At a young age, most of us were taught to share. “Sharing is caring,” parents would say. As toddlers, this often meant letting others play with our toys.
Now, as adults, we continue to share. We share our delicious baked goods with loved ones and co-workers. We lend movies, clothes and other personal belongings to our good friends. We even share online – typically on social media.
Sites like Facebook and Twitter offer a platform to share feelings, thoughts, opinions, pictures and content with followers and friends. For some, sharing online is simply a way to learn more about family and friends, or to better express themselves.
But for businesses that are trying to market themselves and raise awareness of their brand, sharing is not just caring. It’s a way to achieve success.
If you run a business or marketing team, you know that creating great content can help establish trust with consumers and expand your client base. But creating content is only the first step in content marketing. In order to have the blogs, infographics, videos, ebooks, whitepapers and other content you create read or watched, they need to be shared.
Get readers to share your content on social media with these seven insider tips.
Trigger Emotions
Content that triggers powerful emotions like awe and anger are more likely to be shared than articles that leave readers unaffected. Get your audience to react by stepping out of your comfort zone and stirring the pot. You don’t have to be controversial for the sake of creating drama. But seize risky opportunities when you can, instead of always playing it safe.
Be Useful
Your clients and customers have questions, so become a reliable source that they turn to by providing answers. Offering solutions and answering questions in the form of “how-to” blogs is a great way to gain credibility with readers, who will then want to share your content with others experiencing the same problem.
Keep Up with Current Events
While you are not a news source, you can use current events to keep your content timely and relevant. Take advantage of major events and stories that can be tied in with your content to insert yourself into the discussion and engage readers. It’s called newsjacking.
Break It Up
Many content creators assume that in today’s fast-paced world, readers want short pieces that they can quickly read. This, however, is not necessarily the case. Longer-form articles can do very well and are even more likely to be shared … as long as the information is easy to digest. So break up your content with headlines, subheads, bullet lists, pull quotes, graphics and other treatments to make it reader-friendly and shareable.
Engage Readers with a Great Headline
Readers might share your content, but your headline is going to determine whether others click. In your headline, tell your audience exactly what the article is about and use powerful words to grab the attention of social media users.
Optimize Your Content for Various Devices
Many social media users now use their phones or tablets to browse their newsfeed and read articles. If they are unable to read your content on a smaller screen, they aren’t going to share it. Make sure every piece of content you create can be accessed on various devices … especially mobile.
Make It Physically Easy to Share
Don’t make users copy and paste your URL link to share content. Install a social media bar that appears on every article you publish. Placing your social bar at the top of the page is good, as readers often expect to find it there. However, an even better strategy is to install a bar that appears on the left side of your blog, and moves down as users scroll. This way, readers can share your content no matter where they are at on your page.
We were taught to share, but that doesn’t mean readers are automatically going to post your content on social media. Follow these seven tips to make your content shareable, and you’ll find yourself closer to meeting your content marketing goals and reaching success.
