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Lesson 3 of 6
Increase traffic with social sharing
Increase site traffic
Increase traffic with Google's search products
Increase traffic with newsletters (5:14)
Increase traffic with web notifications
Increase site traffic with Google Ads (8:11)
Increase traffic with Search (8:49)
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Increase traffic with social sharing

social post (2)

Tap into social networks to reach new audiences

social post (2)

Why do readers share news?

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Every minute, people send over 40 million messages on social media. Research shows that readers share on social media to:

  • Inform others (94%)
  • Support causes or issues that they care about (84%)
  • Stay connected to people that they may not otherwise stay in touch with (78%)
  • Meet others with shared interests (73%)
  • Feel more involved in the world (69%)
  • Give others a better sense of who they are and what they care about (68%)
  • Potentially change opinions or encourage actions (49%)
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Understand your social traffic with News Consumer Insights (NCI)

ncisocial

News Consumer Insights analyses your Google Analytics data to help you get more traffic from social media.

STEP 1

Connect your Google Analytics to News Consumer Insights.

STEP 2

Navigate to Reader engagement and scroll down to Traffic Sources.

STEP 3

Hover over the blue bubbles that say Facebook, Twitter, Other social and Dark traffic* to see the volume and the value of your social traffic.

If you don’t post on social media, or <1% of your traffic comes from social media, a blue bubble will not display.

STEP 4

Click View recommendation to see if you should focus on social media.

ncisocial

Select relevant platforms

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28% of audiences use social media to access news online, according to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

💡Best practice:

  • Select no more than five social media platforms that your audience uses
  • Display share buttons in order of what platforms your audience uses
  • Make your share buttons instantly recognisable by using logo colours for each social media platform

See an example here

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Place share buttons

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Buttons allow readers to take action and make choices with a single tap.

💡Best practices:

  • Make share buttons easy to find in your article's text
  • Group social buttons under one share icon that expands into a menu
  • Measure your share buttons’ performance by tagging them in Google Analytics

See an example here

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