Social sharing is a huge element of content marketing. Achieving a high number of social shares is great for SEO, increases your credibility, and of course, improves your content's visibility.
While you don't have a whole lot of control over whether or not a piece of content goes viral, you do have control over your consistency and your content marketing mix. And let's face it: Some content formats are more shareable than others.
We teamed up with BuzzSumo to gather some information on the three most shared forms of content: "How To" posts, quizzes, and picture lists.
1. Love to Share
2X
1,900
LINKEDINPINTERESTFACEBOOK
(Backed by Data)
“Sell something, get a customer for a day. Help someone,
get a customer for life.”
How To Fold A Fitted Sheet In Seconds!
How Did I Not Know This?
petflow.com
complete-health-and-happiness.com
bhg.com
How To Paint Cabinets or Furniture
linkedin.com
The Biggest Mistakes I See on Resumes,
and How to Correct Them
How To Make Lavender Lemonade to
Get Rid Headaches and Anxiety
ARE
ONE OF THE MOST
SHARED FORMS
OF CONTENT
—”How To” posts provide practical advice.
OF THE MOST SHARED
MOST VIEWED
WAS A QUIZ
MOST SHARES
??
??
?
Language Quiz: Are You on Fleek?
nytimes.com
The New York Times continues to create widely shared quizzes. For example:
HOWEVER, QUIZZES FROM OTHER ONLINE SOURCES CAN GET EVEN MORE SHARES:
PICTURE LISTS WORK BEST WHEN THEY:
OVER
Tell a Story Explain a Process
Photos from Elizabeth Hoard Photography
Make Comparisons
IF YOU WERE A DRUG,
WHICH ONE WOULD YOU BE?
WHAT COLOR
IS YOUR PERSONALITY?
100
0
200
300
400
playbuzz.com
WERE QUIZZES
3.5MILLION
100,000
OVER
SHARES
Posts with multiple curated images have even more potential to go viral
Overpopulation, overconsumption
- in pictures
theguardian.com
2/10 of The Guardian's most shared posts were picture lists. For example:
If you want your content to get shared, you need to know what people are sharing.
Going viral requires a bit of luck, but there are certain content formats you can
consistently create to tap into viral territory.
“HOW TO” POSTS
— Jay Baer, Author of Youtility and President of Convince & Convert
3
PEOPLE
/4
ARE MOTIVATED TO LEARN ONLINE
BECAUSE THEY WANT TO DO THEIR
JOB FASTER AND BETTER
HOW
TO”
POSTS
“
TOTAL
AVERAGE SHARES PER “HOW TO” POST
Out of 2 million "How To" posts created in the past 12 months,
the most shared posts were:
949.8K 951.4K4 931 556 31
924.6K 933.8K17 981 7.8K 291
34.9K 36.6K52 2 1.1K
869.0K1 26616
517
868.3K 8
TOOK PLACE ON
DIY “HOW TO”
HEAVILY SHARED ON
CAREER “HOW TO”
MOST SHARED ON
QUIZZES ?
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"A great quiz is like a mirror – it’s hard to walk by one
without taking a look."
— Josh Little, Qzzr
AVERAGE SHARES PER QUIZ
8/10 ARTICLES IN 2014
POST IN 2013
949.8K 951.4K4 931 556 31
playbuzz.com
2.4MILLION
PICTURE LISTS
90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and
visuals are processed 60,000X faster in the brain than text.
FACEBOOK POSTS WITH IMAGES GET
AS MANY
AS POSTS WITHOUT IMAGES AVERAGE POST INTERACTIONS
654.2K 667.7K1.1K 8.6K 1.6K 2.3K
FOR THIS PICTURE
STORY POST230,000
OVER
FOR THIS PICTURE
STORY POST470,000
SOURCES
3 TYPES OF CONTENT
That People
PICTURE LIST POSTS
FREQUENTLY GET
SHARES
The posts in this infographic achieved 1,381,300+ total shares.
Add "How To" posts, quizzes & picture lists to your content mix to harness the power of social sharing!
[1]
[1]
towardsmaturity.org/article/2015/05/05/learner-voice-part-2
[2]
buzzsumo.com
[3]
www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/01/
-em-the-new-york-times-em-most-popular-story-of-2013-was-not-an-article/283167/
[4]
www.playbuzz.com/benjaminbirely10/what-color-is-your-personality
[5]
www.playbuzz.com/katieh20/if-you-were-a-drug-which-one-would-you-be
[7]
www.buzzfeed.com/krystieyandoli/after-her-fiance-left-her-at-the-altar-this-bride-took-the-w
[8]
conservativetribune.com/pictures-shocking-pictures-comparing-us-school-lunches-to-other-countries-goes-viral
[2]
[2]
[2]
[2] [3]
[2]
[2]
[4] [5]
Photos Sweetgreen
[2] [2]
[2]
[2]
[7]
[8]
Posts with images
Posts without images
uberflip.com & buzzsumo.com
TOTAL
TOTAL
After Her Fiancé Left Her At The Altar, This Bride Took The World’s Best Photo Shoot
Shocking Pictures Comparing US School Lunches to Other Countries Goes Viral
"How To" posts are most frequently shared on Facebook & Pinterest,
but also do well on LinkedIn. For example:
Created by
&
[6]
blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33423/19-Reasons-You-Should-Include-Visual
-Content-in-Your-Marketing-Data.aspx
[6]