Science blogging is increasingly gaining attraction among the masses. You can consider it as a form of bridge between the common people and the scientists resulting in more awareness of the problems and the solutions.
Paul Knoepfler, an associate professor at the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine, wrote,
“Savvy scientists must increasingly engage with blogs and social media. A new generation of young researchers has grown up with an ever-present Internet. Publishers have been quicker than academics to react to this new world, but scientists must catch up. Even if you choose not to blog, you can certainly expect that your papers and ideas will increasingly be blogged about. So there it is — blog or be blogged.”
After starting a blog, bloggers consider their readers as one of the most precious entities and they always try to attract more and more readers as they would help him or her to tell his or her thinking or work to the world.
In order to study the psychology of the users who are attracted by the articles, we worked on articles from some of the popular websites and blogs. We concentrated on some of the articles that received more than 2,000 Facebook likes.
The results in this article are not final and conclusive but they may help the bloggers and news site owners to increase the attraction about their work.
From the research, we found that although “like” is not much affected by the length of the article but you can still increase the number of “like” of the article by increasing the length along with its attractive content. The article with more than 300 words, perhaps, show more professional attitude and therefore has more chances of readers’ recommendation.
Overall in a scientific research, business research is very less involved or people like it not very much.
It is unnecessary to consider that a particular title or article became hit on another site and the same title will be a hit on your blog or site. Write what you think, is more important, as compared to writing by copying the others.
Show the numbers in “recommendation” or “like” button, whether it is small or large. It could increase your chances of sharing.
One could guess from the links below that some sort of negativity or criticism linked to some famous company or individual etc. could result in more liking by the users although it is not a good thing.
From the Newscientist.com, the article “Revealed – the capitalist network that runs the world” got more than 89,000 likes. It was posted in October 2011 and has more than 1,100 words.
From the LiveScience.com, the article “Facebook Profile May Expose Mental Illness” received more than 2000 likes. This article has more than 350 words and posted on the site on 25 January 2013 at 10:22 AM ET.
From the Popsci.com, the article “A Working Assault Rifle Made With a 3-D Printer” got more than 6,000 likes. It was posted on July 26, 2012 and it has more than 300 words.
From the LiveScience.com, the article “Fox News Climate Coverage 93% Wrong, Report Finds” received more than 3,000 likes. This article has more than 600 words and posted on the site on 25 September 2012 at 03:14 PM ET.
From the LiveScience.com, the article “Filmmaker Sir David Attenborough Calls Humans a Plague” has more than 400 words.
From the Newscientist.com, the article “Carrying a gun increases risk of getting shot and killed” got more than 4,000 likes. It was posted on October 2009 and has more than 300 words.
One could guess the love of human beings with technology from the link below.
From the LiveScience.com, the article “Better Than Batteries: A Hybrid Car That Runs on Air” has more than 300 words and was posted on the site 23 January 2013 at 11:16 AM ET.
The articles below show that the increase in curiosity or the love of human beings with animals could result in increased liking of the article.
From the LiveScience.com, the article “Like Dog, Like Owner: What Breeds Say About Personality” was posted on 19 April 2012 at 07:01 PM ET.
From the Newscientist.com, the article “Animals are conscious and should be treated as such” got more than 4,000 likes. It was posted on 26 September 2012 and has more than 800 words.
This shows that the increase in curiosity could result in increased liking of the article.
From the sciencedaily.com, the article “Blue-Eyed Humans Have A Single, Common Ancestor” received more than 10,000 likes. It was posted on Jan. 31, 2008 and has more than 400 words.
From the sciencedaily.com, the article “‘Quadruple helix’ DNA discovered in human cells” was posted on January 20, 2013 and has more than 900 words. It received more than 4,000 likes. Same form of article got more than 2,000 likes on Nature News.
(From the Nature News, the article “Quantum gas goes below absolute zero” was posted on January 3, 2012 and has more than 600 words. It received more than 25,000 likes. However, it is still not sure.)
This article, below, shows that the society related factors or the issues related to our life can be interesting to cover.
From the scientificamerican.com, the article “Men and Women Can’t Be “Just Friends”” received more than 35,000 likes. It was posted on October 23, 2012 and has more than 900 words.
From the scientificamerican.com, the article “How Knowing a Foreign Language Can Improve Your Decisions” was posted on July 3, 2012 and it has more than 1,000 words.
From the sciencedaily.com, the article “Eating Asparagus May Prevent a Hangover, Study Suggests” was posted on Dec. 26, 2012 and has about 200 words.
From the-scientist.com, the article “Overly Honest Methods” was posted on January 10, 2013 and received more than 4,000 likes. It has about 300 words.
Reference:
Knoepfler, P. (2011). My year as a stem-cell blogger Nature, 475 (7357), 425-425 DOI: 10.1038/475425a