossom, they had three posts in the top five most engaging posts this year driven by their large audience, over 31m have liked their Facebook page. Two of their other practical hack posts, 5 Surprising hacks and 8 ways to transform your wardrobe each gained over 5m shares and 240m views. This post by Bright Side on awesome ideas for old T-shirts also gained over 4m shares. Leverage a trend, be consistent and build an audience. That’s how to organise.

People Are Awesome

This Facebook video posted by People are Awesome (19m page likes) is a celebration of the amazing things that people can do. It gained over 500m views and over 10m shares, likes/reactions and comments.

More Animals

This Facebook video posted by GaryTV is a compilation of animals and people being affectionate to one another. It had over 380m views, it was shared almost 10m times, received 3.6m likes and reactions and attracted over 250,000 comments. In terms of engagement relative to Facebook page likes, this post did better than Blossom and Bright Side, as it gained more engagements than the 6.5m people that have liked the GaryTV page.

Also in the top ten Facebook posts was this video of a cute Panda from iPanda which gained over 6m shares, likes/reactions and comments.

Music And Entertainment

As we saw with the top content above music videos are very popular and get highly shared. This video posted by Tyra Banks was shared over 4m times and had over 5m likes and reactions. Also an example of people being awesome.

Tyra’s Facebook page has had over 8m likes and her post of a heart warming video of a young girl singing was also in the top 20 posts with over 5m shares, likes and comments.

Food

Maybe recipe videos are the ultimate FB post: They’re visual, a hack, appeal to a huge cooking tribe and inspire us to act. Our previous analysis of 100m Facebook videos found that food videos received more engagements on average than any other topic. Thus it was not a surprise to a see a food video in the top ten posts this year. This video posted by So Yummy had over 270m views, almost 5m shares, 2m likes/reactions and over 130,000 comments.

This video from Blossom on surprising things you can make with only two ingredients was also in the top twenty posts with over 6m shares, likes and reactions.

The top non-video post was this set of food recipes, it was also the top Facebook post in Spanish this year with over 5m shares. This post also did well relative to the 3.9m people that have liked Anna’s Facebook page.

The top French post on Facebook this year was also on food. This video on making l’omelette tartine gained over 4.3m shares, likes and comments.

Tribal Content

People share content to show support for their tribe, whether it’s their sports team, their political allegiance, their co-workers or just people like them e.g. bald men, first born children or people with ginger hair. It’s possible to be all three in which case there’s probably a special post just for you. The next three top Facebook posts were all tribal posts in some form.

a) Sport

The top Facebook image post of the year was this one from FC Barcelona, which gained over 5.5m shares and likes/reactions. It was also another example of Spanish content in the top 20 Facebook posts of the year.

b) Generational Content and Perspectives

This Facebook video posted by MTV Australia focused on the millennial generation.  It was viewed over 100m times, it was shared more than 2m times and attracted over 80,000 comments. In many ways this could be argued to be the top Facebook post relative to the size of its own page audience, 770,000 people have liked MTV  Australia’s page but this video gained over 2m shares and 100m views.

This post created a lot of heated debate between different generations. For example:

c) Political Content

This Facebook video posted by Attn:Video of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s message for Donald Trump about the Paris Climate Agreement was viewed over 77m times, it was shared over 2m times and attracted 35,000 comments. There’s passion and rage in here which can inspire tribal engagement if you’re on his side.

Inspiring Technology and Ideas

People love to share inspiring new technology and ideas. This video post of a boat removing plastic and flotsam from water was shared over 3.8m times and had over 1.4m likes and reactions.

Finally, I know when I spoke to various people about this research they expected Buzzfeed’s or Donald Trump’s Facebook posts to be near the top. Just for completeness the top Buzzfeed post was a video on the power to live and forgive which gained 3.5m engagements and which was viewed 177m times. The top post by Donald Trump was his statement on immigration policy which had over 1m engagements, these were primarily reactions which ranged from love to angry. Controversy and strong opinion continues to provoke engagement.

Summary and Reflections

At the start of this post we were clear that these top posts are outliers, they are exceptional and we cannot replicate their success. We should also note that when it comes to Facebook posts it seems that the size of the audience of the Facebook page is important in helping to achieve reach, even though organic reach is relatively low. Thus building your Facebook page audience is important.

The research demonstrates that people on Facebook actively share and engage with:

• Music videos, in multiple languages, the top videos were in Spanish, English and Thai.
• Practical videos demonstrating hacks and tips
• Food and recipes, particularly videos
• Awe-inspiring videos and images
• Heartwarming, supportive and uplifting content including human stories and animals
• Tribal content including political posts, sports posts and opinion content
• News and findings from the latest studies and scientific research

When it comes to Facebook posts the top posts are almost exclusively videos. What is also interesting is that for many consumer publications the level of interaction they get when they post directly on Facebook is much higher than for the content published on their own sites. For example:

• Cnet top 3 website articles had interactions of 80k, 74k, and 65k. Their top 3 FB page post interactions were 268k, 167k, and 106k
• Mashable top 3 website articles had interactions of 964k, 783k, and 728k. Their top 3 FB page post interactions  were 2.2m, 1.7m, and 1.2m
• BuzzFeed top 3 website articles had interactions of 1.4m, 916k, and 873k. Their top 3 FB page post interactions were 3m, 1.6m, and 1.2m

Whilst traditionally content gains more likes and reactions than shares this is not always the case. In the examples above there are many where the Facebook post has had far more shares than likes. Good examples are posts on food recipes, new technology, climate change and the millennial generation.

Expert Reflections

Mari Smith

Mari Smith, the world’s premier Facebook marketing expert, encourages marketers not to gloss over these research findings too quickly. “It might be easy to think that viral success on Facebook is only achievable for B2C, or only for celebrities, or only for brands with major budgets.” 

“But there’s absolute gold in this data-backed post that goes hand-in-hand with Facebook’s strong focus on a video-first strategy for the past two years. Facebook is absolutely giving video content — including Facebook Live — high priority visibility in the News Feed.” 

“Facebook is on a mission to establish itself as a leading digital streaming television-style platform, essentially competing with YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and more. And, whereas short form video content on Facebook won the day historically, the company is encouraging longer form video now, as exemplified in this study that BuzzFeed recently conducted with a 14-minute video (mentioned earlier in BuzzSumo’s post here). Facebook is now heavily testing mid-roll video ad breaks as well as pre-roll ads, of 5-15 seconds and so we’ll start to see an increase in reach, visibility, and shares of longer videos. “ 

“Savvy businesses will achieve much greater organic reach and derive much better ROI for paid promotions by focusing almost exclusively on video content going forward. But the key is to create video content that is highly “thumb-stopping” and highly shareable. BuzzSumo’s detailed analysis here provides amazing food for thought to dramatically improve your video content in 2018, whether you’re an SMB or major brand, and whether you’re industry is B2C or B2B:

• How can you convert your content and expertise into short, practical tutorial-style videos? Around 90 seconds or more is ideal for Facebook.  
• Can you put the spotlight more on storytelling by real people in your business for video content? E.g. customer success stories, staff spotlight, heartwarming ways that your business impacts the community, etc. 
• Be sure to use stunning imagery and video footage that grabs attention in the first three seconds. (Check out wave.video for a great video app that includes access to 2.5M assets.)”

Matt Navarra

Matt Navarra, Director of Social Media at The Next Web believes the findings “underline a lot of the suspicions and predications many people made earlier in the year. Video may be expensive to create, and may take greater effort for publishers to produce, but the reach and engagement they drive is still phenomenal and desirable.”

“The bigger concern that is bubbling beneath the surface for 2018 is how those publishers who pivoted to video will fare if/when Facebook’s algorithm gets tweaked again to favor whatever Mark Zuckerberg’s next business objective is.”

“Content creators have exhausted their tolerance and patience when it comes to dancing to Facebook’s ever-changing and disruptive algorithmic tune. Unfortunately for them, they are somewhat powerless and have little option but to play the game, or leave the party. For now.”

“The top content in 2018 will likely follow a similar formula to the results shown in this analysis. However, Facebook’s VR ambitions may shake things up a bit next year, and the development of its video platform ‘Watch’ may shift the needle towards long-form video being the stand-out format for hit content in 2018.”

Heidi Cohen

Actionable marketing expert Heidi Cohen believes the findings from the research “underscores that marketers must be present and human on this global network. Take your 2018 Facebook marketing cue from the Cluetrain Manifesto: “Be human!” Facebook isn’t about pushing your latest promotion or content. Rather Facebook is about reaching out and engaging with your audience during their “me” time.”

1. Be present on Facebook. Don’t limit yourself to your company page. Participate in groups and encourage employees to have individual pages that build community. (Of course, make sure that you outline your social media guidelines!)
2. Use videos wherever possible and other visuals to break through. While headlines are key, people are visual beings. Figure out how to transform your information into videos and images that provide new views.
3. Find hooks to your products and content that tap into the top topics. The easiest are entertainment and heartwarming stories. “

Mark Traphagen

Mark Traphagen of Stone Temple believes “the chief message to marketers from this study data is the value of understanding and tailoring your content and delivery to user intent. While we often think of “intent” as a search attribute, there is also such a thing as platform intent. For example, at Stone Temple we did a study of why video ranking is so different between Google Search and YouTube, even though both are Google properties. We concluded that the most likely reason behind the great difference in the two ranking algorithms is that users go to YouTube and search for very different reasons.”

“In a similar way, as this study has shown, people come to Facebook with a specific intent, primarily to be distracted and entertained. Of course, the predominance of celebrity, music, animal and human interest content testifies to that. However, the strong showing for certain kinds of data and research studies shows it’s possible to succeed with more serious content if you can present it in a way that is surprising, unexpected, or “gotta see that” interesting. The main point is to keep in mind that to succeed on Facebook your content and promotions need to be adapted to what people expect to get from Facebook, while not compromising your ultimate business goals.”

“On the other hand, you should always consider whether “going viral” is really the best goal for your campaigns. Obviously, none of us would mind having our content in next year’s Buzzsumo “Top Facebook Content of the Year” post! But the chances of that happening are slim. Perhaps a better goal is to pay attention to your specific target audiences, and work hard to create content that will resonate with them. 100 engagements from people most likely to become your customers may be worth more to you than 10,000 from people who will never do business with you.”

We hope you can take away some inspiration from our round up and plan for an even better 2018 on Facebook. We’d love to hear your reflections.

The average number of engagements with Facebook posts created by brands and publishers has fallen by over 20% since January 2017.

We analyzed over 880 million Facebook posts published by brands and publishers over the last year. In this sample the average number of engagements fell from 340 to 264 over the first six months of the year, as shown in the chart below.

The biggest fall in engagement was with image posts and link posts. According to the data video posts had the smallest fall in engagement and videos now gain twice the level of engagement of other post formats on average. The chart below shows average engagements by post type in June 2017.

For more on video engagement read our recent research post analysing 100 million Facebook videos.

The detailed data on all 880 million posts is set out at the end of this post.

Why Is Facebook Engagement Declining?

Our survey data includes engagements for all posts, including those supported by paid promotion. There are a number of possible explanations for this declining level of engagement.

1. One possible interpretation is that brands and publishers spent less on promotion over the year resulting in less exposure and engagement. However, surveys show the reverse is actually the case with brands and publishers spending more on Facebook promotion.
2. A more likely explanation is that Facebook organic reach has declined significantly and increases in paid promotion have not enabled brands and publishers to maintain their levels of Facebook engagement.

The second explanation is also more likely as Facebook themselves acknowledge that organic reach is declining. They say this is for two main reasons:

1. More content. Facebook say there are now on average 1,500 stories that could appear in a person’s feed. So competition is increasing and not everything can be shown.
2. Facebook have also been making changes in the algorithm which decides what content to show users. Facebook say they look at thousands of factors to decide which stories to display in an attempt to show users the content that is most relevant. Facebook have also made a number of changes to the feed algorithm, for example to demote lower quality content and clickbait headlines that withhold information from the reader.

A decline in organic reach has also been documented in numerous other articles. For example:

• The Financial Times reported a Socialflow survey in June 2016 showing a 42% decline in organic Facebook reach
• Marketing Land followed up this story in August 2016 reporting a 52% fall in publisher organic reach on Facebook
• In January 2017 Kurt Gessler of the Chicago Tribune reported further decreasing reach, claiming one third of their posts were not being surfaced by the latest Facebook algorithm.

Other potential reasons for declining reach include:

1. Competition in the news feed. As  brands and publishers increase their spending on Facebook advertising and promotion, the more there is competition for space. AdWeek reported that Facebook’s ad revenues in the second quarter to 2017 increased 47% over the same quarter in 2016. This growth in Facebook paid ads will invariably reduce the space for other posts in the news feed.
2. Further changes to the Facebook algorithm which have reduced average reach since January 2017.
3. 2016 was an election year in the US. One possible reason for lower levels of engagement is that the last year’s election drove very high engagement with political posts for publishers. It may be that since the election in 2016, engagement with political posts has declined on Facebook, which has reduced the overall averages.

Our BuzzSumo Data

Facebook Posts Published by Brands and Publishers

We looked at over 880 million Facebook Posts published by brand and publishers over the last year. We looked specifically at image posts, link posts and video posts. The number of posts in each month and category were as follows.

Over the year we can see a decline in the number of image and link posts published and a ten percent increase in video posts. This is to be expected given Facebook’s focus on video and the higher engagement which this format generates. However, video posts still only represented just over 10% of all posts during the year. We can see the breakdown below.

Facebook Engagement by Post Type

In January we started to see a marked decline in engagement levels which may have been due to changes in the Facebook algorithm. We are conscious Facebook algorithm changes will affect different pages and different content types in different ways. The biggest fall has been in engagements with image posts.

We can see that the most marked decline in average engagement was with image posts. This fell from over 480 in July and August 2016 to below 340 in April, May and June 2017. The chart below shows the trends by type.

Do Your Own Facebook Analysis

BuzzSumo’s Facebook Analyzer allows you to analyze public posts on any topic or published by any page. You can filter by date, by content type such as videos or images and sort by the most likes, shares or comments. You can search for top posts on a topic or enter a Facebook page to get a detailed analysis of their content including most engaging post types, average engagements over time, days and times of day when they get most engagement and much more. You can also export data to undertake further analysis. Sign up for a 14 day free free trial and give it a test run.

We’ve all heard the saying, “you can’t judge a book by its cover.”

What’s funny is that you almost only hear that adage in reference to people: you shouldn’t judge people based off how they look.

Yet, when it comes to books, you can actually tell a lot about them by their covers.

That’s why publishers spend so much money on them.

This principle applies to the headlines of your blog posts, as well. While you can’t learn everything about the post from one simple line, headlines are clearly very important; it will either pull a reader in or keep them scrolling.

Last year, Steve Rayson at BuzzSumo wrote the definitive post on viral headlines. Once you read it, you won’t be able to look at headlines the same way.

To put his many great points into context, I used BuzzSumo to find Huffington Post’s most-shard article headlines of the past three years. I’m also notating right under the posts what kind of headline category these fall into: Tips & Advice, Opinion/View, Political, Trending, and News.

Let’s talk about why they worked so well. Ready?

A Study of The Top 30 Huffington Post Most Shared Headlines

30. The One Thing Christians Should Stop Saying
Headline Type: Tips & Advice

Throughout this list, you’ll see a number of headlines that mention tips and advice. This headline falls into that category, but it also riles up emotion, something else that is great for getting shares.

People take their faiths very seriously, so referring to any religion in your headline is going to draw eyes to it. However, this one also has the scent of controversy to it. You might agree with the author 100% or you may be clicking on that headline simply because you want to make sure it’s not going to mischaracterize or misinterpret something so important.

29. 5 Minutes In A Mom’s Head

Headline Type: Opinion/View

The most prevalent audience type on this entire list is parents. This makes sense, of course. Everyone wants to be a good parent, so anything that might help them is going to receive attention.

One thing Rayson found in his research is that alluding to some kind of secret in a headline tends to do particularly well. No one likes to be left in the dark, especially when it comes to being a good parent.

This headline leverages both tactics and has the numbers to prove it…

28. There’s Nothing Selfish About Suicide

Headline Type: Opinion/View

Here’s another piece that’s using emotion in the headline. It’s tough to think of a more emotionally-charged topic than suicide, too.

On top of that, a lot of people have the polar opposite view to the one being expressed here, which adds even more emotion to the topic.

27. Instead of Trump’s Wall, Let’s Build A Border of Solar Panels

Headline Type: Political

Trump will continue showing up on this list. Amongst other things, the President triggers all kinds of emotions in people across the political spectrum.

There’s also the fact that Trump has remained a trending topic for well over a year now. Any time you can mention a trending topic in your headline, you’ll automatically set yourself up for more clicks.

26. To Anyone Who Thinks They’re Falling Behind In Life

Headline Type: Tips & Advice

We find another emotional subject in this headline. It also hints at the promise of advice. Presumably, the author isn’t going to tell the reader, “It’s too late. There’s nothing you can do.”

Promises are another feature of viral headlines I’m going to bring up numerous times in this piece. Prospective readers should feel a sense of certainty that taking the time to read your post will be worth it. Make this clear in the headline.

25. 9 Truths ‘Moms of Boys Only’ Need To Know

Headline Type: Tips & Advice

Here we have another article about parenting. It’s also our first listicle, which is the most shared format type Rayson found when doing his research.

Listicles work for a couple important reasons.

First, they make clear the format of the post. This example lets you know there are 9 sections to this piece.

Second, that also tells you about how it will be organized; you can rightfully anticipate that it will be pretty easy to scan through and make a decision about whether or not you’re going to commit to reading it.

24. Real Love Is a Choice

Headline Type: Opinion/View

Love is another subject with plenty of emotion surrounding it.

It also sounds like the author may be taking a controversial stand. Is true love something you can really control? If you fall out of love with someone, is that a choice, too?

These and other questions come up just from reading the headline and probably contributed to its 1.2 million shares.

23. Ballet Dancer Sergei Polunin Simply Slays Hozier’s “Take Me to Church”

Headline Type: Trending

“Take Me to Church” piqued in December 2014, but it was still very popular just two months later when this article was published. Therefore, at this point, it would have been trendy, but this headline also boasts a new take on it.

22. Red Cross Built Exactly 6 Homes for Haiti With Nearly Half A Billion Dollars In Donation

Headline Type: News

As you may remember, in 2010, Haiti was hit by a devastating earthquake that made headlines all over the world. The following year, the Red Cross began a multimillion-dollar campaign to help the country recover.

While this wouldn’t have been a “trending” topic at the time, this headline definitely inspires emotions like shock and disgust. Therefore, according to Rayson’s research, it also inspires clicks.

21. Why Women Need Their Girlfriends

Headline Type: Opinion/View

Though it’s definitely a simple headline, the promise of information in this title is probably what made it such an attractive one.

That’s not to say it delivered on some huge promise, but there’s an important lesson here. Your headline doesn’t always need to be about some grandiose secret. It can be as simple as explaining to people why their everyday relationships are so important.

20. Coloring Isn’t Just for Kids. It Can Actually Help Adults Combat Stress.

Headline Type: Tips & Advice

You may remember that a year or two ago, coloring books for adults were taking off in popularity. Therefore, this headline was about a trendy topic.

However, this one also succeeds because it promises helpful information that you could use to combat stress – something we would love all to do.

19. 10 Ways Introverts Interact Differently with the World

Headline Type: Opinion/View

Here we have another listicle. This one I like because it speaks to two different types of people.

If you’re an introvert, you’re most likely going to click this headline. Wouldn’t you like to make sure you know all the different ways you interact with the world?

However, you might click even if you aren’t an introvert because somebody you know is and, thus, this information would help you understand them better.

18. Why The New Child Rape Case Filed Against Donald Trump Should Not Be Ignored

Headline Type: Political

As we mentioned before, choosing a trending topic is always going to improve your headline’s chances.

During the campaign, few topics were trending more than Trump. In fact, when Rayson was putting together this article, “Trump” was the most common word found in viral Facebook posts.

In this case, Lisa Bloom’s article benefited from the shareability of the name, but there’s also a very emotional element. This piece is obviously about an accusation that shocks and disgusts people.

17. I’m Done Making My Kid’s Childhood Magical

Headline Type: Opinion/View

Speaking of emotion, as I mentioned before, the topic of parenting is always going to be near the top of the list. Aside from the fact that everyone wants to be a good parent, most people are also keen to think about the type of job other parents are doing, too.

Bunmi Laditan’s headline definitely grabbed people’s emotions, but it also promises some kind of exclusive information.

Why would a parent actually choose to do the exact opposite of what so many strive for? The only way you can find out is by clicking the headline.

16. 16 Habits of Highly Sensitive People

Headline Type: Opinion/View

By now, it should be clear that viral headlines usually combine at least two elements from Rayson’s article.

In this piece, we have the ever-popular listicle and the guarantee of some very interesting information.

Most of us don’t associate being sensitive with having a set of habits, much less 16 of them. If you know you’re sensitive, you’re probably also going to be curious about what else that means for your day-to-day life.

15. 5 Reasons Modern-Day Parenting Is in Crisis, According to a British Nanny

Headline Type: Opinion/View

While being a listicle would have helped all on its own, this headline took things further. The information being covered is clearly important if you’re a parent.

Why?

Not because you might be doing something wrong but because the entire concept is in crisis! You might be doing everything wrong! If you’re not yet a parent, this article might give you some insights to consider before making such a big decision.

14. Dad Films 6 Minutes Of Students Slipping On Ice With Running Commentary

Headline Type: Trending

You already clicked on this one, didn’t you?

Of course, you did!

Sometimes, the promise is all you need. Everyone wants to watch people fall on the ice. I’m not sure what that says about human nature, but it’s true. You don’t need to add anything else to that headline to get clicks.

13. The Real Reason White People Say “All Lives Matter”

Headline Type: News

The controversy surrounding people saying “all lives matter” was trending in the summer of 2016, something this headline would have benefited from.

Then, there was the “real reason” part. This line has the same effect as claiming you know a secret that others don’t. Whichever side of the controversy you’re on, you’re probably curious to find out what John Halstead thinks the “real reason” is.

12. “Super Troopers 2” Is Officially Happening

Headline Type: Trending

You know exactly what you’re getting if you click on this title. That’s a promise.

This also benefits from a trending topic: the release of a new movie.

The combination of these those two ingredients was all it took to make this one of The Huffington Post’s most shared pieces of the last three years.

11. 300 Plumbers Poured into Flint, Michigan, To Install Water Filters For Free

Headline Type: News

As you probably know, Flint, Michigan has been in the news for about a year at this point because their water quality is so abysmal it can’t be consumed.

Therefore, this headline received a big boost for covering a topic that has been in the news so much.

At the same time, there’s obviously an emotional aspect to it, too. Rayson specifically points to “heartwarming” as an emotion that contributes to a headline’s chances of going viral. I think you’ll agree that such a show of support from so many people definitely warms the heart.

10. 10 Things Your Mom Never Told You

Headline Type: Opinion/View

Two important elements that should be immediately obvious about this headline right now are that it’s a listicle and it involves a secret: your mom’s been holding out on you! Don’t you want to know what she has been sitting on all these years?

As this piece is directed at new and expecting mothers, though, it also shows signs of potentially very important information. I’ve already talked about how any subject related to parenting is going to involve some hot-button emotions, but you can bet they run especially high when the headline is aimed at new and expecting mothers.

9. This Billionaire Governor Taxed the Rich and Increased the Minimum Wage – Now, His State’s Economy Is One of the Best in the Country

Headline Type: Political

Wouldn’t you like to know how your state’s economy could be one of the best in the country?

Most people would. “How This Governor Made His State’s Economy One of the Best in the Country” probably would have worked really well for that reason, too.

The title for Gibson’s piece caught fire, though, because it also plays on emotion. Many people would be shocked or surprised to learn that higher taxes and minimum wage could actually benefit the economy. They might even want to argue the point, something they can only do after they click and read the article.

8. Same-Sex Couples Can Now Adopt Children in All 50 States

Headline Type: News

This headline definitely hit on a trending topic at the time, but many people would find this heartwarming and inspiring, as well. Again, as Rayson pointed out, grab people by the emotions and they’ll most likely give your piece a look.

7. Senate Confirms First-Ever Native American Woman As Federal Judge

Headline Type: News

Was this a trending story at the time? You bet!

Did plenty of people find this inspiring, too? Of course!

Still, let’s take a minute to look at two especially important words in this headline: “First-Ever.”

A lot of people may have been unaware of what this decision was so important. With just two words, this post becomes immediately more eye-catching.

Be careful that you never assume what is important to you about a story will be clear to your readers – even if its’ something in the news. Unless it’s incredibly obvious, use a word or two to tell prospective readers: “This is a big deal!”

6. 5 Reasons You Should Have Sex With Your Husband Every Night

Headline Type: Tips & Advice

Everyone knows “sex sells”, but it’s interesting that such an apparently popular topic is only on this list once.

Obviously, a lot about the subject is still considered taboo, which means it’s less likely to get shared on social sites.

So what did this one do, right?

It’s a listicle, but it also covers an important topic that would interest two different groups of people. If you’re a husband who would like to have sex more often, you’re going to want to click on this article.

On the other hand, if you’re not having sex with your husband every night, you’re probably going to be curious about the five reasons you might be making a big mistake.

5. The Top 50 Cities To See in Your Lifetime

Headline Type: Opinion/View

Take a look at how well this post did on Twitter: 14.6k shares. That’s the second highest on our entire list.

Why?

Rayson pointed out that tips and facts tend to do really well on Twitter. This post is definitely packed full of the former.

Another great thing about this kind of post is that people are going to be naturally curious to see how many of these cities they’ve already seen and share this post if their number is particularly high or they just want to add their own recommendations.

4. An Open Letter to My Friends Who Support Donald Trump

Headline Type: Political

The President makes our list one last time. This particular post received significantly more shares than the others, though.

It’s not because we were any closer to the election, so it’s not that Trump had become more trend-worthy.

Instead, I think it’s because the format of this post is immediately clear: it’s an open letter. As I mentioned earlier, the format of your post is important, but you also want to communicate what it’s going to be in your headline whenever possible (e.g. “X Ways…”, “How to…”, etc.).

Being an open letter, this post also lent itself to shareability because people could simply pass it on to friends of theirs voting for Trump – or just share it.

3. 109-Year Old Woman Said Secret To Long Life Is Avoiding Men

Headline Type: Tips & Advice

This one has just about everything.

You most likely chuckled a bit when you read it, which doesn’t hurt.

However, you probably noticed “secret” right away, too. This is no small secret, either. It’s a secret that could help you live more than 100 years and it comes from a reliable source. This is also a secret that applies to everyone. Who doesn’t want to live a long life?

2. The Likely Cause of Addiction Has Been Discovered, and It Is Not What You Think

Headline Type: News

Again, addiction is something that affects almost everyone. If you haven’t experienced addiction first hand, you most likely know someone who has.

Not only does this title not tell you what the cause of addiction is – you’ll have to click it – it also makes clear that your assumptions about the subject are wrong. You may not have been too interested in the topic before, but don’t you kind of want to see if your theory was really wrong now?

1. 10 Reasons Why Handheld Devices Should Be Banned for Children Under the Age of 12

Headline Type: Tips & Advice

Lastly, the Huffington Post Heavyweight Champion for most shared headlines goes to this one from Cris Rowan.

Of course, at this point, it should be no surprise that this headline is so high up on our list.

This piece is clearly aimed at parents, an audience I’ve already mentioned is always going to be a good source for clicks.

It’s a listicle, too.

There’s also some great emotional triggers here. Rowan isn’t saying you shouldn’t buy your child a handheld device. You’re not going to receive tips to learn how to keep your kids from using their devices too much.

No, Rowan is saying they should be banned. This sort of emotionally-charged language always grabs attention, especially when you choose a topic like this one.

There you have it: the 30 most shared Huffington Post headlines from the last three years. While I can’t recommend Steve Rayson’s article to you enough, I also hope you learned something from seeing so much of his advice in action.

Going forward, take notice when you see his research holding true in posts that get shared and you’ll have an easier time creating the types of headlines that help accomplish the same.

We gathered some industry experts for a half-day conference in London this spring, and our tickets and waiting list spots filled so quickly that we couldn’t even really market the event.

Here’s what we learned from Jason A. Miller, global content marketing leader at LinkedIn, and Lukasz Zelezny, Growth Hacker and SEO consultant, as well asDixon Jones of Majestic.

Here are our top 10 takeaways:

(You can see our summary of each speaker’s presentation below)

1. Don’t be fooled by anyone who suggest links don’t matter. These virtual handshakes are as crucial in the digital world as an introduction to an influencer is in real life.
2. The “fact” that goldfish have a longer attention span than humans is a myth! (I’m relieved about this–aren’t you?)
3. Building links isn’t just about keywords and alt-tags…it requires content that is authoritative, valuable and novel.
4. People shift their focus from topic to topic very quickly, but they do it because they are wading through a swamp of mediocre content, looking for something worthwhile.
5. RANT WARNING: Of course, it takes a lot of time, energy and commitment to uncover and thoroughly answer your customers’ questions, one-by-one, until they have all of the information they need about your product, your industry, and their success, at their fingertips, with relevant charts, graphs, and images! Of course it will cost your company money, (and if you do it right, will cost you moments of agony as you iterate headlines until you find one that would move Larry Kim to cry). BUT–that is our job, our mission, our mantra. We are artisans of the answer. Craft-beer, craft-cheese, and craft bread have all had their moment. It’s time for craft-answers to replace stale, manufactured, shrink-wrapped blog posts. RANT OVER.
6. The fight for the top spot on Google is a valiant and important struggle: There is a huge difference in the click through rate for posts that rank in the first position on Google and those that rank second. But, the CTR for posts in the fifth through tenth positions are not substantially different.
7. Teams that share each others content are happier, more resilient and have better office parties. Not really, but they do have incredible reach: “A single employee sharing 3 pieces of content a day can add up to 23 million in additional reach in a year.” Jason A. Miller
8. Data shows that people are both afraid of and drawn to new things. This explains Jason Bourne, Finding Dory, and possibly, the entire super-hero genre.
9. Data shows that truly viral content is a myth. Instead, content with high shares is broadcast diffusely, with multiple influencers sharing with their audience. The audience does not drive typically drive the same number of shares , as it would if content dissemination truly mimicked the common cold.
10. Data shows that successful content marketers are tightrope walkers, giving answers for commonplace problems without losing sight of the extraordinary complexity of readers’ humanity. Our audience wants to read valuable information that meets a mundane need without boring them to tears. Given the choice, they’d like to get their answers with a side of emotion and a promise for success, in a package that they understand and like.

If we told you we were offering a second event in NEW YORK that promises to be as useful as this, and that we have worked hard to make sure that more people will be able to attend, would you want an invitation?

Of course you would!

Sign up now, seats are limited.

Now for a summary of the great presentations in London.

Jason A. Miller

Global Content Marketing Leader at LinkedIn

KEYNOTE: Innovation In Content Marketing Starts with a Reality Check

We are better than goldfish!

Quit creating content for goldfish attention spans, and write for sophisticated human content consumers, Jason says.

The often repeated “fact” that goldfish have trumped humanity in a concentration challenge has no basis in research, Jason says. A frequently referenced study of attention comparisons has been misinterpreted, leading to widespread misbelief.

The study actually points to something totally different and more significant for marketers.

While people do have the ability to move quickly from topic to topic, they do so in order to pay appropriate and significant attention to truly valuable information.

In essence, people use attention efficiently to find good things to concentrate on, Jason says. (Perhaps goldfish are still looking for something valuable enough to merit their focus?)

The bottom line: writing that is designed for an audience of unsophisticated, goldfish-like readers will fail because it will not please actual human readers who are constantly shifting their attention through mountains of content, looking for the pieces worth their time.

Long-form content that delivers value is the key to engaging an audience.

Studies by Contently, MarTech, BuzzSumo, and Disruptive have shown that content of more than 1500 words performs far better than common 400 word blog posts.

Yes, that type of content takes more time and effort to create.

Yes, it’s worth it, Jason says.

Research indicates that content marketers haven’t been in touch with this reality. A BuzzSumo study found that most content –50 percent — gets less than eight shares, and no links.

Doing better will require marketers to produce relevant, long-form content that answers the questions prospects are asking, Jason says.

He suggest several actions steps. First, invest in creating “big rock” or cornerstone content and parcel it out in smaller slices over time.

Then, A/B test everything. Even small changes make a big difference.

A third step: Leverage the sharing power of your employees. “Only 3% of employees share content, Jason says, “Yet they generate 30% of all content engagement for a typical business.”

“A single employee sharing 3 pieces of content a day can add up to 23 million in additional reach in a year.”

Lukasz Zelezny

Head of SEO, Growth Hacker and SEO Speaker Consultant

The Unconventional Guide to Research, Optimize and Share Your Content

Snapshot Method

If you have a site with an established history of SERP ranking, and you are working on organic performance, Start your research with the Snapshot Method, Luzasz suggests. The method begins by looking at the key words your site already ranks for and asking if you can rank better.

Using a key word tool, identify the terms for which you rank between two and 10— essentially, the first page of Google.

There is a huge difference in the Click Through Rate for positions one and two on SERP’s, a smaller difference between position three and two and almost no difference between position five and 10.

You need to fight for the first position, Lukasz says.

To win the top spot, optimize your site for the words that you’ve identified during the research phase. Focus on:

• Title Tag Modification
• Strong Tags
• ALT Tags
• IMG Filenames;
• Additional paragraphs with text
• Header modification
• Internal links with keyword rich anchor texts.

In selecting a keyword tool, Lukasz recommends using as many as possible to generate the largest sample of keywords.

Gap Analysis

A second research process is Gap Analysis. “Competitors are the best source of information,” Lukasz says. Gap analysis is based on determining what your competitors are writing about.

To get started, find the keywords that your competitors are ranking for, but you aren’t. Work with your copywriters to fill the gap with content that is tailor-made to rank alongside (and ultimately, above) your competitors. 

ATOM Method

The third method Lukasz described is designed to adjust your site if one of your URL’s is ranking for too many keywords. Begin by finding and exporting keywords with their corresponding URL’s, Lukasz says.

Then, choose the URL you want to optimize, and split all of the keyword phrases it ranks for into single terms. These single terms are the ATOM”s you will work with in your optimization plan. Excel’s text to column feature is great for splitting multi-word phrases into ATOMS, Lukzasz recommends.

Once you have identified the ATOMS, you can recombine them into phrases for use at the URL you are targeting.

SEO and Social together

Social sharing and SEO work together, Lukasz says. “There is no silo.” Twenty percent of your content time should be spent on writing: 80 percent on promoting or sharing on social.

Another tip: If you aren’t writing news, you should write evergreen content that will sit for a long time on the same URL, Lukasz says. In your writing, watch for and eliminate time-indicating words like “last month” or “last week.”

Answer boxes

Answer boxes are the best place to rank on Google, Lukasz says. While there is no direct formula for getting content to show as an answer box, there are a few steps that increase your chances of being displayed there.

Use your competitors to find what keywords trigger answer boxes, then create content that is written in simple language that could be understood by a machine. Use images with good alt tags, and use bulleted lists in content that targets answer box placement.

Dixon Jones

Marketing Director at Majestic

Link Building for Search Engine Visibility

Links Matter

 It’s time to stop questioning the value of links, says Dixon.  Backlinks matter greatly because they drive people to your site, making your content visible to a larger audience.

Not only does it make intuitive sense that backlinks are important, but, research by Stonetemple, as well as comments by Andrey Lippatsev, a senior strategist at Google, confirm that links are an important part of SERP results.

Because of their importance, it’s critical to have a strategy in place to get links.

In addition to what Dixon calls the low-hanging fruit of identifying 404 errors and pointing them toward appropriate pages on your site, consider logically linking underperforming pages of your site to higher performing pages.

Content That Attracts links

A robust link strategy should also include creating content that attracts links.

Thankfully, research has revealed common reasons that people link to content. They do so to:

• support an article
• share information that is valuable, authoritative, or new.
• share data that will produce industry change.

Thus, link-building should include publishing original research and insights about topics your audience values, Dixon says. Content that sets industry standards will attract links as people will want to refer to it, providing a link as they do. Data-driven content is very effective in generating links.

Asking how many links are needed to rank well is not the most important question, because the websites have different relative strengths, Dixons says. Majestic provides a rubric for identifying the strength of a linking site.

A few links from strong sites can be more valuable than multiple links from many sites.

Ideal Content Launch Plan

In addition to publishing the types of content that will draw links, Dixon also outlined a process for launching content. His recommendations begin long before the piece is written.

The four-step ideal launch sequence is:

• Identify & Engage with Relevent Influencers
• Prepare the post and email them a Preview
• Tell them the link url and exact time of launch
• Remind them it is live.

Steve Rayson and Susan Moeller

BuzzSumo

Data Insights Into Content Marketing

Data completes the picture

Don’t rely solely on your own intuition or experience to inform your content decisions, Susan says. With an audience as diverse as the entire worldwide web, it’s impossible for one person to adequately understand audience preferences.

Data makes it possible to grasp the types of content that resonate, filling in the gaps left by our own media consumption.

Research into millions of articles and billions of Facebook posts has allowed us to identify five core elements in content that is heavily shared.

The data shows that successful content has:

1. An emotional element
2. A content element
3. A topic element
4. A format element
5. A promise element

The emotional element can be positive or negative, and it takes many forms: surprise or controversy, inspiration or heartbreak, amusement or anger.

The most popular content elements are images, facts, charts, quotes, videos or interactions.

Two topic elements consistently emerge as engagement drivers. People like to share content that is trendy, but they also like to share content about a handful of perennial favorites—puppies and babies, health and longevity, love.

Trends can be identified in culture—like the current obsession with millennials, or the less obsessive but still ubiquitous focus on sleep. In-vogue content can also be drawn from the world of entertainment—from books or movies, sports or television. Trendy topics can also be found in current events.

When deciding which formats to use, look to quizzes, list posts, research reports and stories to drive high levels of engagement.

Remeber: people don’t have an obligation to engage with our content, so make sure that each piece of content has a clear value proposition, and communicate that early on.  Data shows that people like to share content that has a clear and strong promise of something valuable.

Offering success is a common and very shareable theme.

These same five elements apply to headlines that drive shares.

What Data Shows About Facebook

When it comes to maximizing engagement for your Facebook posts, data shows that the best time to post is between 10 p.m. and midnight of your audience’s local time, and the best day to post is Sunday.

Videos that are embedded directly into Facebook get far more interactions than those shared via a link to YouTube. And, posts with hashtags get fewer interactions than those without.

Research into large datasets is a great starting point for developing a posting strategy, Steve says, but follow up by tracking successes and failures to determine what your audience responds to best.

The number of published post is growing. But only a few of them get a truly large number of shares. The distribution of shares is skewed, with the vast majority of posts getting less than 8 shares. The posts that get incredibly high share volumes are true outliers.

Data shows us that our readers’ favorite topic is themselves. This is one reason why quizzes are so frequently shared.

As with building links, creating valuable content that is original, research based and authoritative is the best way to drive shares, Steve says.

It’s important to remember that people are also simultaneously drawn to and frightened by new content. Because of this, it is important to link novel ideas to more established ones. Consider updating existing content to capitalize on an audience’s love hate relationship with novelty.

Finally, keep in mind that if content were truly spread virally, we would see one person sharing with 3 people, and those people each sharing with 3 additional people. But, the reality is much more of a diffuse broadcast, with a group of people sharing content with influencers who share the content with their audiences.  Those audiences do not in turn drive the same number of shares.

Content SEO 2017 is coming to New York! Register now for the May 16 event.