What's All the Buzz About Buzzsumo

Whats All the Buzz About Buzzsumo?

36 Comments / Blogging Tutorials, Social Media / By /

Bloggers and content marketers are starting to pay a lot of attention to a fabulous content development tool called Buzzsumo. And with good reason! Buzzsumo is a content development and research tool that is worthy of praise.

I fell in love with the tool (yes — I admit that I'm in love with online software) while it was still in beta back in 2014 and apparently I'm not alone, because it's been featured everywhere from Ian Cleary's Razor Social to Mike Stelzner's Social Media Examiner and this incredible tool even shows up as the subject of a Marketing Course on Lynda.com.

At this point, you're probably wondering, what's all the buzz about Buzzsumo. There's so many ways you can benefit from having this tool in your arsenal, so without further ado, here's:

10 Ways to Generate Viral Content Using Buzzumo!

What's All the Buzz About Buzzsumo [Infographic]

Discover Your Most Shared Blog Post

Log in, go to the “Top Content” tab and enter your domain. You can filter your search by hour, week, month or drill down to specific date range. Searches can also be broken down based on the type of content you've published. For example filter by: videos, interviews, Infographics and more.

You can get a good idea what the interface is like in this video titled Buzzsumo Introduction (read the transcript below).

Conduct Influencer Outreach Campaigns

Each one of your viral content searches has the option to find the influencers who shared the article on Twitter. Users are listed by number of Twitter followers, engagement, domain authority and page authority.

Explore New Topic and Title Ideas

Researching content by topic easily helps you find what's trending across your niche and you might be surprised at what you'll discover. According to Sharon Hurley Hall in an article on The Daily Egg:

When you start marketing with content, you probably have some idea of the topics around which you want to create content. What you don’t know is whether others will find them interesting.

Use BuzzSumo to check this out by doing a topic search. Put your search terms in the search box and the results you get will show whether your topic is popular and what kind of content has already been posted on that topic.

Research Potential Guest Authors

This one has saved me a lot of grief already! I'm so fond of this I recorded a video that is available only to those who sign up for my online training school called Get Ready to Learn with Ileane Smith (more details to come on the school in an upcoming blog post). Here's a coupon for the course because if you're still with me at this point in the post, you deserve to get access to the mini-course for free. 🙂

Buzzsumo Course Coupon

Honestly, I have researched quite a few of my guest authors with Buzzsumo (I've rejected a few based on what I found there too!) and it's so much easier than trying to do a Google search.

Find Viral Content You Shared

From the Influencer's tab enter your Twitter handle -> then click on “View Links Shared” to see what's hot in your stream. There's another handy chart you can download that will show you the domains you're tweeting about. Check it to see if you're following the 80/20 rule – just for fun!

Top Tweets by Domain in Buzzsumo
Determine the Best Day of the Week to Publish

Wondering what day of the week you should publish new blog posts? Based on this handy chart, Monday's seem to get more shares here on Basic Blog Tips, but I might want to switch things up and publish on a day with fewer shares to even things out. Not surprised to see that most of the shares happen on Twitter but really blown away by the fact that there's a surge in Facebook shares on Thursday (still scratching my head over that one) 🙂 Best Day of the Week to Publish from Buzzsumo
Compare Any Two Domains

The domain reports cover 6 areas :

  • Average shares by network
  • Average shares by content type
  • Shares by date published
  • Average shares by content length
  • Popular topics by domain
  • Top shared content

Enter two domains for a head-to-head comparison. Come back and let me know what you find, ok?

Find Content Gaps

What's a good length for your articles? What type of content gets shared the most? Important questions that you can easily find answers to in Buzzsumo. Here's a report which shows posts that are 1,000 – 2,000 words long do well on this blog. That's also the content that seems to be going well over on Facebook. Maybe I need to do more of those posts, on the other hand I need to take a closer look at why the posts in the 2,000 – 3,000 words range aren't getting Pins on Pinterest. Shares by Content Length in Buzzsumo
Refresh Old Content with Infographics & Videos

Now that Buzzsumo helped me hone in on a Content Gap where Pinterest shares are lacking, it's time for me to get cracking by reviving some old posts with updated images or Infographics. By the way, speaking of Infographics what do you think of the one I included in this post? It's from the talented and lovely Pauline Cabrera from Twelveskip .

She's the bomb, isn't she?

Set up Alerts and RSS Feeds

You can shut off your Google Alerts, ignore TalkWalker and cancel your account with Mention. Seriously.

I know that I've recommended these tools in the past but I'm currently running all of them and NOTHING beats the speed and accuracy of Buzzsumo. Not even close.

Take any alert you create in Buzzsumo and turn it into an RSS feed. If you're already familiar with using IFTTT then you realize that this opens up a lot of possibilities! If you're not sure with IFTTT is read this. In a nutshell you can do some really cool tricks like send out a Tweet or post to Tumblr every time your blog is mentioned. If that sounds scary, try setting up IFTTT to send you a text message each time you get new backlink!

NEW! Trending Content

Steve Rayson, director over at Buzzsumo does a fantastic job in this video introducing us to the Trending Content feature that's currently in beta. I'm already having fun with this feature and I know you'll find some real content gems here, especially if you like to curate great content like I do.


Have you tried Buzzsumo yet? What do you think of it? Share your favorite feature with us in the comments.

Transcript for Buzzsumo Introduction Video
Just in case you've never seen Buzzsumo and you don't know what it's about. I came into the tool and I typed in my blog.

What happens as you're going to see all the shares and what posts on your blog were shared the most. So for example you'll see the number of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest or Google+ shares.

This way you can sort by any column for example I like to sort by the Pinterest to see – now I know that this post was about Pinterest so I'm not surprised that has the most pins on my blog over the last year. Now there's another thing you can do here you can change that time period. Let's say I just want to see over the past month. Change that filter it down. Now what's really great about getting these little reports here?

First of all if you want you can export them and play around with them in a spreadsheet if you want. But you can also see areas where your blog is weak. For example LinkedIn I don't get that many shares on LinkedIn but that’s intentional because I have my work stuff on LinkedIn and I don't want to confuse the two. But maybe for you it maybe Facebook. You want to put a little bit more effort in Facebook. Now let me show you another quick thing. You can go in here click on “View Sharers”. Now I just want to know you can do this for any blog it does not have to be your own blog I just so happen to use my blog for example. If you find that there’s someone who has a lot of followers– here you can see their followers their domain authority.

Like for example Ann Smarty she's one of my buddies. I even mention Viral Content Buzz in the interview as one of the tools I'm using and Ann Smarty is the developer of that tool. And, you know she has a lot of followers on Twitter so if I wasn't following her already I would certainly follow her and reach out and connect. And that's how you can use — just a little snippet of how you can use Buzzsumo in order to improve on your content make sure that if there's any gaps or any social sites where you're not getting that many shares if you wanna grow that network then you go ahead and you start concentrating on that. But connect with these influencers on Twitter if that's your goal.

Recommended Reading:

Watch the extended Buzzsumo tutorial and Q&A:


How to Use Buzzsumo for Content Research by MsIleaneSpeaks

36 thoughts on “Whats All the Buzz About Buzzsumo?”

    1. Ileane

      Riyaz, They have a free version and also a trial for the paid version. Check into it when you get some time. Thanks for stopping by!

  2. Ryan Biddulph

    Hi Ileane,

    I love the content gaps point. Finding the right length on each social network helps you boost those social shares. As noted, looking deeper can help you see why things aren’t getting Pinned as much yet, the same length posts may be getting a bunch more RTs. Buzz Sumo gives you the tools to do this homework.

    Awesome point on guest posting, too. Folks need to be vetted before you accept a guest post from them and this tool helps with the due diligence process. If I’m handing over the keys to my blog to anybody I need to know them first, using whatever I can, to find out who they are, what they’re about, if they’re an influential blogger and if they are a match for my niche.

    Thanks Ileane, super review!

    Tweeting and Pinning from Bali.

    Ryan

    1. Ileane

      Hi Ryan!

      I wasn’t paying much attention to the length of my blog posts until the first time I saw this report in Buzzsumo. It was a real eye-opener to see that some of my longer posts may not have images in the Pinterest ecosystem. I plan to track those down and fix that asap!

      In my Buzzsumo mini-course I go into detail about different ways to check out an author’s portfolio to see if they are worthy of a guest spot. Of course I only use this when I don’t know the blogger, no need to waste my time when it comes to top quality writers such as yourself 🙂

      Thanks for stopping by Ryan, always great to see you here.

  3. Lillian De Jesus

    Hi Ileane,

    I really need to get back on BuzzSumo! I see all the benefits that you mention but I don’t recall using BuzzSumo like that at all. I guess I was using it incorrectly. Thanks for sharing this and I’m going to dive into once again.

    Take care,
    Lillian

    1. Ileane

      Lillian,

      Buzzsumo is one of the best content research tools out there. In this post, I covered a lot of my favorite reports but I left out a ton of stuff too!
      I plan to do another video that will focus specifically on content development ideas for Pinterest, so please stay tuned for that one.

      Thanks for the comment Lillian, have a great week ahead.

  5. Andy

    I’ve read about Buzzsumo about a week ago, but I have to admit that I haven’t test it yet. No doubt this software will bring a lot of traffic, if it is used properly. I will try the free version in the next couple of days.

    1. Ileane

      Andy,

      The good thing about Buzzsumo is that it’s helpful for bloggers from every niche, so I’m sure you’ll find it helpful.

  6. Donna Merrill

    Hi Illeane,

    I always wondered what was the real purpose to explore Buzzsumo. It was another “to do” on my list. Well the title caught my eye when I was on G+ today and I just had to come over to see what it was all about.

    You sure have given me such a great perspective on using this tool. I especially like the fact that there are some connections I would want to make that have gone unnoticed.

    You just helped me so much with this that you have no idea how grateful I am!

    Many blessings to you,

    -Donna

    1. Ileane

      Hi Donna!

      Buzzsumo is one of those tools that has so many features, it’s hard for me to pick a favorite. I haven’t mentioned them all here — in fact I haven’t even used them all yet!!
      Thanks for stopping by Donna and for sharing the article on Twitter too.

  7. Ravi Sankar

    Thanks for sharing this kind of wonderful information mam. First i did not have any idea about this Buzzsumo. But now i got lot of information about it. Thanks a lot mam.. 🙂

  8. Sherman Smith

    Hey Ileane

    I started using buzzsumo a couple of months ago and haven’t realize how many features it has. I’ve been using it to find headlines and post that receive the most shares and write something similar with my posts. Thanks for this review and this will be a post I’ll come back to. Thanks for sharing and have a great rest of the week!

    1. Ileane

      Hey Sherman,
      Great to hear that you are already using Buzzsumo! There are so many tools out there for us to experiment with, it’s so refreshing to find one that’s really helpful AND simple to use.
      Thanks for the feedback — and for sharing this one too.
      Chat soon Sherman!

  9. satish

    I love the content gaps point. Finding the right length on each social network helps you boost those social shares. Awesome point on guest posting, too. Folks need to be vetted before you accept a guest post from them and this tool helps with the due diligence process.Thanks for sharing this kind of wonderful information mam. Thank you

  10. Herbert

    Im a bit hesitate with this tool but upon reading your post Ileane, everything is crystal clear now. I am really gonna be using this tool…

    Thanks a heap!

  11. Jimmy

    I had heard of Buzzsumo before but I never realised just how much you could do with it. It’s interesting to see the average shares by content lenght, I’m going to have to make sure I take a look at that for my own site to see what work well. You hear so many different theories on ideal word length, this is perfect to find out what works well for your site. Thanks for this Ileane, I will definitely be checking out Buzzsumo!

  12. Majharul Hossain

    “Buzzsumo” I don’t know anything about this. Actually heard this first time here. But, the data you have mentioned here are quite interesting, more openly surprising! I don’t have idea that Saturday, Sunday are not working for content marketers.

  13. Dewry

    DNN assumes you found out about this from ProBlogger Darren Rowse? Saw it first on his blog.

    1. Ileane

      Dewry, not at all. Believe or not I don’t read ProBlogger too often.
      I actually saw some Tweets going back and forth between Wil Reynolds from Seer and Rand Fishkin from Moz.

  14. Isaac

    First time hearing about Buzzsumo, am curious to see how it works. Nice review by the way

  15. Terungwa Akaahan

    Hi Ileane,

    Thanks for the comprehensive introduction to Buzzsumo….I’m only getting to know about this and I must tell you that I am impressed already. I ran my domain over and was pleasantly shocked – I never imagined many of my entries were shared on FB.

    Thanks a million again for the introduction. At the moment, I’m seriously considering taking a serious step forward and going premium.

    Do ensure to make the day great!

    Always,
    Akaahan Terungwa

    1. Ileane

      Hi Akaahan!

      Facebook shares are super tricky to track down so I’m pleased to hear that you’re finding out about them in Buzzsumo.

      Reach out to the folks at Buzzsumo to see if they have any discounts offers available for their pro options. 🙂

      Thanks for your comment my dear!

  16. Fabrizio

    Hi Ileane, I’ve seen a lot of mention about BuzzSumo about and you know it’s one of those things that I though yeah I’ll get to that later and check it out. Now having read your post and watched the short video you created showing a brief example of how to conduct outreach using BuzzSumo I’m wishing that I wished I checked it out earlier.

    There’s a lot of great features here, I love the view sharers feature, where you’re able to see who shared your content and thus who to reach out to and connect with and follow, that’s an awesome feature for sure. I’ve signed up to a free plan for now and maybe look into the pro features in the future.

    Great review Ileane, thanks again, hope you’re keeping well 🙂
    – Fabrizio

    1. Ileane

      Hi there Fabrizio!

      When you have time, be sure to take the 14 day free trial offer for the Pro version of Buzzsumo so you can really check it out.

      Thanks for stopping by my friend!

      1. Stuart

        Hello @Ileane it’s the best ever and very informative, well analyzed article about Buzzsumo on world wide web 🙂
        Thanks for sharing it.

  17. Arbaz Khan

    I have used BuzzSumo in the past to find out the types of content that gets the most shares on social media. It’s also a great way to choose the title of your article because using the tool, you can learn about the patterns of the post titles that attracts thousands of shares.
    Thanks for sharing the article and creating a video! 🙂

    1. Ileane

      Hi there Arbaz! Great tip for using Buzzsumo to make better post titles. Thanks for sharing your expertise. 🙂

  19. Ajay kumar

    Hi lleane

    I am little bit confuse about Buzzsumo tool because I never heard about this. I think this will help me a lot in future

  20. vinod

    That is exactly what i have been looking for.
    Thank you very much for your sharing.

  21. Mohammed Asif

    Wow…

    What an awesome post really looking for this kind of article, by the way, shared the post that really helped me to learn new ways to get the backlinks.

    Thank you

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