Hello, readers! I’m Lauren, the new WaPo Labs editorial intern. One of the projects I am working on during my internship is exploring how Labs is reaching its audience through social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be chiming in with my findings.
This week, I took a peek at the Washington Post Social Reader Twitter feed to see what it could tell us about our interaction with readers (like you!).
Apparently, love for gadgets and Girl Scout cookies go hand in hand when it comes to the Washington Post Social Reader’s Twitter feed. Two of the most popular articles last week were GigaOM’s “Bigger Than Google+, MySpace Isn’t Dead Yet” and The Washington Post‘s “Girl Scout Cookies Boycott Sought By Teen After Organization Admits Transgender Child.”
What can these @wpsocialreader statistics tell us? Our audience’s interest is piqued when we fulfill its tech-loving and cookie-munching desires. Maybe Mark Zuckerberg should ensure that Girl Scouts and their scrumptious cookie order forms can attend the next F8 conference — it could be a match made in heaven.
Besides social media and Savannah Smiles, one other stat stood out above the rest: our audience takes a leisurely approach to clicking through the WPSR Twitter feed. Unlike most Twitter feeds, in which tweets are picked up and shared the day they are tweeted, the @wpsocialreader feed gets a substantial amount of reads a few days after the tweets originate.
So, keep up the Twitter attention, fair readers! We’re more than happy to pass along to you our favorite WPSR stories, both serious and silly. And feel free to leave comments for us here and on Twitter — we love to hear from you.
But, now onto more important matters: who finished off the box of Thin Mints?