Everyone loves a Top 10 list. Last week while summarizing my top 10 Daily Golden Nuggets from 2015 according to Google Analytics, I realized I should go through the list to see what the top Nuggets are according to Facebook.
Tracking the most active social media content might seem silly, but there's real value to this activity. When you first start blogging or otherwise building content, it's difficult to see what's working and what's not, but if you can tell what works, then you have a clear path of what new content to build.
Here's the Top 10 List of Daily Golden Nuggets according to the number of times it was shared on Facebook. Take a quick look to see if you remember them, and if you were glad your friends shared them:
Your Business with Pandora
1. It May Be Time To Dump Pandora Charms
It really made me smile to see that this is the one has had the most engagement on Facebook, since I have been predicting this brand's decline for years, and many jewelers were resistant to believe this inconvenient truth. This one also appeared as No. 3 in the Top 10 list last week according to Google Analytics. I certainly will have to update this one, but I bet you guys already have an idea where your in-store Pandora sales are heading.
2014 Holiday Marketing Calendar and Headlines
2. Important 2014 Marketing Dates and Sales Headlines
This Nugget clearly listed the dates that you should schedule your ads around, and I gave samples of email headlines that could be used for those dates. The information here is still valid even though it's old. Rest assured that there will be lists like this over and over again in future Nuggets.
Robots.txt
3. Robots.txt and Meta Robots - A Beginner's Guide
I'm a little surprised to see a technical Daily Golden Nugget in this list and in 3rd place too. This definitely is one of those post everyone should read as they are working on their new website. It explains how to set up the robots.txt file with instructions that search engines need in order to read your website.
Creating and Sharing Content
4. Share the Content Creation Burden and Then Share Socially
Speaking of creating good content and sharing it socially, that's what this one is all about. Everyone should go back and read this one for ideas on how to create content for your business.
Another List...
5. These Old Daily Nuggets Are Now Rubbish
So here's a list of all my old Daily Nuggets that are completely outdated. It just goes to show you that everyone does love lists, and this one was shared several times on Facebook. When it comes to building content for your own website, you should try to publish information that will be relevant for as long as possible. In my early days of blogging, I wrote a lot about new technology that quickly died, which in turn negated the usefulness of these posts other than for historical reference.
More Technobabble
6. Discover Server Health and Hacking Attempts in Web Server error_log Files
I'm again quite surprised to see another technical Nugget make it into this Top 10 of Facebook activity. Most of the time, I'm told my technical posts are too technical, but apparently the tracking data shows that they are popular. This one was written more for website server administrators, but it's also good as reference for high level SEO issues.
Print and Email Marketing Help
7. Offline and Email Marketing Campaigns To Sell Your Products
This post goes in depth to explain how to plan a specific marketing campaign that will use newspaper, direct mail, and email as a 1-2-3-punch to build awareness and get people to your website and into your store.
On Another Technical Note...
8. Log File Referrals and What to Watch Out For When Reading Them
Yet another technical Nugget... This one explains the current problem of referral spam and how badly it affects most websites. I wrote a few Nuggets in 2014 to explain referral spam and how it was causing trumped up readings in Google Analytics. The topic is extremely complicated and I only scratched the surface of how to solve it because I knew it would become very, very technical to write about. Referral spam is still a serious issue, and perhaps I should publish my solutions to it.
AdWords Invoicing
9. Getting The Proper Invoice From Your Google AdWords Agency
Many ad agencies will bill you a flat fee every month which will include their service fee as well as the pay-per-click cost of the ads they manage for you. Sadly, most agencies do not provide transparent invoicing of how much money they spend on those clicks. Ask your agency to give you a transparent invoice breakdown, or ask them if you can pay the PPC bill directly to Google, Facebook, or any other place where your ads are appearing.
Website Review
10. John Ross Jewelers Website Review
I've been writing weekly website reviews for quite a while now. This particular one made it into the top 10 list for Facebook engagement, but I don't know why this one is more popular than the 158 reviews I've written so far. Tune in every Friday to see the next #FridayFlopFix review.
Closing Comments
The above list was measured by the number of times someone shared or reshared that post on Facebook. From my website, I'm able to track when Facebook creates a preview of a shared link. This is a completely different measurement than how Facebook measures engagements or reach, which are usually inflated. My tracking is also unrelated to how the Facebook Like and Share buttons work on the website; indeed, several of the above posts even say they were not liked or shared, which is completely inaccurate.
Some final food for thought... Facebook likes to show you engagement metrics that make them look good.
