Post on 22-Jan-2018
#LIFTSocial
How to Recognize and Surface Your
Best ContentMatthew Knell – VP of Social Media for About.com
#LIFTSocial
What is About.com? • Founded in 1996.
• 85 million people visit about.com
every month.
• 13th largest site on the Internet.
• 1,000 Experts on topics from parenting
to technology, healthcare and cooking.
• Each month more people check out
About.com than Pandora, Twitter,
Buzzfeed, Linkedin or Netflix.
#LIFTSocial
About.com was built to help people find answers and inspiration
#LIFTSocial
This would typically happen through search
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And we’d deliver an answer for you
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Doing social media must be easy, right?
#LIFTSocial
It’s actually more like a game of Clue
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The Challenge…
Finding content
we already had
that was good for
social audiences.
Creating content for social
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Which one would you share?
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1.5 million pieces of content created over 19+ years
#LIFTSocial
<1% Of our content are solid social candidates
#LIFTSocial
4 Steps To A Social Discovery Workflow
Understand how your content is created and structured.
1
Define your KPI and tools you need to measure
them.
Operationalize the learnings.
2
3
4
Embrace the anomalies.
#LIFTSocial
Step #1: Understand how your content is created and structured
#LIFTSocial
Why is content created?
Breaking News
0-60 min
Reaction
60 min-24 hrs 24 hrs-7 days
Analysis Evergreen
7 days-until stale
Stale
Stale until updated
Time since subject of content happened
#LIFTSocial
How long is content useful?
Real-Time
Good for 48 hours after event
Good for 30-60 days a year Good any day of the year
EvergreenSeasonal
#LIFTSocial
Where will it be consumed?
On site Off site
• Website• Mobile site• Apps
• Social networks• Facebook Instant Articles• Google AMP• Native content• Email
#LIFTSocial
Which platform is content likely to be consumed on most often?
Desktop Tablet Mobile iOT
• Desktop• Laptop• Netbook
• iPad• Android Tablet
• iPhone• Android Phone
• Apple Watch• Amazon Echo• VR
#LIFTSocial
Step #2: Define your KPI and tools you need to measure them.
#LIFTSocial
What matters most for us?
• Total sessions (all sources)
• Total page views (all sources)
• Page views per visit (all sources)
• Total sessions from social (all sources)
• Total PV from social networks
• PPV from social networks
• % of total page views from social
• Share rate (% of times people
clicked share / total PV)
• Total Facebook Shares (lifetime)
• Total Pinterest Pins (lifetime)
• Total engagement on our O&O social pages
• Total PV from our O&O social pages
#LIFTSocial
Real-Time EvergreenSeasonal
On site:• Google Real-Time
Off site:• CrowdTangle• Buffer Analytics• Tailwind Analytics
On site:• Google Analytics
Off site:• Simply Measured• Tailwind Analytics
On site• Tableau• Hue
Off site• Simply Measured• Tailwind Analytics
Line up dashboards against these
#LIFTSocial
Simply Measured custom report merges on-site/off-site data
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Find duplicity / margin of error
• How “wrong” is the data compared to other sources?
• What data sets can be unified? Which others are duplicative?
• Is the data you’re making decisions on reliable?
#LIFTSocial
Step #3: Embrace the anomalies
#LIFTSocial
The Sugar Glider Effect
Sugar Gliders are marsupials; that is their young start life off in a pouch (like a kangaroo). They originally hail from Australia, Indonesia and New Guinea, and live in forests. Their name is derived from their diet (in part they feed on nectar and the sap of eucalyptus), and from the flap of skin they have between their wrists and ankles that allows them to glide between trees. They are omnivorous, meaning they will eat plant material and meat - food in the wild include nectar, fruit, insects and even small birds or rodents. They live in social family units in the wild, a trait which makes them inclined to bond well with their human family. However, if they are deprived of social interaction they will not thrive (in fact they can become depressed to the point where they may die).
From: http://exoticpets.about.com/cs/sugargliders/a/sgaspets.htm
“
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#LIFTSocial
Wait, what?
Sugar Gliders are marsupials; that is their young start life off in a pouch (like a kangaroo). They originally hail from Australia, Indonesia and New Guinea, and live in forests. Their name is derived from their diet (in part they feed on nectar and the sap of eucalyptus), and from the flap of skin they have between their wrists and ankles that allows them to glide between trees. They are omnivorous, meaning they will eat plant material and meat - food in the wild include nectar, fruit, insects and even small birds or rodents. They live in social family units in the wild, a trait which makes them inclined to bond well with their human family. However, if they are deprived of social interaction they will not thrive (in fact they can become depressed to the point where they may die).
From: http://exoticpets.about.com/cs/sugargliders/a/sgaspets.htm
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#LIFTSocial
http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned
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Will this ever happen again?
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Will this happen again next winter?
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Whenever we post it = gold!
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Every piece of content develops a patternTake a look at their history to see what it looks like.
#LIFTSocial
Step #4: Operationalize the learnings
#LIFTSocial
Breaking News
0-60 min
Reaction
60 min-24 hrs 24 hrs-7 days
Analysis Evergreen
7 days-until stale
Stale
Stale until updated
Time since subject of content happened
The content lifecycle
#LIFTSocial
Where About.com content lives
Breaking News
0-60 min
Reaction
60 min-24 hrs 24 hrs-7 days
Analysis Evergreen
7 days-until stale
Stale
Stale until updated
Time since subject of content happened
#LIFTSocial
Which social networks are relevant when
Breaking News
0-60 min
Reaction
60 min-24 hrs 24 hrs-7 days
Analysis Evergreen
7 days-until stale
Stale
Stale until updated
Time since subject of content happened
#LIFTSocial
About.com social traffic by network
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Double down on what works best
#LIFTSocial
#LIFTSocial
#LIFTSocial
Daily stand up meeting
• Contains representatives from email, social, site programming and data science teams.
Typical agenda:
• Review Trending topics in the news.
• Review Seasonal / Today in History possibilities.
• Review yesterday’s greatest hits on social, email, site programming.
• Recommendations on what content to share today.
THANK YOU
#LIFTSocial