Last week I shared the 10 most popular Slate stories from 2013, a list that paints with a broad brush about the stories our readers loved the most. Now it’s time to dig deeper to reveal which pieces were the most popular on our three strongest social networks: Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. As you can see from the lists below, there isn’t much overlap, which speaks to how each of the platforms cater to different audiences with different tastes. Four out of the five top stories on Facebook were on topics related to kids or parenting, which indicates how popular the network has become for parents interested in sharing articles on family topics. All of the most popular stories on Twitter had a news peg, which emphasizes how much that audience uses the service to share timely content. You may also notice that our first and second most popular Twitter stories were both published on Sept. 26. Coincidentally, Kanye West and Aaron Paul both happened to tweet popular items we did about each of them on the same day, bringing in monster Twitter traffic. Finally, Redditors showed their wide-ranging and quirky taste while favoring our technology-related coverage.
You also may notice that these lists lean heavily toward stories published in the last three months of the year. Our September redesign gave Slate a responsive design, which makes it much easier to read and share on mobile devices. We have found that social sharing is increasingly driven by mobile users, so our redesign was hugely useful in helping our viral pieces reach new traffic heights. We look forward to bringing you more great stories to share in 2014.
Facebook:
5. “Families Dealing With Mental Illness Need Support, Too”
By Larry M. Lake, Nov. 8
4. “How Would We Report on the Government Shutdown if It Were in Another Country?”
By Joshua Keating, Sept.30
3. “Touching, Unguarded Portraits of Sleeping Parents-to-Be”
By Jordan G. Teicher, Sept. 16
2. “Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning”
By Mario Vittone, June 4
1. “This Awesome Ad, Set to the Beastie Boys, Is How to Get Girls to Become Engineers”
By Katy Waldman, Nov. 19
Twitter:
5. “This Awesome Ad, Set to the Beastie Boys, Is How to Get Girls to Become Engineers”
By Katy Waldman, Nov. 19
4. “Create Your Own Sexting Pseudonym With Our Carlos Danger Name Generator”
By Chris Kirk, July 23
3. “How Would We Report on the Government Shutdown if It Were in Another Country?”
By Joshua Keating, Sept.30
2. “Watch: Every Bad Thing That Has Ever Happened to Jesse on Breaking Bad”
By Andrew Bouvé, Sept. 26
1. “Kanye West Was Right: Jimmy Kimmel’s Sketch Was Ignorant and Stupid”
By Forrest Wickman, Sept. 26
Reddit:
5. “Forget Overcrowding, World Population May Actually Start Declining”
By Jeff Wise, Jan. 9
4. “Kurt Vonnegut’s Term Paper Assignment”
By The Slate Book Review, Nov. 30.
3. “Look Out Waiters, Applebee’s Is Putting a Tablet at Every Table”
By Will Oremus, Dec. 3
2. “This Amazing British TV Series Starts With a Terrorist Demanding the Prime Minister Have Sex With a Pig”
By Matthew Dessem, Dec. 10
1. “Werner Herzog Made a Documentary About Texting While Driving. And It’s Haunting”
By David Haglund, Aug. 9
