The social media ‘traveling trophy’ winner for July, 2015

by James VanOsdol | August 5, 2015

Which Rivet newsroom story got shared the most in July, and what was the secret to its success? 

Rivet’s most-visited story (as determined by Google Analytics’ unique pageviews) for July was produced by reporter Rob Hart:

Ashley Madison hack: Hear who benefits (spoiler alert–it’s not the 37M adulterers)

A few things made the story successful, starting with the obvious: Subject matter. In case you missed the story, adulterers’ dating website Ashley Madison was hacked, and the hackers threatened to leak the site’s database. Rob found a unique angle: He chatted with Attorney Karen Conti about how the potential revelation would impact the legal business. The story had watercooler shareability right out of the gate.

Also: Rob shared the story with his social media audiences, and Rivet did the same. Beyond that, Karen Conti shared it with her Facebook followers.

And sure, the image associated with the social media posts added to the clickability:

Images encourage clicks on social media, and Ashley Madison’s provocative website image made the social postings more appealing.

One of the key lessons from this story is one I keep repeating: everybody in the audience has an audience. With Rob, Rivet and Karen all targeting their followers, the story was able to reach a larger amount of listeners.

Specific to the content, it was a unique angle spinning off a super-interesting news headline, presented at the right time in a professional way.

(In case you’re wondering what the second most-shared story was, it was the collaborative and funny “#InternationalJokeDay piece.”)