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 they care about (84%)
• Stay connected to people 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%)

News Consumer Insights analyzes 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.

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

💡Best practice:

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

See an example here

Buttons allow readers to take actions, 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