The Memo Insights team is made up of data analysts responsible for digging into readership data for the latest news cycles, diving deeper into platform-wide readership trends (macro news trends), and answering some of our customers’ most pressing strategy questions.
Every quarter, we reflect on all the Insights Reports and news analyses completed as a team. We each have our favorites, whether it be because of what the data uncovered or because of the topic itself. Every 3 months, we’ll share some of our favorite findings so you can learn from the data or just have a little midweek fun with us.
Here are our favorites from the first 3 months of 2024:
1. Social engagement has no correlation with actual readers.
Eva (me): Our full team thoroughly enjoys getting our hands on different types of data. We conducted an analysis of social engagement data overlaid with Memo’s readership data to understand the connection between social engagement around news articles and people actually reading the news. We found no clear correlation between social engagement and actual readers. On top of that, for the majority of news, less than 1% of readers (article traffic) comes from social media.
We dug into industry-specific data and if news sentiment played a role in both. You can read our full analysis in our previous blog post.
2. Lyft’s typo was overshadowed by more chaotic news.
Jaime: Seeing the impact of Lyft’s earnings typo was something I knew would be interesting from a readership perspective. Beyond looking at how many people were reading about the news, I also wanted to see how it compared to other news happening around the same time. At first glance, I was blown away to see how a small typo in communications could have such a big impact on markets. Looking at a broader dataset helped put it all into perspective.
Lyft’s earnings typo went viral around the same time as the shooting at the Kansas City Super Bowl celebration parade and while former President Trump’s legal issues continued to unfold. Despite the earnings being a big story in the finance world, we found that the media focused more on Trump’s legal issues than on the KC parade shooting or the earnings typo.
3. Measuring success and justifying investments to leadership
Nikki: One of the consumer athletic brands we work with completed a series of exhibition events with pro athletes leading up to a big product launch and came to us to help prove the value of that investment. Aside from just looking at how many people read about all the events in the series, I also wanted to compare readership to previous years’ launches. By doing this, we were able to showcase an over 20% increase in readership for this year’s launch, helping prove the value of their launch strategy to senior leadership and defend their investment.
4. Entering the conversation late can be a good thing.
Eva (me): We analyzed the entire generative AI conversation for one of our customers to help them understand how the conversation was trending and where the opportunities were. I found that early on in the news cycle, negative, fear-focused articles were dominating readership but about halfway through 2023, fears began to subside and the news cycle became more positive. As fear began to wear off, consumers became more interested in learning about its capabilities.
Without giving away too much, we were able to uncover some of the benefits of entering the conversation late. On controversial topics, it can be incredibly beneficial to let negative news cycles play out before entering the chat.
5. What are people reading about Taylor Swift?
Nikki: I’m a Swifie, and I know I’m not alone. Taylor Swift was arguably the most popular person in the world in 2023. I had so much fun digging into readership trends for the year of Taylor. Her Era’s Tour, award wins, movie, and new album announcement dominated headlines. Yet, sadly, none of her professional accomplishments were read more widely than coverage of her relationship with NFL star, Travis Kelce. You can see my full analysis, including a Super Bowl breakdown in our Resource Center.
Stay tuned for more from the Insights Team in the next few weeks and for another rundown of our favorite findings at the end of the quarter! In the meantime, you can always find the latest research in our Resource Center.