Why Business Insider thrives on Facebook

Meena Thiruvengadam of Business Insider writes why the business news website is so popular on Facebook.

Thiruvengadam writes, “According to our own analysis, Business Insider’s main Facebook page alone – one of 28 such pages (including sub-brand pages like Business Insider: Finance) – received more than 4.8 million likes, comments, and shares on the platform in only the past 30 days.

“Using Crowdtangle data, we see that Business Insider has twice as many of these types of engagements as CNN Money, more than three times The Economist, and nearly five times that of The Wall Street Journal.

“Another interesting way of measuring engagement on Facebook is to look at which outlets’ stories typically trend on the platform. Trending items are selected via an algorithm that considers a combination of volume and momentum – a lot of original mentions, which also spike in engagement.

“The Washington Post recently analyzed trending news content on Facebook, and Business Insider was the only business news site included in a chart featuring mostly general news sites, like NPR and Time.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.