Mail Online’s ‘Paw-fect recipes for your pet’s plate’ was most shared national press story on Twitter in 2014

A Mail Online story about a YouTube programme teaching dog owners how to prepare meals for their pets was the most shared national newspaper story on Twitter of 2014 according to new research.

A study by Searchmetrics found that links to The Guardian were tweeted more times than any other title, with an average of 392,358 tweets a week.

The Telegraph (307,690) and Mail Online (237,381) were the second and third most popular on the social networking site, and The Sun (3,531), Daily Star (6,556) and Times (8,772) were the least popular.

The study analysed the number of tweets per week generated by content on 11 newspaper websites – The Independent, Mirror, Financial Times, Daily Express and Daily Record in addition to those already mentioned.

Searchmetrics, a global search experience optimisation platform, also found the top ten tweeted stories of the year, with Mail Online’s “Paw-fect recipes for your pet's plate” shared 77,000 times.

Searchmetrics founder Marcus Tober said: “Interestingly our list of the most tweeted stories indicates it’s not always the biggest and most high profile news stories that get the most tweets. Often it’s the quirkier stories or those with a human-interest angle that catch people’s imagination and go viral.”

The Mail’s website also claimed the second largest individual story, a Mail on Sunday story about an amateur sleuth who claimed to have identified Jack the Ripper.

The next most shared stories on Twitter were the Telegraph’s “Revealed: the Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces”, the Mirror’s “Devoted dad makes best Halloween costume ever for his disabled son” and The Guardian’s “Turkish women defy deputy PM with laughter”.

Most popular UK national newspaper websites on Twitter

The Guardian (theguardian.com), 392,358 tweets per week
The Daily Telegraph (telegraph.co.uk), 307,690 tweets per week
Daily Mail (dailymail.co.uk), 237,381 tweets per week
Independent (independent.co.uk), 214,868 tweets per week
The Mirror (mirror.co.uk), 113,194 tweets per week
Financial Times (ft.com), 61,065 tweets per week
Daily Express (express.co.uk), 24,165 tweets per week
Daily Record (dailyrecord.co.uk), 11,107 tweets per week
The Times (thetimes.co.uk), 8,772 tweets per week
Daily Star (dailystar.co.uk), 6,556 tweets per week
The Sun (thesun.co.uk), 3,531 tweets per week

Top ten stories from these websites

1. Daily Mail, Paw-fect recipes for your pet's plate: The cooking show that teaches dog owners how to prepare homemade treats for their four-legged friends: 76,752 tweets

2. Daily Mail, WORLD EXCLUSIVE: Jack the Ripper unmasked: How amateur sleuth used DNA breakthrough to identify Britain's most notorious criminal 126 years after string of terrible murders: 37,192 tweets

3. The Daily Telegraph, Revealed: the Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces: 23,830 tweets

4. The Mirror, Devoted dad makes best Halloween costume ever for his disabled son: 21,584 tweets

5. The Guardian, Turkish women defy deputy PM with laughter: 20,762 tweets

6. The Independent, Tamir Rice: 12-year-old boy playing with fake gun dies after shot by Ohio police: 20,629 tweets

7. The Independent, Girl, 7, gets Tesco to remove 'stupid' sign suggesting superheroes are 'for boys': 20,377 tweets

8. Daily Mail, 36 now feared dead in Japanese volcano disaster: 19,611 tweets

9. The Mirror, Fury as Tory party donors are handed NHS contracts worth £1.5BILLION under health reforms : 18,041 tweets

10. The Sun, Heaven ’n Ell Revealed: The stunner in Heyman’s corner: 17,852 tweets