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Table of ContentsI. Introduction:V. Blog Posting StrategiesWhat is Content Marketing?Most Frequent BloggersThe History of the BlogMost Shares for Top BlogsData IntroductionII. ScheduleWhat day of week is mosteffective for blog posts?What time of day is mosteffective for blog posts?III. Title AnalysisWhat’s the ideal blog title length?Does title punctuation effectblog engagement?How does title capitalizationeffect engagement?Most common words in titlesIV. Social Analysis by ChannelTrackMaven Content Marketing ReportBy Posting FrequencyMost Shared BlogsCase Study: The Meaning BehindGawker Media’s ViralityVI. Key Findings and Conclusion

I. IntroductionBlog posts area sum of contentmarketing’s partsWhat is ContentMarketing?Every year marketers areContent Marketing is aon content marketingform of owned marketingefforts in order to increasethat involves emails, blogbrand awareness andposts, guest posts, whiteto drive more inboundpapers, ebooks, webinars,leads into their funnels.case studies, websiteRather than reporting on thecopy, infographics, FAQs,varied effectiveness of eachand social media content.and every type of contentAnything involving piecesmarketing, we chose toof media or text that requirefocus on the blog. Why? Blogsome type of copy to beposts are a sum of contentwritten or published is amarketing’s parts, oftenform of content marketing.combining the statistics andspending more moneyContent Marketing represents research of white papers,ebooks, and case studies witha large part of inboundmarketing, and its overallthe design of an infographic,goal in any campaign is tobut with greater lengthtry to acquire more leads,than social media postsprospects, or customers. Itand greater personalizationis used to provide educationthan website content.and value for these potentials.TrackMaven Content Marketing Report

The History of the BlogThe first blog is creditedto a Swarthmore CollegeThe first blogis created1994Blogs arecalledweblogsThe word “blog”becomes a word19971999Blog platformBlogger boughtby google2003student named Justin Hall,created by Pyra Labs, whichwas eventually acquiredby Google in 2003.who in 1994 created theWhile individuals have usedsite Links.net. However,blogs as an online versionthe term “blog” didn’t enterof a personal diary sinceour lexicon until severalthe beginning, corporationsyears later. The invention ofand media giants alikethe word was a joint efforthave adopted the blog asbetween John Barger, whoa forum to spread brandcoined the term “weblog” inawareness and engage and/1997 as a shortened versionor entertain their audience.of “logging the Web,” andPeter Merholz, who truncatedthe term to “blog” in 1999.Blogging rose in popularityfor personal use as easyto-use blogging toolsbecame more mainstream,including Blogger.com, theTrackMaven Content Marketing Reportblog-publishing platform

Data IntroductionAt TrackMaven, our owncompany blog is our forumto share the quirks ofour culture, address ourcustomers’ pain points andFAQs, and share proactiveHow can analyticsinform better contentcreation strategies?marketing insights. Many ofthe questions we hear fromcustomers and colleaguescenter around content.How can we use analytics4,618 blogs and collectedall posts for each of theseblogs through April 3,2014, for a grand total of1,167,426 posts. For eachpost, we analyzed trends inengagement by capturingthe number of social shares,which came to a grand totalof 1,915,428,305 socialshares for the data set.to inform better contentWhile blog post engagementcreation strategies? Howcan come in many forms,can we develop the idealthroughout this report, wecontent publishing strategy?will define the engagementThis analysis is an endeavoror effectiveness of ato shed more insight onblog post by the numberthose and other contentof social shares.marketing questions.TrackMaven Content Marketing ReportFor this report, we analyzed

II. ScheduleMillions of blog posts arePosting Frequency vs Average Social Shares by Day of Weekpublished every day, but25%Social sharesis there a “best” time toPosting frequency20%publish? We broke downthe posting schedule for15%our data set by day of the10%week and time of day, andanalyzed both for the most5%What day of week is mostblog posts?When we look at the mostfrequent days of the week forpublishing blog posts, we cansee that content marketershave been focusing theirwith the most posts published0%MonTuesWedsThursDay of WeekFriSatSunDays of Week in order ofavg. posting frequency:1. Tuesday & Wednesday (tied):18% of all posts published3. Thursday : 17.9%4. Monday: 17.2%Of the 1.2M posts weanalyzed, a whopping 87%were posted during theworkweek. However, the5. Friday: 15.9%13% of posts published on6. Sunday: 6.8%weekends raked in the most7. Saturday: 6.3%social shares. Saturday isDays of Week in order ofavg. social shares:1. Saturday: 18% of all social shares2. Sunday: 14.6%3. Tuesday, Wednesday &Thursday (tied):14.1%6. Friday: 12.7%TrackMaven Content Marketing Reporton Tuesday and Wednesday.7. Monday: 12.5%particularly ripe for contentmarketers to reap a massiveROI; while only 6.3% ofposts were published onSaturdays, they received18% of the total socialshares.

What time of day is mosteffective for blog posts?Posting Frequency Based on Time of Day80000Average Post FrequencyThe top left graph shows64000the distribution of postingtime for our entire blog data48000set, which has a mostly320001600004-5a6-7a8-9a 10-11a 12-1p 2-3p 4-5p6-7p8-9p 10-11p 12-1a 2-3aTime of DaySocial Shares Based on Time of Day3500Average Social Shares2800between 9PM-midnight ESTwork hours from roughly 9AM have the most social shares,to 6PM EST, with the highestwith 10-11PM as the highestpoint at 11AM-12PM withpoint of engagement. There6.53% of posts publishedare also secondary spikes inthen. However, whileengagement between 4-6AM,posting frequency steadily7-8PM, and 1-2AM EST.of the next business day.6-7a8-9a10-11a12-1p2-3p4-5pTime of DayTrackMaven Content Marketing Report6-7p8-9p10-11p12-1a2-3aoutside of working hours.posts coming within normalscheduled posts at the start4-5aengagement are clusteredcan see that blogs postedat 3.17%, most likely due to0inverse effect; the peaks ofa noticeable influx of blogin posts from 12-1AM EST700by time of day there is anIn the bottom left graph, wethere is a secondary spike1400at blog post effectivenessnormal distribution. There isdeclines after 6PM EST,2100However, when we look

Try connectingwith youraudience outsideof work hoursThis contrast betweenjust because your contentblogging frequency andis educational or work-social shares by time of dayrelated doesn’t mean itshows that content marketersshould come during workingwho are publishing outsidehours. Your audience’sof work hours are gettingcraving for educational orabove-average engagement.entertaining content is innate,While your brand’s blogso engage your readerscontent might be aimed atduring the time they haveprofessional growth, leisureto indulge that craving.hours are readers’ preferredtime to read, reflect, and sharethe content that resonatesmost with them. So contentmarketers, take note –TrackMaven Content Marketing Report

III. Title Analysis25%Social sharesFrequency20%15%10%5%0%050100150Total Characters in Titleto judge a book by itsWhat’s the ideal blog titlelength?cover but do we judgeIn this graph, we see aa blog post by its title?relatively normal bellA typical marketing adagecurve for title length, withadvises that we should followthe most frequent titlesthe 80/20 rule when creatingcontaining 40 characters.a post, assuming only 80%However, the distributionof people will look at yourof social shares peaksheadline and then only 20%farther to the right, withwill read the whole post.60-character titles receivingWith that in mind, creatingthe most social shares.We’ve all been told notPost Title Length Distribution vs Social Shares200250300a great headline or title isof the utmost importanceto entice your audience tokeep reading past the titleand absorb the entire blogpost you worked so hard on.are masters of SEO andlong-tail keywords, thegreater effectiveness of60-character titles couldplay to your strengths. ThatTo this point, we took asaid, don’t overdo it – blogscloser look at trends inwith titles beyond the 60blog post titles to uncovercharacter length saw a sharpcorrelations betweendecline in social shares.title and engagement.TrackMaven Content Marketing ReportFor content marketers who

Does title punctuationeffect blog engagement?Usage of Question Marks in Title vs Social Shares100%Social sharesFrequency80%The vast majority of theover 1 million blog postswe analyzed stuck with60%40%20%012Number of Question Marks in Titledriven by our inquisitive,our human curiosity withexcitable human nature?a question and exudingat the high y-intercept ofSocial sharesFrequency75%50%25%0%012345spamminess; the averageengagement was lowestfor titles that wentoverboard with two ormore question marks.this graph, we can see thatWhile punctuating with94.89% of blog posts did nota single question markinclude a question mark.correlated with higherHowever, our analysisengagement, the chart onshows that there is athe bottom left illustratesnoticeable peak in thethat the same is not true foraverage percentage ofexclamation points. Few blogsocial shares for blog poststitles use exclamation pointswith a question contained(97.24% without), and forin the title. The 5.01% ofgood reason – the averageNumber of Exclamation Marks in TitleTrackMaven Content Marketing Reportwithout question marks.line between appealing tomarks in blog titles. Looking100%nearly double that for titlesBut isn’t content consumptioneffectiveness of questionUsage of Exclamation Marks in Title vs Social Shareshas 46.30% social shares,However, there is a finesee the frequency and3a single question markdeclarative headlines.In the top left graph we0%blog titles that included

social shares decreasedWhile that result might temptfor titles that added upyou to exclaim away in yourto 3 exclamation points.blog titles, make sure thatInterestingly, while less thanthe “!!!!” level of excitement0.1% of posts were so boldis appropriate to youras to include 4 exclamationcontent and your audience.points, those that didsaw 2,027 social sharesWe crave contentthat appeals to ourinherent curiosityon average, accountingfor 33.72% of the total.Lukewarm excitement, itseems, is forgettable, but realexcitement!!!! is share–worthy.Again, as human beings wecrave content that appealsto our inherent curiosityand excitability, and weshare what we care mostabout. So rather than usinganother declarative headline,consider adding somecolor with punctuation.TrackMaven Content Marketing Report

Usage of Uppercase Letters in Title vs Social Shares50%Social sharesFrequencyHow does titlecapitalization effectengagement?to evoke e.e. cummings thanThe graph below shows theno capitalization, while lessfrequency and social sharesthan 1% were written withcompared to the ratio ofCaps Lock. The majorityuppercase letters in blogof content marketers,titles, with an uppercasehowever, are getting it justration of 1 meaning ALLright, as the peak for bothCAPS. At the extreme ends offrequency and social sharesthe spectrum, it seems morecorrelates with standardcontent creators are inclinedcapitalization se Ratio (1 ALL CAPS)TrackMaven Content Marketing Report0.70.80.91to shout at their readers,as 12.14% of blog titles had