Chartbeat Publishing: Exploring the Social View
As a member of the Chartcorps, our Chartbeat Publishing clients ask me all the time how they should be using the Social View. What are best practices, what are the other guys using it for and to what effect, that kind of stuff. In a nutshell, the Social View helps you understand more about why readers are sharing your articles, what they’re talking about in relation to you and your content offsite, and how you can instantly spot every possible opportunity to grow your audience.
Social View 101
The Social View shows you how people are sharing your content on Twitter and Facebook. You have a feed in your dashboard of everyone who’s promoting your story and how they’re doing so. You can put a face to your legions of fans. But more than that – and of course more important than that – you know who is advocating for you and can act as a content guide for you. The content that resonates with your core audience will bring them back again and again leading to not just return visits, but a loyal audience. And every article is an opportunity to build those loyalists.
Readers connecting with your content
With the Social View, you have insider access to the conversation surrounding your story – why people find it interesting, what elements of the story are compelling enough that people are sharing that link. Sure, you can always look at the comments section on your page, but with the Social View you’re not limited just to your commenting audience, which is generally a small portion of the most outspoken in the bunch – you can see everyone who’s tweeting a link to that story. This gives you a real sense of the relationships readers are establishing with your content and therefore you (read: more loyalists.)
It’s all about tactical insights
Knowing who loves your content, who’s sharing it, and when doesn’t amount to more than a pat on the back – unless you do something about it.
The data you’re getting from your Social View helps you execute on your content strategy. Once your story’s out in the world, it’s time for you to make some key, traffic-driving decisions. Maybe your story’s current title doesn’t reflect why your readers find that story compelling (your concurrents are lower than you know they should be), so you could switch in a new headline that relates to those specific story points that your Twitter fam is calling out most. Or maybe, in response to a specific point your readers are hung up on, you can edit that piece to add some clarification or further insights or get a followup piece up and live ASAP.
There are always ways to build on the dialogue your initial story started – the beauty of the social web means news is never finished. Chartbeat data’s just like a compass for your editorial strategy. You can’t possibly pay 100% attention to every scroll, every tweet, every share – but Social View points you to the ones you do need to see, the impact makers, the audience builders.
But share in the comments how you’ve used social traffic and to what effect. And as always, feel free to shoot me an email if you have any questions.