It’s all about engagement
It’s all about engagement.
It’s worth noting the following:
- The average person can read around 200 words per minute on screen and that the average UK Guardian reader spends around 7 minutes and 30 seconds per visit (according to Google).
- The Guardian has monthly page views of around 88 million in the UK and around 21 million unique visitors per month (according to Google)
- Based on the above, the average visitor will spend around 450/4.2 = 107 seconds per page. In other words, the average reader will read up to 350 words before moving on to another page or off the site completely.
So what does this tells us? Well, any article longer than 350 words will not get a look over. Not least because on any given page, the reader is also potentially being distracted from reading by ads and other elements on the page. In that case, what is required within 350 words to have any material impact on the reader?
Is 107 seconds really long enough to make any impact at all? Hmmm. Then again these are average figures. Some people may be able to read more quickly on screen. Then again, many people will read more slowly. And clearly some people may spend more time with content.
Anyhoo, what is known, and shared with industry insiders alike, is that online PR planning needs to take account of engagement in determining what media sites to target and the appropriate content to provide. If a site’s visitors spend barely 30 seconds on reading a page, then crowing to the client that they’ve got 14 paragraphs of coverage at the end of a 3,000 word article is pretty meaningless – whether it is the BBC or the Wheel Tappers & Shunters Weekly.
Posted: June 7th, 2010 under Digital PR, Online PR, Revolver PR.
Tags: Digital PR, Online PR, scotland's leading digitally enabled public relations consultancy, social media, social networking