The Viral Power of Long-form Articles — A Key Insight for Content Marketing

Long-form articles are dead. Nobody has the time or attention span to read long articles on the web. Everybody uses smartphones and tablets that lend themselves to reading and sharing bite-sized content. If you want your content to be shared, stick to short, catchy phrases with cute images. That’s the prevailing wisdom – and it’s often applied to content marketing.

To determine what types of content are shared the most, BuzzSumo analyzed social share counts of over 100 million articles over eight months. The BuzzSumo study found that long-form articles are shared more than short-form content on average. In fact, the longer the content, the more it’s shared. Articles of 3000 to 10,000 words gained 8,859 total average shares, the most shares on average of the various content types.

One major advantage of long-form articles is that there are fewer of them, so there’s less competition. There were 16 times more content of less than 1000 words than content over 2000 words. Naturally, most content producers don’t have the time or want to take the time to write 2000-word articles. Cat photos and funny memes abound, but people also like informative, in-depth, intellectually challenging content.

More Evidence on Long-Form Articles

Want more evidence?

An analysis of the most emailed articles from The New York Times by the University of Pennsylvania showed people prefer long articles on intellectually challenging topics. Science articles performed surprisingly well.

“We anticipated that people would share articles with practical information about health or gadgets, and they did, but they also sent articles about paleontology and cosmology,” Dr. Jonah Berger, a University of Pennsylvania social psychologist told the Times. “You’d see articles shooting up the list that were about the optics of deer vision.”

Nothing but Long Articles

Michael Grothaus at Fast Company points to Wait But Why as an example of a website that built a large audience with long articles.

After just 19 months, the blog is averaging unique page views of about of 1.6 million a month and 4.6 million page views a month. Its newsletter has over 106,000 subscribers. The site owners say that’s organic growth. They have not purchased followers or likes.

Most of the blog’s articles are over 2,000 words long; some over 3,000. Its first post “7 Ways to Be Insufferable on Facebook” was 3,000 words long. Articles are typically shared 300,000 to 600,000 times each. A 1,600-word essay on why Generation Y is unhappy gained over 2 million shares. Its posts also draw large numbers of comments.

You’d expect a team of content producers, but co-founder Tim Urban is its only resident writer.

The site’s unreliable posting schedule also breaks another web content rule. Conventional wisdom states a regular publishing schedule is mandatory. The site initially planned to publish a new post every Monday and Tuesday. As his posts grew longer, Urban planned to post every Tuesday. Then he said he would post “every Tuesday(ish).”  Then Urban announced that even that schedule was too restraining. Readers might wait weeks before he completed the next article due to the time needed to complete extensive research and voluminous writing.

He said the site plans to drop its “new post every sometimes” tagline so it doesn’t confuse new visitors.

How to Write Long-Form Content

You too can learn to write long articles that go viral and attract large numbers of readers. Urban outlines how:

• Write about what you’re excited about. If you’re not excited about the topic, you cannot interest readers. Readers will sense your boredom and disinterest. To engage your readers, first engage yourself.

• Find images to support your words. Don’t seek words to support your images. That advice contradicts the current social media practice of using GIFs and memes. The site’s trademark stick-figure drawings add perspective and humor to articles. Images also break up long pieces into digestible chunks.

• Don’t BS. Do your research and don’t try to fudge your way through the article. If you are writing a short post composed of mostly images, it’s easy to fake it. You can’t do that in a 2000-word essay. An expert may point out your inaccuracies, causing the site to lose credibility. The reward for extensive research is that a recognized expert may praise the article on social media and increase the website’s stature.

• Don’t try to sound like an expert. Chances are, real experts have already written about the topic. Instead, appear approachable, like you’ve only studied the issue for the past week and are telling a friend about it.

• Appreciate readers. The site appreciates its community and places value on its readers’ comments. Many major websites have eliminated or substantially restricted blog comments, due to the prevalence of nonsensical, flippant and hate-mongering remarks. However, Wait But Why owners say their readers are smart and curious. Plus, they have long attention spans.

Length (really it’s depth that matters) is not the only characteristic that makes an article sharable. The BuzzSumo study found other article attributes that increased shareability on social media. The traits included: use of a visual element that illustrates the point of the story; invoking an emotion such as awe (the best), joy, surprise, and amusement; use of lists, quizzes or infographics; conveying a feeling of trustworthiness; getting an influencer to share the article; and publishing on a Tuesday.

The BuzzSumo report on long-form content contains over 7,548 words and multiple graphics; this article has 996 words – enough, we hope, to convince you that in-depth articles on interesting topics have an important place in content marketing.

One additional, often overlooked benefit of long-form articles: they invariably rank highest in Google search results.

Bottom Line: Research shows that long-form articles are more likely to be shared, contradicting prevailing digital marketing beliefs. Studies conclude that people are interested in comprehensive, intellectually challenging content. However, completing long-form articles requires a substantial time commitment to complete research and writing. Long-form content marketing articles based on in-depth research will almost certainly achieve improved social sharing and increase audience reach.