Nobody ever said, “I wish I had less data to analyze.” Right? And nobody ever said, “I know exactly what content is popular in the world.” Ok, maybe someone said that, but the process could be a lot easier with this tool. This post provides an overview of BuzzSumo, a tool that can give you more data to help with blogging and other content creation activities.
BuzzSumo helps users find content that is performing well online and also connect with influencers who are sharing that content.
If you need to track the success of your own content, BuzzSumo can do that for you. Just put your URL into the search and BuzzSumo will show you the most popular content and how it performed across various social media platforms. Tracking your competitors’ content is another useful tool. What kind of content are they creating and how is it faring? The backlinks tab can also show you who is sharing your content. Those sharers could be contacted for guest posting opportunities.
What I like best about BuzzSumo is that you can easily see what content has been popular on a topic, which might inspire you to create your own similar content for your blog. You might also share relevant curated content that has been performing well for others with your own audience.
Although BuzzSumo has a free 7-day trial, you have to put your credit card down and that was just too much for me to handle. But I checked out the free features to see what Buzzsumo has to offer. You can only run a few searches a day for free so keep that in mind. (I learned this the hard way.)
Free Feature #1
First, the Content Analyzer under the Content Research tab will reveal the most popular and shared content on the topic searched, how it is being shared across various social networks, the format that is the most popular for sharing (video, photo, etc.), the headlines of the most popular content, and who is sharing the most popular content. Once you have run your search, you can filter by content format, time period, and some other filters. You can even sort by social media platform to see the most popular content on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. You can out the headlines for inspiration and click to see who shared the content, which can also be sorted.
If you want to see what a competitor is doing, put the company name in the search. You can then see how they are doing on the various social networks and also see what kind of content format they are getting mentioned in and the headlines. You can do the same with your own company’s name.
Although it’s not available without registration, BuzzSumo also offers a Facebook Analyzer, Question Analyzer, and stories that are Trending Now. You can also track who has linked to your content through the Backlinks.
Free Feature #2
The Influencers tab has additional insights. Without registering, you can search bios for mentions of your keywords. If you have a paid version, you can put your topic in the search and see the influencers talking about it. You can sort them based on various qualities including relevance, authority, reach, and engagement. You can also filter by content type.
Paid Feature
BuzzSumo also offers monitoring, but that is not available without registration.
This article has some additional great ideas for using BuzzSumo.
Kelli S. Burns, Ph.D. 
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