1. The Web As You
Know It Is Over
Matthew Knell, VP of Social Media, about.com
@matthewknell
(and What You Can Do About It)
#orlandoix15

2. #orlandoix15
• 85 million people visit about.com
every month
• 13th largest site on the Internet
• 1,000 Experts on topics from
parenting to technology, healthcare
and cooking.
• Each month more people check out
About.com than Pandora, Twitter,
Buzzfeed, Linkedin or Netflix.
Sources: ComScore, about.com internal metrics

3. #orlandoix15
4Reasons
Why
The Web
You Know
Is Over

4. Reason #1
Mobile is finally
the primary
platform
Photo: Osborne Luggable from http://www.oldcomputers.net/osborne.html#orlandoix15

5. Mobile has won
People spend more
consuming media on their
mobiles than their desktop
or laptop and have for the
last two years.
Taken from, and I highly recommend you read Mary Meeker’s seminal Internet Trends Report: http://www.slideshare.net/kleinerperkins/internet-trends-v1#orlandoix15

6. In 2015, mobiles and tablet
visitors have accounted for
more page views than
desktop visitors.
Source: about.com internal stats, 2015#orlandoix15

7. Reason #2
Search isn’t as
dominant
anymore
#orlandoix15

8. Facebook can
drive more
traffic then
Google
Media sites got more
traffic from Facebook
than Google in July
2015
#orlandoix15

9. Major publishers
Source: SimilarWeb, Jul-Sep 2015
Site Social Search
Refinery29 38% 24%
HuffingtonPost 22% 36%
BuzzFeed 51% 13%
Mashable 43% 24%
Quartz 40% 22%
NY Times 20% 23%
WSJ 13% 33%
CNN 11% 20%
Fox News 9% 21%
Mother Jones 48% 18%
Gawker 13% 18%
#orlandoix15

10. Pinterest =
emerging as the
new search
Pinterest is fast becoming a
search engine for people’s
passions and desires.
It’s a new “human edited”
search engine.
#orlandoix15

11. social visitors are
24%more engaged than
search visitors
Source: about.com internal stats, Jan-Aug 2015#orlandoix15
more engaged than the
average social user
Pinterest visitors are
108%

12. Reason #3
The line
between media
and distribution
is blurring
#orlandoix15

13. Traffic increasingly
lives in closed systems
Requires content creators to
understand and play platform rules
and create content in more places.
#orlandoix15

14. Hybrid hosting
• Facebook hopes “Instant
Articles” will make content
load faster for users by
hosting third-party content on
their servers.
• Washington Post has
committed to publishing 100%
of their content this way.
• Google and Twitter are
working on their own
versions.
More about Instant Articles: http://instantarticles.fb.com
#orlandoix15

15. Apple News
• Personalized content on your iOS
device.
• New with iOS 9.
• Allows for more elegantly
designed content.
#orlandoix15

16. Fully distributed
content networks
• NowThis doesn’t have a
website, living entirely on
social.
• BuzzFeed BFF is a fully
distributed network as well.
• Huffington Post is moving this
way too.
#orlandoix15

17. Reason #4
Private is the
new Public
#orlandoix15

18. Source: We Are Social’s Digital, Social and Mobile in 2015 report: http://www.slideshare.net/wearesocialsg/digital-social-mobile-in-2015
Chat apps
• 4 of the 6 top social networks
worldwide are chat /
messenging applications.
#orlandoix15

19. Chat popular
amongst all demos
Among smartphone owners 18-
29, 49% use messaging apps.
But 37% of 30-49 and 24% of
50+ do too.
#orlandoix15 Source: Pew Internet: http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/08/19/mobile-messaging-and-social-media-2015-main-findings/

20. Snapchat rising
Explosive growth in Snapchat in
the last two years suggests that
more millennials are keeping it
“in the network”.
#orlandoix15

21. #orlandoix15
3Things
You Can
Do About It

22. Thing #1
Offer share
tools smartly
#orlandoix15

23. Limit Share Options
Review the quality and quantity
of traffic from social sources.
Only highlight in share buttons
the ones you want traffic from.
It’s ok to limit choices.
#orlandoix15

24. Consider Chat Apps
For Sharing
#orlandoix15
USA Today’s FTW saw 3-4x the
number of shares to What’s App
over Twitter on Mobile
Source: Digiday http://digiday.com/publishers/usa-todays-win-ditched-twitter-buttons-mobile/

25. Thing #2
Optimize your
metadata for
mobile and
social
#orlandoix15

26. Open Graph Tags
• Allow you to specify exactly
how a Facebook share looks
with code on the page.
• Author tags let you specify a
Facebook profile or page to
associate with a writer to help
grow their social audience.
Photo
Title
Description
Author Tags
More about Open Graph: http://ogp.me
#orlandoix15

27. Pinterest Rich
Pins
• Most Open Graph Tags
work with Rich Pins too -
little additional work
required
• Allows you to customize
metadata about pins
• Helps pages show up in
Pinterest search
• Come in App, Product,
Article, Place, Movie,
Recipe Pins
Photo
Title
More about Rich Pins:
https://business.pinterest.com/en/rich-pins
Rich Pin in Search Pin Detail Page
DescriptionSite Name
#orlandoix15

28. Source: about.com internal stats#orlandoix15
in a single week
After enabling Rich Pins,
page views from
Pinterest increased
40%

29. Thing #3
Make sure your
content can
work anywhere
#orlandoix15

30. Consider adding a
second “social friendly”
title to your content.
Output the second
social title in your Open
Graph tags to show
only in shares.
Social Titles
#orlandoix15

31. Social Titles
Consider using those
social titles on related
links and mobile
pages too
#orlandoix15

32. Micro content
Content gives,
screens don’t
#orlandoix15

33. Remember emerging formats
Amazon Echo
Apple TVSamsung Gear VR

34. Keep your RSS Feeds
fresh
Yes, RSS Feeds still matter.
As new content distribution
systems grow, make sure you
still have update RSS feeds for
your content for other uses.
Consider building APIs to allow
qualified apps to use your
content too.
#orlandoix15

35. Questions?
@matthewknell
#orlandoix15