Your content marketing strategy can only be as successful as the number of social media shares it gets. Even if your content is great, if no one is sharing it, it won’t be successful. There are ways to increase social media shares, though. Social media has changed the way we communicate and share, and we can now reach more people than ever before. The way people use social media marketing for business has also changed.
Why do you need to track social shares in the first place?
Why social shares matter can be broken down into a few reasons. When content is shared, it increases the visibility, which can lead to more traffic for the site. In addition, social shares also serve as a signal to search engines that the content is popular and relevant, which can help with SEO.
It’s widely known that interactions related to engagement (such as shares, “likes”, and comments) are key metrics to track. In fact, 48% of social marketers use shares as a way to measure the success of their campaigns.
Some critics do not consider social media shares to be a good metric.
Although the critics are not entirely wrong, the number of shares a post gets is not necessarily a measure of its quality. An example of this is when celebrity Tweets get shared around or when brand Tweets go viral.
We want people to share our content, but only if it will have a positive impact on our business.
For example, a post that gets a lot of attention but doesn’t result in anything lasting, such as new followers or sales, isn’t as beneficial as one might think.
If a post results in a lot of attention from the press, a lot of web traffic, and a lot of new customers, that is considered a win.
Why Social Sharing is Vital to Success
This means that nearly 40% of the world’s population will be using social media within the next three years. The number of social media users is increasing rapidly and is expected to reach 3 billion by 2021. This is a significant portion of the world’s population who will be using social media in the near future.
It is important to have a lot of social media shares for your content so that more people will see it, especially if you own a small business that relies on online sales.
A solid customer retention strategy is important for continuing to grow, and social media shares are one important aspect.
It’s important to have good social sharing tools and to format your social share buttons correctly – this can have a big impact. Here are 15 ways to increase the number of social media shares your content gets.
1. Know and Understand What Your Audience Wants
If you want to increase social media shares, start by understanding what content your audience wants. Many of us have ideas constantly popping into our heads, but not all of them are good.
Even if you have ideas for content that you think are good, that does not guarantee that your audience will want to share that content.
If your content is not interesting to your target audience, they will not share it, no matter how well it is written.
How do you find out what your audience wants? If you know what they want but your content is lacking, you will need to address this issue. If you are a good content producer, look for what your audience is likely to share.
Then there are certain tools you can use.
There are some tools that social media and content marketing companies offer which can help you to gauge what is popular at any given moment. This can be useful as what is trending changes over time. BuzzSumo, Google Trends, and Feedly are some examples of such tools.
2. Originality is Key
Your readership wants to see something they haven’t seen before. It is time to create some content that your audience will want to share on social media. Some things to consider when creating this content are originality and what your readership wants. It is important to create something that your audience hasn’t seen before.
The problem is that your content is probably not going to be the first thing written or produced on a given topic. You need to be original to make your content more interesting and increase the likelihood of people sharing it on social media.
You’re probably an expert at something and can at least offer a different perspective on a topic. Your content doesn’t have to be incredibly different from what’s already out there. Just more original than the average stuff.
3. Add Value to Content
To help your content get shared on social media, try to make it as visually appealing as possible. A great way to add value to your content is to make it helpful or informative.
If your content is original and you are giving your audience what they want, you are on the right track. However, you can make your content even more valuable by adding more value. This will help you get more social media shares.
There are some great ways to add value to the content you have created. Some of the best ones include:
- Outside Resource Linking
- Linking to Relevant Content on Your Own Site
- Infographics
- Videos
- Photo Galleries
This will help make your content stronger and drive traffic and interest, which will inspire more social media shares.
4. Create Catchy and Interesting Headlines
The best way to make someone want to read your article is to have an interesting headline that makes them want to click. Spend a little extra time on your headline to make sure it’s eye-catching and will convert readers.
Your headline should be eye-catching and related to your content.
Make sure you are addressing the individual throughout the content by using terms like “you” and “your”. This makes for a more personable experience for the user and will increase the likelihood of a click-through and also increase social media shares.
5. Use Visual Interest to Your Advantage
Images are always a good idea to include in your posts. You don’t want to use too many or too few images. Adding images can help make your post more interesting and visually appealing. If you share your post on social media, using images can help make it more eye-catching and interesting.
It can sometimes be difficult to find the right image, especially if you need to find one without copyright issues. There are a lot of great resources you can use to find high-quality, royalty-free images, though, so don’t worry.
If you use these resources and spend a bit more time adding visuals, people will share your content more on social media.
6. Post Content During Peak Hours
If you want to maximize the number of social media shares your content gets, post it during peak hours on social media networks.
To find out when the best time to post on each social media network is, check out HubSpot. They have detailed information on when is the ideal time to post. However, here is a quick overview of the peak hours on major social media networks.
Facebook will be open from 12pm to 1pm on Saturdays and Sundays. On Wednesdays, it will be open from 3pm to 4pm. On Thursdays and Fridays, it will be open from 1pm to 4pm.
Twitter users are most active between 12pm and 3pm Monday to Friday, with a peak at 5pm – 6pm on Wednesdays.
The best times to post on LinkedIn are between 7:30am and 8:30am, 12pm, and 5pm – 6pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
The most popular times to use Pinterest are between 2am and 4am, and in the evening hours, every day of the week. Saturdays between 8pm and 11pm are also peak hours.
Remember that these are just averages and that the numbers may be different depending on your industry and your target audience. Keep track of your own analytics to figure out exactly when your audience is ready for content.
7. Content Should Be Easy to Read
It is important to create content that is easy to read in order to engage your audience. This means considering factors such as font choice, text size, and margins when designing your piece.
While you may think that having long sentences and paragraphs makes your content easier to read, the opposite is actually true. Your content will be much easier to read and interact with if you use shorter sentences and paragraphs, as well as headings and subheadings.
Make sure your content includes lists, images, bullet points, and images to engage the reader and increase the likelihood of social media shares.
8. Share Content Multiple Times
If you manage news-related content, it can be tough to keep up because stories change so rapidly. But for content that doesn’t go out of style, it’s a good idea to share it multiple times on different social media platforms and at different times.
You can change the headline and picture to make it more appealing and share it multiple times to increase social media interaction.
9. Use a Solid Social Sharing Button Platform
The platform you choose to share your content on is important. Obviously, you may choose a platform based on personal preference. However, some platforms are much better than others.
There are a lot of social sharing tools available if you are a WordPress user. Here is a list of some of the best ones, in my opinion.
You should remember that any social sharing tool you choose needs to have certain abilities. It should be fully responsive and customizable, give you the ability to add buttons in different areas, allow you to add and subtract the social share buttons you want, and display automatically when needed.
10. Social Share Buttons Should Be Easy to Find
Some websites have social sharing buttons that can be hard to find. This might be because of a configuration problem or because the buttons are in places that can’t be reached on a mobile phone.
The places you want to have your social share buttons for easy access and sharing include:
- Headers
- Footers
- Sidebars
- Content (Above, Below or Both)
11. Click to Tweet
More and more solid content producers are using the “Click to Tweet” option, which allows your reader to take snippets of your content and Tweet it out directly from the article.
Search for plugins that allow you to share content on Twitter directly from your website. ClicktoTweet.com offers a free way to do this.
12. Use a Call to Action
If you want your content to be shared, create a call to action. Directly ask your audience to share your content using a call to action style link or button.
CTAs can be included on landing pages and other parts of your website.
A call to action is a popular and effective way to get people to do something you want.
13. Always Include “Snackable” Content in Your Rotation
Snackable content is a great way to increase social media shares and should be a key element in your marketing strategy.
As attention spans grow shorter, people become more likely to prefer consuming media in shorter, bite-sized pieces.
Snackable content is content that can be easily consumed in a short period of time. This can include quotes, short videos, infographics, and statistics. This type of content is perfect for keeping people interested without taking up too much of their time.
14. Share Related Content From Outside Sources
If you share content from high-quality sources that are related to your page, it will show your audience that you respect good work and sources with authority.
The more niche-specific your content is, the more likely your visitors will be to share it.
15. Be Patient and Keep At It
It is important to put a lot of effort into creating content that is likely to go viral and generate buzz on social media. Sometimes content goes viral more easily, but this is usually due to other factors.
If you keep working at it, you will eventually develop a good routine for creating and sharing content on social media. This will result in more social media shares.
Implement Your Own Social Media Sharing Strategy
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different strategies for getting your content shared on social media. The 15 tips above are a good place to start. What other things do you like to do to increase sharing and social engagement on your content?
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