Eight times more users now get information from scrolling through social media rather than clicking on websites, with Microsoft and OpenAI-powered bots changing how we consume news forever.
The upshot is that timber-led news now has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to target new audiences with information, with mainstream media (often hidden behind paywalls) set to become obsolete.
That is the key takeaway from new data obtained by Wood Central, which, for the first time, can report on the traffic flows of hundreds of thousands of users who visit its platforms.
“Over the past 12 months, more than 220,000 new and unique users have visited Wood Central’s website,” according to Wood Central’s Publisher, Jason Ross, who added that 250,000 users have now clicked on the website since March last year. “It equates to around half a million clicks on Wood Central articles.”
However, that only accounts for part of the picture, “with Wood Central articles attracting more than 4 million eyeballs across LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.”
While the click-through rates from these impressions to the website are low (about 1.5%), the impact is enormous—LinkedIn (responsible for 3.2 million impressions) is the best way to target users with information.
In addition to LinkedIn, YouTube and TikTok are also growing platforms, with Wood Central attracting more than 250,000 views to both platforms in the last six months.
“This demographic is much younger, with traffic far more impacted by trending subjects,” Mr Ross said. Adding that when a topic like the EUDR, Conflict Timber or Notre Dame makes news, “we can attract a whole swath of new users and traffic to stories” by leading with a social media-first strategy.
The results speak for themselves: “Wood Central’s top demographics are 25-34, 18-24, and 35-44,” which account for just under 75% of the website’s total traffic. “Our top markets for traffic are India (32%), Australia (20%), the United States (8%), and New Zealand (3%), with the UK, Canada, and countries across the Asia-Pacific region close behind.”
While the vast majority of traffic coming through social media and search engines is younger, Wood Central’s newsletter—the Wood Central Daily Digest—has a far older demographic—more than 40% are over 55 and overwhelmingly male (80% compared to 66% overall).
“Newsletters – or Electronic Direct Mail (EDM’s) certainly have a place,” Mr Ross said, “in fact, 45% of Wood Central’s subscribers open the Digest every day (and more than 80% across the week),” but, “the type of users engaging with email-led newsletters is shrinking as trust in email communication reduces and we are all time poor.”
According to Mr Ross, “more than two-thirds of users who click on the website use a smartphone”, with most users interested in News and Politics, Banking and Finance, Technology, and Architecture.
“The focus on architecture and timber-led case studies is a key part of Wood Central, with the website committing to publishing a new and unique project case study every day.”
To date, Wood Central has more than 1,500 articles fully indexed on Google, Yahoo and Bing; below is a list of the top 10 articles that are tending right now:
- India’s Soaring Timber Demand is Ready for Liftoff!
- Demand for Timber to Increase Fourfold by 2050: Where is the Wood?
- Is DLT the Next-Gen for Mass Timber? Aussie Project Finds Out!
- Why Maldives’ Fari Islands Are the Ultimate Bucket List Spot!
- ASH Rises Like Phoenix to Meet Aussie Demand for Hardwoods
- Canada’s $600m Bet on 3D-Printing & Mass Timber’ Quick Builds’ to End Crisis
- Portland’s Massive Timber Airport Set to Take Off in August!
- World’s Tallest Timber Hybrid Rises: Atlassian Tower Breaks Ground!
- Why Port Plus is the First of a Japanese Timber Building Surge
- First Post-and-Plate High-Rise Revolutionises Mass Timber Construction
- To find out more about Wood Central’s latest data, contact the Wood Central Publisher.
