The Top Content Shared On Facebook In 2017

For the content articles below we have shown the total engagements across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest for each article. For shorthand, we often refer to total shares though technically the Facebook figure is engagements as it also includes Likes and Comments, both of which can cause content to be shared. You can argue that a share is stronger engagement than alike, and a comment is stronger still, and we should weight them, but that’s a long argument, and it’s nearly Christmas. So let’s keep it simple.

To find out more about the headlines that engage people on Facebook to see our review of 100m headlines and the top phrases that engage people on Facebook.

To search for the most shared content on any website or for any topic go to BuzzSumo.

Music Videos

The most shared content on Facebook this year was a YouTube music video ‘Despacito‘ by Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi featuring Puerto Rican rapper Daddy Yankee.  This song reached the top of the charts of 47 countries and was the first song primarily in Spanish to top the Billboard Hot 100 since 1996. Not heard it? Yes, you have. The video has been viewed 4 billion times, yep that is billion. But why not add one more count to the pile and give it another whirl.

Music videos remain one of the most shared forms of content. This video by Ed Sheeran was the second most shared content on Facebook gaining almost 10m shares.

The third biggest music video was the Thai video ‘I’ve been crying’ by Prue Nakarin which gained over 4.5m interactions.

Videos by Coldplay, Taylor Swift and Enrique Iglesias also gained over 3m Facebook interactions. Disclaimer: BuzzSumo makes no endorsement of the quality or earworm-ness of these tunes. What do we know? Less than Tay Tay it seems.

Breaking News and Exclusives

People are quick to share breaking news on Facebook. Over 44% of Americans get their news from Facebook (fake or otherwise). However, the sharing can be very fragmented as there are often tens if not hundreds of articles on the same news story. In this example, the initial exclusive reporting of the suicide of Chester Bennington by TMZ gained over 7m Facebook engagements. This particular story may have gained extra traction as it is about a musician but also because it was a very tragic human story.

Viral Quizzes

Viral quizzes still appear to do well though we are seeing less engagement than in previous years. Possibly this format’s hitting saturation point, though this quiz from Women.com gained over 5m shares.

As we have reported in previous studies, viral quizzes may get shares on Facebook but no one links to them, possibly because they’re more just fun and not evergreen referenceable content. This quiz got backlinks from only 7 domains according to Majestic and only 16 links from 5 domains according to Moz despite over 5m shares. If you want to build content that gains links there are better forms of content than quizzes.

Encouraged by the success of this post in January, Women.com ran another version “Can You Pass This Advanced Grammar Test?” which gained 3.7m shares. Following the old publisher adage ‘if it works, do it again’ the site published over 200 quizzes this year, 19 of which gained over 1m shares each.

Another popular form of the quiz is the personality type. Thanks to Cosmopolitan and many other magazines for this format. The trick about this is to ensure the answer makes the user looks intelligent, unique and all-round amazing, so they share the results. What State Should You Move To Based On Your Personality? gained over 3m Facebook Interactions. See you in Idaho.