If you want to get Facebook users to share your articles, here’s a tip: write about sex. That’s the finding of a new report published by Dan Zarella, the “social media scientist”. While not completely surprising, it’s interesting that sex was the most popular word in contrast to all others. It’s also interesting that no two word phrases were included in this individual study, as I’d imagine that would be even more telling.
Dan Zarella’s study comes from a data set of over 12,000 links that were collected among a number of leading online publications. While the methodology can be debated, it seems like an extremely effective sampling technique. That articles about salacious activities are shared more often is not exactly a surprising statistic for those who work in the media, however most readers love to have their suspicions confirmed.
This article itself should be a good test of the findings as it would suggest that more users will share it given that it’s specifically about sex. We all know that sex sells though, so any confirmation of the fact shouldn’t be extremely surprising. If you’re focused on marketing on Facebook, you may want to consider integrating sex more often into your content if you want to maximize the volume of shares.
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THIS is a sad but true fact. LOL
Comment by Shauna — May 3, 2010 @ 9:14 am
THIS is a sad but true fact. LOL
Comment by Shauna Equality Humm — May 3, 2010 @ 9:15 am
Surprise, surprise, sex sells…
Dan's study also reinforced what I tell my clients over and over – be positive!
Comment by Jenny Green — May 3, 2010 @ 9:38 am
For me it should be enlightening and affirming. If it is true, why not make something positive out of this study? Facebook should be the first to capitalize on this, trumping out competition. I don't see Google evolving in this way anytime soon — they're on a lower, non-social layer of the internet.
Comment by Dennis — May 3, 2010 @ 9:38 am
Hey, sex sells
But we also have to protect children from viewing those uncensored pages.
Comment by Sexy Angel — May 3, 2010 @ 11:06 am
Protect children? What children? I see teens on there but no "children". Teens are having sex, nothing on Facebook is going to corrupt them, especially an article on sex.
Comment by Martyn Jackson — May 3, 2010 @ 2:19 pm
Please post an article and alert about this horrifying new discovery. On Facebook, I have blocked and defriended people. Ever since the facebook change from “become a fan” to “like”, pages have a section called “Friends Like This” which lists the friends you have that like the page.
I am horrified to see names listed of people I have defriended, and even more sickening, people I have BLOCKED. The generic blue profile picture shows up and their name is black text.
Facebook is exposing to people we have BLOCKED that they are blocked by us.
I can’t imagine how this is even sensible… even people that have been defriended for over a week show up as a “friend” in this “Friends Like This” box.
What a terrible security breach!!
Comment by Facebook User — May 4, 2010 @ 1:04 am
You don't see children on FB??? You're blind. What do you think MIDDLE schoolers are. They are 12 YEAR OLDS, not 13. And now that a .edu address is not required, even younger than 12 are on. Who do you think make up the bulk of "no network". FB should have kept it restricted to college .edu addresses to prevent this waste hole they've dug and thrown themselves into.
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It wasn't a safe place for minors even when it was restricted, and it's even worse now.
Comment by DSM — May 5, 2010 @ 12:17 pm