Over the past few years, if you’re like me, you’ve discovered and now respect just how important fresh content is for your website.
While many website owners have gotten on board with this concept, how much positive impact is it really having? Many websites are missing one of the most critical components… Shareability! Fresh content gains even more value when it is optimized to be more “Shareable” and “Social Worthy.”
Read on to learn 6 tips and content techniques to maximize and optimize for shareability that will help promote the content on your website so more people will share it more on social media.
Install Social Media Plugins, Now Please
This might be common sense but it’s crazy how often it is not common practice. How do you expect your readership to share your content if there are no buttons that they can easily click to share on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest?
Also many website owners think they solved this problem by including their own social media icons on the website. When clicked those icons send the viewer to the website owners social pages. However, this only drives traffic to your social pages but does not give the user an easy way to share the content too. This is called “Social Following” and should not be confused with “Social Sharing.” You should make sure your site is set up to share.
If a web designer created your webpage and it doesn’t have social media plugins, it is time you upgrade. Give them a call and ask your designer to install the plugins. If you use a WordPress hosted site, installing your social media plugin is simple.
Make Headlines that Inspire People to Laugh or Cry
When it comes to making content that is “Shareable” and “Social Worthy” you need to make sure it sticks out to people from all the other stuff trying to distract them. While you don’t need to go as far as making someone cry, emotional headlines have been proven to work better than dry, boring ones on social media.
To make your content more “Shareable” try the free Headline Analyzer Tool created by the Advanced Marketing Institute. The Headline Analyzer Tool from AMI measures the emotion of your headline and gives you an EMV score. Tests have shown that headlines with higher EMV scores were shared more than those with a lower score.
Spend a few minutes playing around with it then test out a few headlines next time you post your content on social media. Do you notice any trends in your headlines?
Let Loose Your Personality
When you are optimizing content for “Shareability” do not hold back your or your company’s personality from the piece. Give it a recognizable energy and show off your quirks. Write from the first person and be courageous by adding life experience into your content.
As we touched on in the last point, people are more likely to find something “Social Worthy” if they connect to it on an emotional level. It makes sense. If you feel like you can connect to the writer, you will have more rapport and feel inspired to share it with your network over social media.
People Love New Data
If you have the latest data on something, people will definitely be likely to share it. Whether you decide to work with a marketing or research company to generate new data or you survey your customers yourself, new data will get people’s attention.
By gathering your own data instead of rehashing someone else’s, you are providing value to the marketplace. It will be read and shared as new information.
Create Eye-Catching Content
How do you feel when you click on a link and it brings you to a big block of unspaced text? If you’re like me, you probably click off the page as quickly as possible unless you are absolutely required to read it.
It is simple to make your content more eye catching. Start by simply adding some stock photos to your post. Make sure paragraphs are spaced well and use headlines and sub headers smartly. Great spacing of your content makes it more relatable and thus becomes more easily shared.
Feel-Good Content Gets Shared More
While everyone likes to share good news with their neighbor, it is the rare person who brings bad news with a smile. In a study by Jonah Berger, he viewed 7,000 NY Times articles and found that positive news was shared more frequently on social media.
If you keep this point in mind, it makes sense why you see all the “Social Worthy” cat and puppy videos all over your feed. When your content enacts emotions that are powerful like astonishment, excitement, awe, or anger, they will be more “Shareable.”
If you already create content regularly, optimizing for shareability can really give you a leg up if you follow these 6 tips. When it comes to something going viral on social media, that content invariably uses one or more of these tips at the same time.
So… If you liked this post and found it useful, please share it with your friends!
