The Guardian, Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail figure in the top three positions in a study which analyses top UK newspaper websites for their popularity on social network, Twitter.
The study, from Searchmetrics, also found that a Daily Mail story about a YouTube TV show that teaches dog-owners how to make homemade pet food was the most tweeted online newspaper article of 2014.
The search experience optimisation platform analysed the number of tweets per week generated by content on 11 leading UK newspaper websites using the continuously updated database of search and social network data which powers its software for tracking digital marketing activity.
- The research (see list below) reveals that the Guardian website drives an average 392,358 tweets per week followed by The Daily Telegraph with 307,690 tweets per week and the Daily Mail (237,381 tweets per week).
Most Popular UK Newspaper Websites on Twitter
1. The Guardian (theguardian.com), 392,358 tweets per week
2. The Daily Telegraph (telegraph.co.uk), 307,690 tweets per week
3. Daily Mail (dailymail.co.uk), 237,381 tweets per week
4. Independent (independent.co.uk), 214,868 tweets per week
5. The Mirror (mirror.co.uk), 113,194 tweets per week
6. Financial Times (ft.com), 61,065 tweets per week
7. Daily Express (express.co.uk), 24,165 tweets per week
8. Daily Record (dailyrecord.co.uk), 11,107 tweets per week
9. The Times (thetimes.co.uk), 8,772 tweets per week
10. Daily Star (dailystar.co.uk), 6,556 tweets per week
11. The Sun (thesun.co.uk), 3,531 tweets per week
Perhaps fittingly for a nation of dog-lovers a Daily Mail article about a YouTube TV show which teaches dog-owners how to prepare homemade meals for their pets, took the top position in Searchmetrics’ analysis of the 11 UK newspaper websites’ most tweeted stories in 2014 (see below). The article was tweeted nearly 77,000 times.
“Research indicates nearly three-fifths of Twitter’s 15 million UK users follow at least one national newspaper brand or journalist²,” said Marcus Tober, CTO and founder of Searchmetrics. “Twitter is an ideal tool for driving additional traffic to news content and our research indicates that many leading newspaper sites are succeeding in this area.
Interestingly our list of the most tweeted stories indicates it’s not always the biggest and most high profile news stories that get the most tweets. Often it’s the quirkier stories or those with a human-interest angle that catch people’s imagination and go viral.”
Most frequently Tweeted Newspaper Website Stories of 2014
1. Daily Mail Paw-fect recipes for your pet’s plate: The cooking show that teaches dog owners how to prepare homemade treats for their four-legged friends 76,752 tweets
2. Daily Mail WORLD EXCLUSIVE: Jack the Ripper unmasked: How amateur sleuth used DNA breakthrough to identify Britain’s most notorious criminal 126 years after string of terrible murders 37,192 tweets
3. The Daily Telegraph Revealed: the Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces: 23,830 tweets
4. The Mirror Devoted dad makes best Halloween costume ever for his disabled son: 21,584 tweets
5. The Guardian Turkish women defy deputy PM with laughter 20,762 tweets
6. The Independent Tamir Rice: 12-year-old boy playing with fake gun dies after shot by Ohio police 20,629 tweets
7. The Independent Girl, 7, gets Tesco to remove ‘stupid’ sign suggesting superheroes are ‘for boys’: 20,377 tweets
8. Daily Mail 36 now feared dead in Japanese volcano disaster: 19,611 tweets
9. The Mirror Fury as Tory party donors are handed NHS contracts worth £1.5BILLION under health reforms: 18,041 tweets
10. The Sun Heaven ’n Ell Revealed: The stunner in Heyman’s corner: 17,852 tweets