We’ve all seen example of megaposts: multiple-thousand-word posts promising an exhaustive take on a topic. They carry titles like “The Comprehensive Guide to…” blah blah or “101 Ways to…” yada yada.
People may click on them. And they definitely share them. But do they read them? Or do busy professionals really prefer “content snacking” to a big sit-down meal of information?
Image credit: Buffer
Let’s say you’re a Facebook marketing expert, for example. Is it better to write one big post along the lines of “105 Ways to Master Facebook Marketing” or to break up that content into a series of smaller posts: 20 Tips for Facebook Advertising, 17 Ways to Grow Your Facebook Audience, etc.?
To test that, here’s a comparison of three marketing statistics megaposts published on Webbiquity within the past 18 months or so, and a series of similar but shorter, more tightly categorized posts.
The megaposts:
103 Compelling Social Media and Marketing Statistics for 2013 (and 2014)
104 Fascinating Social Media and Marketing Statistics for 2014 (and 2015)
106 More Amazing Social Media and Marketing Statistics for 2014 and 2015
Versus this themed series of posts:
#1: Welcome to Marketing Stats Summer!
#2: 34 Compelling Content Marketing Stats and Facts
#3: 21 Spectacular SEO and Search Marketing Stats and Facts
#4: Five Intriguing Inbound Marketing Stats [Infographic]
#5: 31 Sensational Social Media Marketing and PR Stats and Facts
#6: 17 Excellent Email and Mobile Marketing Stats and Facts
#7: 14 Dazzling Digital Marketing Stats and Facts
#8: 35 Stupendous Social Networking Facts and Stats
#9: 20 Brilliant B2B Marketing and Digital Business Stats and Facts
Which approach works better? The answer is a crystal clear…it depends.
If your goal is short-term shares and traffic, there’s no question megaposts drive more activity than individual, shorter themed posts—but the themed series generates more shares and traffic as a group.
On average, the megaposts received three times as many tweets and five times as much 30-day traffic as the individual themed posts. But the themed series in total got nearly triple the number of retweets and roughly twice as many 30-day visits as the average megapost.
Another advantage of producing a series is that, for a relatively small amount of extra effort, you’ve covered several days (or weeks, depending on your publishing frequency) rather than just a single post.
However, megaposts have their advantages as well. They help establish you as an expert on the topic; they tend to draw traffic over a longer period of time; and they may rank more highly in search (as shown in the chart above).
So which format should you use: megaposts or themed series? As Deion Sanders famously said: “both.”