Report: The Most Shared Blog Posts Include Multiple Images and Videos

TrackMaven recently released their “How to Build a Better Blog Than Your Competitors: 2017 Blogging Report,” with specific best practices for content marketers to improve the shareability of their posts.

After analyzing more than 18 million posts, TrackMaven found blog posts with multiple images and videos are shared more than those without. Blog posts with 11 images had 200 average social shares and posts with 8 videos had 506 average social shares. However, posts with too few or too many images and videos are shared less often.

The report also concluded that optimal distribution of images in content is different than video. Blog posts with 800-1000 words per image perform best, whereas blog posts with 1200-1400 words per video perform best. The researchers note that “blog posts are more shareable with more written content per video than per image.”

Longer and more complex blog content is also shared more frequently, according to the data. Posts with 1200-1400 words perform best with an average of 428 social shares per post. Blog posts with a fairly difficult readability score (50-59 Flesch score) also perform best with an average of 144 social shares per post. Content with a very difficult (0-29) readability score performed the worst.

These best practices are critical since the content marketing landscape has changed dramatically over the past 5 years.

Though the average number of blog posts published per brand has increased by 800 percent, the average number of social shares has decreased by 89 percent.

Social Media is Indispensable Tool for B2B Content Marketers

A recent Regalix survey showed B2B marketers use social channels as a key tool to distribute content. Twenty-seven percent of respondents identified social media as an “indispensable” channel for content distribution in 2016, up 6 percentage points from 2015.

The top three objectives for content marketing tactics included lead generation (87 percent), creating awareness (76 percent) and nurturing prospects and influencing purchases (69 percent).

The study’s author noted that “Social media is fast gaining traction as a channel for content distribution. And social is all about engagement. Marketers need to get over their excessive focus on meeting pre-sale objectives with their content strategy and consider using content marketing to also engage deeply with customers.”