2017 Year in Review: Our most shared pieces on social media

Yesterday, we shared our most read pieces of the year and our largest audiences based on cold, hard data. Today, we will use that same data to learn what our most shared pieces of the year was on social media networks.

Some of these pieces were also ranked yesterday. But it shouldn’t be surprising to see a piece show up again because social media is a major way for pieces to get more page views.

The 5 most shared pieces on Twitter in 2017

Of all the web traffic we get from social media, Twitter is the network we get the most traffic from. So, here were the Top 5 pieces that were referred to us from a network that sends messages 140 280 characters at a time.

#1. Wizards fan knocks out Celtics fan in Game 7, causing a bloody mess (Albert Lee) - I guess violence gets clicks. That said, don’t fight people!

#2. Five Wizards trade ideas that accomplish nothing and serve no discernible purpose (Jake Whitacre) - Why Jake?

#3. Other things the Clippers should have offered in their trade pitch for Otto Porter (Jake Whitacre, Nick Bilka, Quinten Rosborough, Mike Knapp, Lyndie Wood) - Otto was a player in demand!

#4. Five ways the Wizards can get better from the fallout of the DeMarcus Cousins trade (Jake Whitacre) - The Wizards were never expected to “compete” for Cousins anyway, but here are some suggestions Jake threw out there, right after he was traded to the Pelicans.

#5. Chris McCullough brings potential as an athletic stretch four for the Wizards (Jake Weingarten) - Though this was written right after Bogdanovic was traded to D.C., it is a good analysis on what to expect from him. I’m still waiting to see whether he can crack the rotation, but it will be tough given that Markieff Morris and Mike Scott take up most of the minutes at power forward.

#6. How the Wizards can use the trade exception they acquired from the Nets (Jake Whitacre) - This is handy. The Wizards still have a $2.5 million exception from the Bogdanovic trade.

The 5 most shared pieces on Facebook in 2017

Like Twitter our most shared piece on Facebook was the Wizards fan punching the Celtics fan, so we’ll go to our second place piece and go from there:

#2. Wizards sign Central Michigan’s Marcus Keene to Summer League deal, according to report (Jake Whitacre) - To the average Wizards fan, this is a surprise because Keene never made the Wizards’ roster. So perhaps this piece was shared among Keene’s friends, for example.

#3. Watch John Wall’s Game 6 game-winning three vs. the Celtics (Albert Lee) - This is the biggest play in Wizards franchise history since 1979. Sure, Washington didn’t win the series, but I think we were all on endorphin's in the minutes after Wall’s three from Stephen Curry range.

#4. The other things the Clippers could’ve offered for Otto piece. So I still have three more pieces to share.

#5. Donald Sloan reportedly signs one-year with the Wizards (Albert Lee) - Like Keene, Sloan didn’t make the final Wizards roster, so this may have been shared among friends or family.

#6. The Wizards are the #1 team in CBS’ NBA Power Rankings (Albert Lee) - The Wizards were one of the strongest NBA teams from January to March, which warranted their place as the NBA’s hottest teams, even if they still couldn’t pull off a 10-game winning streak — which would be a franchise record.

#7. Wizards trade Andrew Nicholson, Marcus Thornton, first round pick to Brooklyn for Bojan Bogdanovic, Chris McCullough (Jake Whitacre) - This was the biggest trade of the year, so no surprise.

Top 5 pieces shared on Reddit in 2017

Reddit is one of the largest social news sites on the internet. In fact, the Wizards have their own page. Here are the Top 5 pieces that were shared by Reddit users:

#1. Otto Porter can’t be a max player unless he stops using watermarked photos on Instagram (Jake Whitacre) - I guess Redditors like talking about the fact that Porter doesn’t have a Getty Images account yet. This was also our most shared piece of 2017.

#2. John Wall’s interview after Game 6 win showed off everything that makes him a great player (Jake Whitacre) - The buzzer beater against the Celtics was great. His response after the game is just as great!

#3. Caron Butler added to Wizards’ All-Time Team in NBA 2K18 - Tuff Juice wasn’t on the original All-Wizards team, but he got on there eventually. Phew!

#4. Wizards looking for depth, interested in Lou Williams, Bojan Bogdanovic according to report (Jake Whitacre) - Well, Lou Williams could have been a Wizards in exchange for a first round draft pick. If he was, what if he ended up being a rental!?

#5. Bradley Beal explains how Scott Brooks changed the Wizards’ culture in new blog (Jake Whitacre) - I THINK JAKE WHITACRE OWNS REDDIT! But really, this was a nicely written piece by Beal.

The 5 most shared pieces on LinkedIn in 2017

LinkedIn isn’t the most popular network to share sports articles. But it is the world’s largest professional network. And we actually had some content get shared on here.

We didn’t get that much traffic from LinkedIn compared to Twitter, but it came up with some interesting results, most of which leaned toward a more “professional-network-y” type of post:

#1. The Wizards reportedly lost money in the 2016-17 season even after revenue sharing payments (Albert Lee) - On a network like LinkedIn, people generally share business-y type pieces. This is one of them.

#2: Mystics at Fever final score: Washington clinches playoffs with 87-82 win (Elle Ward) - Ted Leonsis wrote a blog on LinkedIn on August 24 about hiring more women in the workplace. It’s worth a read in and of itself. But along the way, he also linked our recap when the Mystics made the playoffs!

#3. Seven things you may not have realized about Rod Strickland’s time in Washington (Jake Whitacre) - Some folks were sharing their love for Strickland while making new LinkedIn connections.

#4. Bullets Forever’s All-Time Mystics First and Honorable Mention Teams (Albert Lee) - The Mystics made a second appearance on LinkedIn. Maybe an alumna shared her mention? I’m not sure, but I’m flattered nevertheless!

#5. Belgium shows how the Mystics and the now-Capital City Go-Go can have a big homecourt advantage with a smaller arena (Albert Lee) - Another piece on the Mystics ... or the Go-Go ... or The Belgian Cats ... or really all three of these teams rounded out our Top-5 shared pieces on LinkedIn. The bottom line of this piece is that a small arena can provide a raucous crowed if it’s played out right. The Mystics will move to the WNBA’s smallest arena which many of their fans criticize. But smaller doesn’t necessarily mean worse if they can pull the string just right.