Doesn’t it feel like everyone in social and digital has been asking about Facebook and engagement? It seems that many are trying to get a better understanding of what content is shareable, how to get more fans, and how to boost engagement. From brand marketers to bloggers, Facebook is a reliable web traffic driving source and can breed a loyal, creative community. A community, that right now, is getting quiet.

Which is why a recent study conducted by National Public Radio‘s (NPR) Digital Services struck a chord with us. With their geotargeted local content experiment that spanned the past four months, NPR attempted to find out “What is it about certain local stories that make them more social than others?” Sounds like a complicated but extremely interesting study right?

NPR says,

We measured success using this metric: Of the unique people who see each post, what percentage like it, share it, or comment on it? We found that the geotargeted posts were six-times more successful than posts that were shared to the global NPR Facebook following.

Thanks to their study, they found that these 9 types of local stories work best on Facebook:

• Place Explainers
• Crowd Pleasers
• Curiosity Stimulators
• News Explainers
• Major Breaking News
• Feel-Good Smilers
• Topical Buzzers
• Provocative Controversies
• Awe-Inspiring Visuals

To summarize, Facebook readers want to be intrigued, to laugh, to learn something they have never heard of before, to heard local feel-good-stories and to be wonderstruck. As a leader in your community, you can take these 9 tips and truly become a leader in your city, which will only get you on track for professional blogging success.

Hopefully, this gives you an indication as to what works and how you can strategize your content on Facebook. Perhaps with these 9 content tips, you can find Facebook success and finally get your content shared all across the platform, not just to a small segment in the community.

To read the complete study, head over to NPR’s Digital Services. What kind of stories do you think work best on Facebook? Have you had stories that have gained a ridiculous amount of Facebook shares?