News on Facebook generates lots of comments
Looking at the content of the top 10 Facebook posts in 2015, the overall approach was sentimental (best friends, parenting), scientific (NASA) and pop culturish (zombies). But wait! Engagement with news content had a different twist: lots of comments.
Grace Duffy writes in The Biggest Facebook Content in 2015 at NewsWhip blog that an opinion article about minimum wage in The Blaze that ranked fifth (1.4 million) in The Top Ten Facebook Posts of 2015 rose to No. 1 in Top Ten Facebook Stories 2015 (Comments) based on the most comments at 620,111.
Similarly Fox News’ zombie-themed cruise was No. 3 (1.5 million) in the overall list but climbed to the No. 2 spot in comments in the news stories list. Where there were posts that made both lists, some news stories rose in rank by comments compared to their position in the overall content list.
What, if any, lesson might there be for news sites? That it’s important to present stories in formats or styles that connect with viewers so compellingly that they will respond with comments. In other words, when viewers care enough, they will respond so that engagement continues beyond the first click.
Another NewsWhip 2015 list of note: Best Publishers in Social Media. The list is segmented into three categories, each showing the top three.
Best Sites on Social Media: BuzzFeed, The Huffington Post and The New York Times
Best Distributed Channel: NowThis, AJ+ (Al Jazeera millennial-focused site) and Reportedly
Best Video Publishers: BuzzFeed Food, BBC News and The Guardian