Social media lessons from the top nine Investment Writing posts for 2010

LinkedIn and Facebook are powerful.

The 2010 analytics on my blog made me appreciate the power of social media more than ever.

The influence of LinkedIn revealed itself in my most popular blog posts of 2010. These posts ranked high because they attracted attention in LinkedIn groups. “LinkedIn Groups Help Blog Posts Soar,” my guest post on the American Society of Business Publication Editors blog, discusses this phenomenon. I’d like to thank all of the LinkedIn members–and other visitors–who took the time to visit, forward, and comment on my blog posts.

As for Facebook, it has become a top five source of referrals to my blog. This is true even though I only launched the Investment Writing Facebook page partway through the year. Twitter didn’t rank as high as I expected on this count.

I also saw some themes in my most popular content. Top posts addressed marketing, social media, writing, and opinions of leading financial experts.

My blog’s nine most popular posts during 2010

  1. Notable quotes from the CFA Institute’s emerging markets conference
  2. My five favorite reference books for writers
  3. ISI’s Straszheim: China’s interest rate hike is “tapping the brakes”
  4. FINRA/SEC compliance guidance for bloggers
  5. “CFA credential implies a standard of care not always upheld,” says Forbes magazine opinion piece
  6. LinkedIn’s fatal flaw for financial advisor compliance
  7. Great blog posts don’t matter…
  8. “Has housing bottomed out?”–Karl Case and others on the U.S. housing market
  9. Reader challenge: What’s the writing lesson from Physicians Mutual?

Why top nine?

You may wonder why I’ve listed my top nine posts instead of the top 10.

It’s not because I’m ornery. I figured I might pique your attention with an odd-numbered list. Did I succeed?