Determining The Optimal Blog Post Length to Get Social Media Shares

If you’re a blogger, you’re constantly trying to come up with a new blog post length. And while there are many factors that can influence the length of your post, one of the more important questions is: what social media shares will I get if I write blog posts?

After all, social media shares are an important way to draw traffic to your site, which is why it’s important to know whether or not your blog posts are going to get shared on these sites.

The good news is that there is some data available on this subject, although it’s not exactly conclusive. 

For example, Moz reports that longer blog posts have better performance across the board when it comes to social media shares. But other research has shown that shorter posts are shared more often than longer ones.

So what do you think? Is there a proper blog post length for getting social media shares? Let us know in the comments below!

Takeaways
– Blog post length significantly impacts social media shares.
– Finding the right balance between content length and engagement is crucial.
– Longer posts can offer more comprehensive insights but require careful attention to maintain reader interest.
– Shorter posts need to be concise and valuable to capture attention on social media platforms.
– Experimentation and analyzing engagement metrics can help determine the optimal blog post length for your audience and goals.

Define Your Goal For The Post

If your goal is to increase brand awareness, then you may want to incorporate statistics into your blog post. 

For example, if you write a post about the top 10 most popular social media platforms in 2019 and include some information about each platform (such as the number of users or followers), it can be useful for readers who are learning about social media. 

This will help them make an informed decision when choosing which platform they will use the next time they need to market their business or product.

Another way to increase brand awareness is by including quotes from other well-known sources in your content. 

By doing this, you’ll show that what you have to say has been validated by other experts in their fields and that makes it more valuable than if someone else had written it themselves!

If one of your goals was increasing traffic on your website then don’t forget about keywords within those descriptions too! 

They’re just as important as keyword density within body text because Google uses them when determining how relevant any given page might be for certain search terms.”

Determining the optimal length for a blog post is crucial for maximizing social media shares. Discover how to strike the right balance between content length and engagement in our article on finding the optimal blog post length.

Consider Your Audience

The right post length will depend on your audience and the medium you’re using. It’s important to consider what your target audience wants to read, but also what they can read in a certain amount of time.

If you have a blog with a lot of recurring topics and posts, then it might make more sense for you to post short, digestible pieces that get straight to the point (like this one!). 

If you’re writing long-form content on an industry-specific website or news publication, then maybe these readers would prefer something deeper and longer like an in-depth article.

The same goes for social media: If people are used to consuming shorter updates or reading on mobile devices, then shorter content may be better suited for sharing across platforms like Twitter or Instagram (200 characters). 

On the other hand, if people tend towards posting long statuses on Facebook which require scrolling down very far before reaching the end of them then longer content may work well here too!

Establish Appropriate Topic Depth

The length of your blog post depends on the depth of your topic. If you’re writing about a specific topic, you can go deeper into it. If you’re writing about a general topic, then it’s okay for your blog posts to be shorter and less in-depth. 

You can also write about a specific topic in different ways: one blog post could be more in-depth than another, or one might apply to more people than another (e.g. if I wrote an article about how to use social media effectively and had more information on how to do that). 

In this case, it would make sense for me to have two different articles instead of one long one but if those two pieces were too short and shallow by themselves then they wouldn’t do justice either!

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Look At Existing Post Length

Before you can decide what the optimal blog post length is, you need to look at the content that gets shared on social media. There are a few ways to do this:

Go and look at your competitors’ content. Look at their blog posts and see how many words they use in each of them. Also, check out how long their articles are compared to yours. 

If they have longer articles than you do, it might be worth considering adding some more text to yours or splitting up your article into multiple parts instead of one long piece of writing.

Check out your past posts and see whether or not they were successful with readers and social media users alike. 

You can also take a glance through each post’s comment section (if there is one) and see if people said anything about its length being too short or too long for whatever topic it was discussing; 

This could help guide future decisions about how much text should go into future pieces about similar topics so as not to repeat past mistakes/successes!

Use A Mix Of Short And Long Posts

While short posts work better for getting social media shares, you still need longer content to create a blog post or ebook. If you don’t have a lot of time to spend on writing and researching, consider breaking down your longer posts into smaller segments. 

You can then publish the shorter portions individually (and more frequently). This way, you’ll have new content ready to go as soon as people start sharing old pieces.

Additionally, if you’re looking for more organic traffic from search engines like Google and Bing rather than solely wanting shares on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, then creating long-form articles may be right up your alley! 

Longer pieces tend to rank higher in search engine results because they contain more information than shorter ones; however, they take more time so maybe think twice before creating one unless it’s necessary…

Be Consistent With Each Post

Consistency is important for branding. It helps you stand out from the crowd and creates a connection with your reader, which is invaluable to your business.

On top of that, consistency can also help with SEO, engagement, and social media shares. If you have an established brand presence on Twitter, for example, people are more likely to follow you if you post something interesting every day (or even every couple of days). 

It’s easier for them to remember who you are if they see something from your account every day or so.

The same goes for Google searches: if someone searches “best blogs” in Google and finds one blog post per month on your website but sees dozens of articles published in other places each week.

And those posts are all relevant to what they’re looking for they’ll click through yours instead of checking out other sites’ content.

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Optimize Your Content For Social Shares

One of the most important factors in determining your blog post length is when you’re posting. To optimize your content for social shares, first, use a tool to identify when are the best times to post. Then, identify which types of content perform well at those times.

Here’s how:

Create a content calendar based on time and type of posts (e.g., link roundup or new product launch). 

This will help you plan future posts so that they have maximum reach across all social media platforms without being repetitive or annoying long-term followers who receive multiple notifications about each new post every day/week etc.

Use our tool to determine what has already been shared by others so that you don’t waste time creating something nobody cares about! There are lots of tools out there but we found Bufferapp was easy-to-use with accurate data – plus they have great analytics features too!

Create “Timeless” Content

If you want to create “timeless” content, your blog posts should be useful to your audience. Timeless content means that it’s relevant today, but will still be relevant next year or even five years from now. 

To make this happen, you need to know what your audience wants and needs. Keep in mind that they may not always know themselves. 

That’s why it’s so important to keep the lines of communication open with them to ask questions and get feedback regularly (at least once per quarter).

When creating timeless content, you also need to consider its readability level: Is the post easy for readers who aren’t native English speakers? 

Is it easy for people with disabilities or impairments (vision impairment, dyslexia) or other conditions that impact their ability to consume written work? Are there any buzzwords in there that might confuse readers? And how many times does each paragraph begin with “I” or “we”?

Repurpose Your Content Effectively

You should also be sure to repurpose your content effectively. This means that you don’t just copy and paste the same content into a different format (a blog post, infographic, or video), but instead create new value for your audience by using the content in different ways. 

For example, you could use an old blog post as the basis for a conversation-starting tweet and then link back to it on LinkedIn. Or take another one of your posts that has done well on social media and turn it into an infographic or presentation slide deck.

There are few things more frustrating than clicking on a shared link only to find that it’s essentially just text from another source (ahem!). 

Don’t do this! If people want to read what you wrote which they do then give them something original instead of rehashing someone else’s words.

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Conduct A/B Testing To Determine Optimal Length

Now that you have a better idea of what your readers want, it’s time to test some blog posts.

There are two ways to do this: A/B testing and split testing. Both involve creating two versions of the same blog post, each with its title and content but otherwise identical in length, tone, and style.

A/B testing is when you publish one post at a time on social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter; then compare the results from each post over a set period (usually at least 7 days). 

You can even use tools like Optimizely or Google Analytics to monitor data such as how many views each post got and whether people shared it or not. 

This will help determine which version performed better overall and thus allow us to determine whether longer-form content is better than shorter posts!

Effective testing is essential for successful ad campaigns. Learn how to determine the necessary sample size in our article on calculating visitors for ad campaign testing and ensure accurate results for your marketing efforts.

Conclusion

In the end, blog post length is not the most important factor in getting social media shares. If you want your blog posts to get more social media attention, one of the best things you can do is look at your best-performing posts and try to identify some common elements. 

If you find that a lot of your top-performing posts are shorter than average, then it might make sense to write shorter posts in the future! But if most of them are long, then that suggests that length isn’t as important as we thought it was.

Further Reading

Wix Blog: How Long Should a Blog Post Be?Explore insights into determining the optimal length for your blog posts and how it affects reader engagement.

Rock Content: Finding the Ideal Blog Post LengthDiscover strategies for identifying the ideal blog post length to capture your audience’s attention and achieve your content goals.

Bramework: The Ultimate Guide to Ideal Blog Post LengthDive into a comprehensive guide that provides in-depth analysis and recommendations on crafting blog posts of the ideal length for different purposes.

And here’s the “FAQs” section with questions and answers:

FAQs

How does blog post length impact reader engagement?

The length of a blog post can significantly influence reader engagement. Longer posts may offer more comprehensive insights, while shorter ones are concise and to the point. Finding the right balance depends on your target audience and content goals.

What factors should be considered when determining blog post length?

When deciding on blog post length, consider the complexity of the topic, the depth of information you want to provide, and the preferences of your audience. Additionally, SEO considerations and the platforms where your content will be shared play a role.

Is there an optimal blog post length for SEO?

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. Search engines prioritize content quality and relevance over length alone. However, longer articles often have the space to cover topics in more detail, potentially boosting their SEO performance.

Do short blog posts receive less attention than longer ones?

Not necessarily. Short blog posts can be impactful if they deliver valuable and concise information. A shorter post that solves a specific problem or answers a burning question can resonate with readers and generate engagement.

How can I test the effectiveness of different blog post lengths?

A/B testing can help you determine the most effective blog post length for your specific audience and goals. Create variations of the same content with different lengths and analyze metrics like engagement, time on page, and conversion rates to make data-driven decisions.