How to engineer contagious ideas. This presentation is the result of over 3 years of research into online social media including blogging, Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare as well as historic and offline social media like urban legends, proverbs, and homeric poems.

1. The Science of
Social Media
@DanZarrella

4. Free

5. 0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Without "free"
With "free"

8. Metric to Improve

9. Metric to Improve
Potential Change

10. Metric to Improve
Potential Change
Discard
Implement

11. Metric to Improve
Potential Change
Discard
Implement
Potential Change
Discard
Implement

12. Metric to Improve
Potential Change
Discard
Implement
Potential Change
Potential Change
Discard
Implement
Discard
Implement

13. Metric to Improve
Potential Change
Discard
Implement
Potential Change
Potential Change
Discard
Implement
Discard
Implement

14. Focus:
Timing

15. Hour of Day
vs ReTweets
0
1
2
3
4
5
6

16. Day of the Week
vs ReTweets
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3

17. Day of the Week
vs Email Opens
0%
1%
2%
3%
4%
5%
6%
7%
8%
9%
10%
0.40%
0.42%
0.44%
0.46%
0.48%
0.50%
0.52%
0.54%
Unsubs
Clicks

18. Day of Week vs
Facebook Like Rate
0.12%
0.13%
0.14%
0.15%
0.16%
0.17%
0.18%

19. Time of Day vs
Facebook Like Rate
0.00%
0.02%
0.04%
0.06%
0.08%
0.10%
0.12%
0.14%
0.16%
0.18%
0.20%

20. Takeaway:
Experiment with contra-competitive timing.

21. Focus:
Conversation

22. @Reply Percentage
Vs Followers
0.00%
2.00%
4.00%
6.00%
8.00%
10.00%
12.00%
14.00%
16.00%
18.00%
Over 1k
Under 1k

23. @Reply Percentage
Vs Followers
0.00%
2.00%
4.00%
6.00%
8.00%
10.00%
12.00%
14.00%
16.00%
Over 1M
Under 1M

24. Non-@ Link Percentage
vs Followers
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
0.3
0.35
0.4
0.45
0.5
Over 1k
Under 1k

25. Links vs Followers
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
1
4
7
10
13
16
19
22
25
28
31
34
37
40
43
46
49
52
55
58
61
64
67
70
73
76
79
82
85
88
91
94
97

26. Non-@ Link Percentage
vs ReTweets
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
14%
16%
18%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%

27. Reply Percentage
vs ReTweets
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
14%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%

28. Repin Correlation To
Likes and Comments
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
Likes
Comments

29. Takeaway:
Content is king, not conversation.

30. Focus:
Social CTAs

31. Effect of SCTAs
on Facebook Likes
0.09%
0.10%
0.11%
0.12%
0.13%
Without "Like"
With "Like"

32. Effect of SCTAs
on Facebook Comments
0.000%
0.002%
0.004%
0.006%
0.008%
0.010%
0.012%
0.014%
0.016%
0.018%
Without "Comment"
With "Comment"

33. Effect of SCTAs
on Facebook Shares
0.000%
0.005%
0.010%
0.015%
0.020%
Without "Share"
With "Share"

34. Effect of Questions
on Facebook Comments
0.00%
0.01%
0.02%
0.03%
With Questions
Without Questions

35. Effect of “Share”
on Blog Metrics
-4.0%
-2.0%
0.0%
2.0%
4.0%
6.0%
Comments
Links
Views

36. Effect of “Link”
on Blog Metrics
-2.0%
-1.0%
0.0%
1.0%
2.0%
Comments
Links
Views

37. Effect of “Comment”
on Blog Metrics
-3.0%
-2.0%
-1.0%
0.0%
1.0%
2.0%
Comments
Links
Views

38. The Word “Like”
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
LpF
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
CpF
The Word “Comment”

39. Effect of SCTAs
on ReTweets
12%
39%
51%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Neither
Please RT
Please ReTweet

40. Takeaway:
Ask for the actions you want.

41. Focus:
Visual Content

42. 0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Without Media
With Media
Effect of Media
on ReTweets

43. Facebook Post
Types vs Likes
-80
-60
-40
-20
0
20
40
60
80
100
Jan-10
Mar-10
May-10
Jul-10
Sep-10
Nov-10
Jan-11
Mar-11
May-11
Jul-11
Sep-11
Nov-11
Jan-12
Mar-12
May-12
Jul-12
Sep-12
Nov-12
Jan-13
Mar-13
May-13
Jul-13
Sep-13
Nov-13
Jan-14
Mar-14
May-14
Jul-14
Photos
Links
Status
Videos

44. Tumbler Photo
Post Percentage
83%

45. Tumbler Post Types
vs Notes
-120%
-100%
-80%
-60%
-40%
-20%
0%
20%

46. Takeaway:
Visual, visual, visual, visual, visual.

47. Number of Tags vs Likes and Comments
0
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08
0.1
0.12
0.14
0.16
0.18
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30

48. 0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
Without #NoFilter
With #NoFilter
Number of Tags vs Likes and Comments

49. #NoFilter Fakers
28%

50. Effect of Filters on
Likes-per-Follower
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
Normal
Willow
Valencia
Sierra
Walden
Hudson
Mayfair
Amaro
Rise
Sutro
Inkwell
Unknown
Toaster
Brannan
Hefe
X-Pro II
Lo-fi
Nashville
Earlybird
1977
Poprocket
Kelvin
Apollo
Gotham

51. 0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
With "face"
Without "face"
Effect of Faces on
Likes-per-Follower

52. Saturation vs Likes
and Comments
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
0
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
0.06
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

54. Luminance vs Likes
and Comments
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
0
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
0.06
0.07
0.08
0.09
0.1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

56. #Selfies
Everything

57. Focus:
Relevance

58. One-to-One
Sharing Motivations
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%

59. One-to-Many
Sharing Motivations
0%
10%
20%

60. Zombies
Marketing
Me

61. Takeaway:
Use combined
relevance.

62. Focus:
Text Content

63. Sentiment vs
Twitter CTR
0
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
-6
-5
-4
-3
-2
-1
0
1
2
3
4
5
6

64. Facebook Sharing
By Linguistic Content
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1

65. Takeaway:
Don’t be a Debbie Downer.

66. Link Placement
vs CTR

67. Tweet Length
vs CTR
0.00%
2.00%
4.00%
6.00%
8.00%
10.00%
12.00%
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
120
130
140

68. Readability vs
Likes and Comments
0.00%
0.02%
0.04%
0.06%
0.08%
0.10%
0.12%
0.14%
0.16%
0.18%
0.20%
0.00%
0.00%
0.00%
0.01%
0.01%
0.01%
0.01%
0.01%
0.02%
0.02%
0.02%
1
3
5
7
9
11
13
15
17
19
Comment Rate
Like Rate

69. Part-of-Speech
vs Likes
-0.04
-0.03
-0.02
-0.01
0
0.01
0.02
0.03
Adverb
Adjective
Noun
Verb

71. Takeaway:
Write simply
and plainly.

72. Thank You!