Increase Social Shares With 9 Tips

Increase Social Shares With 9 Tips

Content is Like a Plant

If you plant a seed in dry soil and then proceed to ignore it for the rest of time, what will happen? That’s right, nothing. Like plants, content needs nurturing. Writing a series of blog posts, publishing them, and then leaving them alone probably won’t bring your business the success you anticipated.

Pouring enough time and money into content creation may seem like a guarantee of a future filled with inbound leads, but it takes more. If you are like the rest of us, there aren’t thousands of users on your website eagerly awaiting your first whitepaper. Your plant- and content- needs sunlight!

Give it Sunlight

Promoting your content on social media is great. Social shares are even better! If your posts are being shared by others, this means larger audiences will be reached (people who aren’t even connected to your account) and the posts are more likely to be opened. Most importantly, it shows that readers are actually enjoying your content enough to share it themselves!

Here are 9 tips that will work like “Miracle-Gro” to increase social shares:

  1. Find your audience. Which social network platform is used most frequently by your target audience? Is it Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter..? Find out and focus on that platform. Be where your audience is.
  2. Set a schedule for posts. Try sharing content throughout various times and months and find out which motivate more shares.
  3. Promote new content as soon as it goes live. Don’t stop once you’ve published your content. Share it immediately to all your social channels and give others a chance to be the first person to re-share it.
  4. Use popular content. People like info graphics and videos. If it is possible, use them. Always focus on answering the “why” and “what” questions in your content.
  5. Feature a real person. Using a real person makes your content feel close to your audience. This is most effective after you have developed your buyer personas and know who your target audience would relate best with. Use a brand front person to post updates, tweet, write articles, etc., in first person voice.
  6. Write killer headlines. Invest a lot of time in finding the perfect headline for your content. You want to draw people’s attention towards your post. Make your reader want to read the next sentence.
  7. Rewrite your headline and share your content again. People will be easily annoyed and “un-follow” when you share the same post several times per day or week. Change the headline a bit, spice up the introduction or link text and share your content again.
  8. Build a sharing community. Let your coworkers and friends share your content with their social communities to get more shares all together and reach a wider audience.
  9. Pass the job on. Hire a social media and Inbound Marketing expert to do the posting for you. This will save you time, increase results, and bring you real data (they typically have programs and techniques to produce this).

Don’t Give Up!

During its life, your content may have dry seasons. Whether you experiment and try a different approach that isn’t as effective, or your readers’ interests change, it’s important not to abandon your efforts. The internet gives everyone a chance to promote their business. Although it’s advantageous to have a big marketing team and an even larger budget, you can hire modest marketers who are very effective.

If you’re in need of some content inspiration, check out our other articles below. Don’t give up, and remember that the blooming flowers (and sales leads) will be worth all the effort you put in.

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