Since social media plays such a large role in content marketing today, you want to make sure your content is being shared to your audience. Social media’s role in content marketing is to distribute your message to the right audience, also known as “Social Media Sharing.” If your content isn’t being shown correctly or to the right audience, chances are your social shares won’t be as high as you’d assume them to be. Here’s a checklist of what needs to be done in order to improve social media sharing:
1. Write Content that Matters
Don’t expect people to share content that does not pertain to them. The right content matters. It can be difficult to figure out what that content is exactly, but here’s a couple ways you can come up with ideas:
Industry News: Search the News tab in Google with keywords of your industry. What pops up? Anything new? If so, write about it!
Google Adwords Keyword Planner: Utilize this tool to help find long-tail keywords that people are searching. You may even find questions that people are asking a lot. Use these to gain ideas of blog topics.
Frequently Asked Questions: If your clients are constantly asking you the same question, this can be very useful. Write a blog explaining each frequently asked question.
2. Use a Good Amount of Videos and Images Within Your Content
With today’s social networks being mostly visual, these are a great way to boost social sharing. According to Pew, 47% of Internet users will share photos and videos they find online. Where do they think they share these photos and videos? On their social media profiles! Image-based content is a great way to increase social shares as well as get your message across visually.
3. Make Your Content Easy to Share
Install social sharing icons where all of your content can be easily shared on social networks. WordPress offers many different plugins that can be utilized for this. When you install social sharing buttons on your blog or website, make sure they are either on the side scrolling with your content or at the top of the content (see image above) where they are easily viewed.
4. Embed Social Media Updates into Blog Posts
Focus on how to be social, not on how to do social. – Jay Baer #SocialMediaQuote
— Eminent SocialMedia (@Eminent_SM) May 13, 2014
Embedding important social media updates into your blog posts makes it simple for visitors to engage with your blog and social profile. By embedding a social post, the visitor can comment and/or like your social post without leaving your blog. The best thing to do, is embed the social update that relates to that specific blog post. That way it’s relevant to what the visitor is reading which will increase the chances of them engaging and sharing your post.
5. Create Captivating Headlines
Too many companies provide headlines that are, straight to the point, but also very boring. Having a headline that stands out will entice more internet users to click it and want to read more. To write these types of interesting headlines we stick to using the following: urgency, how-to, or lists. Some examples of captivating headlines using one of the three above:
How To: “How to Score Cheap Airline Tickets”
Urgency: “Book Now to Receive Exclusive Discount Hotel Deals”
Lists: “5 Ways Generate Leads Organically”
It’s all in the wording.
To make it simple, don’t be dull with your content. Have fun! You want to be creative but at the same time, get your message across. Make it easy for your followers to share your content on all social networks. Make your content stand out with high quality images and graphics on your blog and social posts. These are just a few ideas we came up with. Hope they help!
Let us know what other ways you’ve used to increase social media sharing below: