media seo analytics | push2digital

It's a good question, "What is the best day to publish content?"

It depends on your content, target audience and approach ... basically your digital strategy [if you don't have one, check out this post on building a web measurement model].

WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?

Let's assume you're a media site that generates 20% to 30% of your traffic from search and another 10% to 20% from social. That's a pretty good chunk of your audience acquisition that depends on others (ie. Google, Facebook, Twitter etc.)

So what if you could obtain greater exposure by analyzing what days generate the most referrals? Good start huh, because if you average 50 FB referrals on Mon., 62 on Tue., 64 on Wed., 48 on Thu., 52 on Fri, 22 on Sat. and 18 on Sun. -- that tells you something right?

It does, but not entirely.

To get a clear picture, you have to factor in how many pieces of content you're pushing out on those days. If you're publishing 95 stories on weekdays and 32 stories on weekends, that's significant. Therefore you want to know the referrals-per-story.

WHERE’S THE OPPORTUNITY?

Dan Zarella published a study on the ideal time to submit blog posts that states the ideal Twitter retweet sweet spot is Friday @ 4p ET.  He also claims that Facebook sharing is highest @ 9a ET and spikes significantly on Saturday.

This confirms data I've seen that stories published on Saturday generate approximately 60% more Facebook and Google referrals per story than those published during the week. Sunday stories show @ 25% more Facebook and 40% more Google referrals per story. The problem is that these spikes are often masked by the total number of referrals which are typically lower on the weekends.

HOW TO MEASURE REFERRALS PER STORY?

Your results may vary, so you should review your own metrics and build this formula. The trick is to compile total number of stories published for the year and break them down by day. In Excel you can apply a formula =WEEKDAY(A1) [A1 is your first date] to convert that date to a simple day of the week. Then you can apply a filter by clicking the header of the Day of the Week column you just created, click Data Tab and Filter button. That will allow to group your yearly data by all the Mondays, Tuesdays, etc. If that sounds confusing, read this post on using Excel's WEEKDAY function.

Once you have the year's stories published and referrals broken down by day of the week, you can build your weekday referral rate. Repeat for each day, and repeat for each source (Google, Twitter, Facebook or any other key referral source.)

(Monday Facebook Referrals / Monday Stories Published = [Monday Facebook referrals per story])

OPPORTUNITY FOR ACTION

The takeaway here is not, "don't publish on weekdays", but that there is a greater opportunity to be shared and ranked on the weekends, Saturday in particular. And content published that is geared towards a Facebook morning audience or Google topics could do significantly better during this time frame. It’s not a simple task, but it’s not rocket science either and worth the time, especially if you can generate more audience with no real extra work – just a smarter choice of publish times and content topics.

When it comes to people following/liking brands – the top two reasons are pretty obvious (1. They’re a current customer, 2. They’re looking for a deal), according socialtimes.com.

But it’s the third reason media companies should take note of. The No. 3 reason people will like a brand is because of its “interesting, entertaining content.

Should news organizations devote themselves to water-cooler content? No, but they should sure as heck syndicate and integrate social invites into their best talker content.

Now that we have feasted on healthy portions of Osama Bin Laden news for more than a week. What did we learn about coverage of a worldwide event like that?  Two compelling columns point to a strategy and a trend of how our appetite for the various flavors of news can be measured.

First is Danny Sullivan’s insightful piece that touched on the “nuggeting of news” and how blogs and some mainstream media pursued the story in bite-size pieces and were rewarded by Google with more frequent and higher SERP positions. Is it an overt chase for pageviews? Absolutely. Is it a devious new blogger tactic? Hardly, it’s been a media mainstay since the telegraph.

“It was effectively doing what news organizations and wire services have long done, a “write though,” constant updates to a story. Chasing pageviews too? Maybe. But also part of what is native to some news organizations.”

– Danny Sullivan

The second piece, the Pew Research Center's analysis of Bin Laden coverage, was even more interesting and referred to a study that focused on which story angles garnered the most coverage and where those angles were more prevalent.  What was the No. 1 theme on Twitter, Facebook? Humor, followed closely by conspiracy theories and hoaxes.  

SEOmoz guru @RandFish’s top Twitter insights from last night's NYC meetup.

1. Tweet … because RTs do drive rankings and quickly
2. Don't waste them, post them to your blog
3. User’s Klout score has no correlation to click-through-rates, but their Twitter.grader score does
4. Heavy tweeting is not bad
5. Average CTR on tweets is 1.17 percent

UPDATE: Shortly after this posting -- Fox announced "tweet-peat" episodes of "Fringe" and "Glee" which synchs with this concept. It makes the episode a social event due to the Twitter tie-in and gives viewers a reason to skip the DVR and watch live. (Disclaimer: I'm employed by News Corp. -- Fox Interactive Media) 

++++++++++++++++

Very cool concept here -- social media could make appointment TV worthwhile. It's the next-day work chat ... "Did you see 30 Rock last night ..." except you can do it during the show. There's value there -- and its for the user this time not the network/advertiser.

A few months back, I asked the question, "Where does Twitter make sense?" Well, recently Best Buy provided one of the better examples I've seen -- and it's a game plan that local media should take note of.

@Twelpforce is Best Buy's effort to offer customer service via Twitter. BB employees respond to product questions, recommendations and issues as long as you tag your tweet with @twelpforce.

(Disclaimer: they've yet to respond to my tweet asking -- "@TWELPFORCE Is there any noticeable difference between a $20 and $60 HDMI cable?" I'm not surprised at the lack of response as the question is a hot potato -- Best Buy is notorious for its exorbitant prices on the key not-included cable for your HDTV.)

UPDATE: Shortly after this post, twelpforce responded with a respectable answer -- better late than never.

Anyway -- even if the execution is spotty, the concept's on the money -- giving customers a reason to establish a bond with your brand by providing them something of value that you have readily available.

So that leads me to 6 rapid fire questions:

1. Why couldn't local media operations do this?
2. Who else is more likely to know or have access to answers to a wide variety of local questions?
3. What better way is there to build loyalty for your TV station, newspaper, Web site?
4. Isn't this exactly what we're supposed to be -- local experts -- the trusted sources who know a little bit about a lot of things?
5. And if we don't know the answer, wouldn't we likely know who does?
6. Could there be opportunities to refer users to our own newscasts, columnists and sites in the process?

So if you do happen to ask yourself,  "Where does Twitter make sense?" -- think of what valuable expertise you already have, offer it up in free snack-size samples and promote -- "If you like our tweets, you'll love our entrees."

NAB's presentation yesterday on Newsroom Reinvention by AR&D’s president Jerry Gumbert hit several good points, but one particularly relevant to Twitter.

 The social app is exploding around us, ala Oprah, Ashton, Larry King, so all media groups are rushing to leverage, integrate and monetize the application.

So the question is -- should we rush to tally the number of Twitter badges we can embed or RSS feeds we funnel into the Twitter firehose? Or rather, do we ask -- when does it make sense for my audience? How can it serve my users best? Where can it help me stand out?

Gumbert pointed out one weakness, "Weather information is accessible and comes from all the same sources. You don’t have to wait until the 11 (pm) news to get it."  True and therein lies the opportunity. Can you get it 24-7 on your phone from the person you trust in your local market with a little bit of his or her personality? If your meteorologist is firing off updates on Twitter you can.

Gumbert says weather forecasters have, “the easiest job at the station.” I think sports anchors have it easier, but regardless whether you agree or not, they do have the greatest opportunity to:

> Promote themselves

> Promote their site, station

> Reach out multiple times a day with very little effort

> Offer a weather update with personality that can't be duplicated on weather.com 

> Build audience loyalty online and on-air

Check out some of the weather options to follow on Twitter -- 580 at present -- and virtually none leverage any personality or even a forecasters' image for that matter. Use your favorite corporate buzz word -- I'll go with "low hanging fruit" -- this is it. Simple, relevant, local and exclusive. What more do you need?