Yesterday, Facebook + Media released the list of Most Shared Articles on Facebook in 2011. As a sucker for “top” and “most” lists and the like, I look forward to the last quarter of the year, when they start popping up left and right on any topic you can possibly think of, because they are somewhat descriptive of the past year. Much longer than other year-ending rundowns, this list surprisingly had a really good mix—funny and serious, informative and seemingly useless, print and multimedia. This list left me almost in tears (of both laughter and sadness), but most of all, it has left me a bit confused. Its wide variety of subject matter and type of content makes me wonder about what all this means.

With online video and multimedia consumption emerging, only 11 of the 40 stories are videos or have a video component, and only four are primarily based on photos or have an interactive feature. With 44% (and growing) of Facebook users accessing the social networking site via mobile, does this mean that multimedia content has yet to be better utilized for mobile consumption despite Facebook’s recent push for mobile? Or do text-only articles show no signs weakening? My bet is on the first rather than the latter.

I also noticed that reputable news sites such as CNN.com, NYTimes.com, WashingtonPost.com and Yahoo! News dominate as the most popular sources. As someone from a journalism background, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside that the online community still primarily refers to the respected and esteemed news outlets for content—at least I’d like to believe that. Much of the sharing could be better attributed to Open Graph apps which has increased Yahoo! News’ traffic by 600% and garnered the WaPo more than 3.5 million users via the Social Reader app based on early statistics.

With this in mind, the majority of the articles are content primarily originating from, or touching issues directly affecting, the U.S. despite 75% of Facebook users living outside the United States. With topics ranging from Steve Jobs, job hunting, laughing babies, the U.S. deficit and Japan tsunami, this list is indeed indicative of this past year. It would be really interesting to see analytics and demographics on who shared what. Check out the list and let me know what you think.

Most Shared Articles on Facebook in 2011

1. Satellite Photos of Japan, Before and After the Quake and Tsunami (New York Times)

2. What teachers really want to tell parents (CNN)

3. No, your zodiac sign hasn’t changed (CNN)

4. Parents, don’t dress your girls like tramps (CNN)

5. Father Daughter Dance Medley (Yahoo)

6. At funeral, dog mourns the death of Navy SEAL killed in Afghanistan (Yahoo)

7. You’ll freak when you see the new Facebook (CNN)

8. Dog in Japan stays by the side of ailing friend in the rubble (Yahoo)

9. Giant crocodile captured alive in Philippines (Yahoo)

10. New Zodiac Sign Dates: Ophiuchus The 13th Sign? (The Huffington Post)

11. Parents keep child’s gender under wraps (Yahoo)

12. How to Talk to Little Girls (The Huffington Post)

13. Stop Coddling the Super-Rich (New York Times)

14. Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior (Wall Street Journal)

15. Twin Baby Boys Have A Conversation! (Yahoo)

16. Man robs bank to get medical care in jail (Yahoo)

17. Why You’re Not Married (The Huffington Post)

18. A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs (New York Times)

19. Ryan Dunn Dead: ‘Jackass’ Star Dies In Car Crash (The Huffington Post)

20. Scientists warn California could be struck by winter ‘superstorm’ (Yahoo)

21. Notes From a Dragon Mom (New York Times)

22.  A Message to Women From a Man: You Are Not “Crazy” (The Huffington Post)

23. Obama’s and Bush’s effects on the deficit in one graph (Washington Post)

24. Penn State, my final loss of faith (Washington Post)

25.  Golden-Voiced Homeless Man Captivates Internet (Yahoo)

26. The most typical face on the planet (Yahoo)

27. Widespread destruction from Japan earthquake, tsunamis (CNN)

28. Permissive parents: Curb your brats (CNN)

29. A father’s day wish: Dads, wake the hell up! (CNN)

30. Laughing Baby Loves Ripping Paper! (Yahoo)

31. Epic Cover Letter: How To Get Hired For Your Dream Job (Pic) (The Huffington Post)

32. New Zodiac sign dates: Don’t switch horoscopes yet (Washington Post)

33. Things Babies Born in 2011 Will Never Know (Yahoo)

34.  The Psychology of Revenge: Why We Should Stop Celebrating Osama Bin Laden’s Death (The Huffington Post)

35. Where Children Sleep (New York Times)

36. Quake moved Japan coast 8 feet, shifted Earth’s axis (CNN)

37.  Steve Jobs, Apple founder, dies (CNN)

38. China’s latest craze: dyeing pets to look like other wild animals (CNN)

39. Grant Hill’s Response to Jalen Rose (New York Times)

40. Steve Jobs’s Patents (New York Times)

Your Bounce Rate is 46 percent, your average page views have declined after a recent site redesign, and the average time on your site has fallen. What do these numbers really mean? How do they and other metrics drive increased revenue, decreased costs, customer retention, or other online objectives?

It depends.

Are users coming from a search engine to view one news article and leaving with their content goals met? Or do users arrive at the site, find it’s not the site they were looking for, and bolt? Either scenario would explain a high Bounce Rate.

How about an increase in overall visitors? That’s got to be a good thing, right?

Well, probably. But do visitor counts increase in general across your industry—maybe seasonally for holiday sales? And are your increases underperforming the industry average? If so, your gain may also be your lost opportunity.

Most site analytics are value-free, and generate more questions than answers—and smart questions are definitely needed. But further analyses or testing is required to answer those questions, and to understand how best to impact online behavior and grow your bottom line.

What do these figures mean?

There are a multiplicity of tools and measurement strategies you can engage—and you should be using more than one. One of the easiest to implement and most powerful is the on-exit, in-line site survey. You don’t need to be an expert to build one—just review your site metrics, generate hypotheses, and then craft a short set of questions that will test your hypotheses. You can be up and running in hours and have more meaningful quantitative and qualitative feedback than you ever imagined.

What do visitors come to the site for? Ask. Did they get what they came for? Ask. Would they like other content, features, or functions? Ask. Will they come back? Just ask.

Some of the things you’ll want to consider when building an online survey are:

• the number of questions—they should be limited to encourage participation and completion
• industry and competitive benchmarks that you can measure against (e.g., ACSI, Compete)
• Google Analytics—integration with survey tool for targeting and segmentation
• quantitative feedback—(e.g., rating from 1–10) that will make the case to management
• qualitative feedback—open-field, voice of customer that will seal the deal with management

Each survey you complete will generate new insights, new improvements, and new surveys that can and should grow into an important program of continuous learning and optimization. Again, you can be up and running in no time. Feel free to give us a call if you need an assist.

(In his book, Web Analytics 2.0, Avinash Kaushik updates and expands on his earlier work, Web Analytics: An Hour A Day. I highly recommend it for all of our clients. Pick up a copy at Amazon or, if you’re in the office, ask me for one of our extra copies. We keep a few on hand for our clients. Also, consider Q4 by iPerceptions, a free (or paid) on-exit survey tool developed in collaboration with Mr. Kaushik).