11 Tips for Creating Share-Worthy Content
Social media is one of the best ways to promote your content. But beyond you pushing out your own content across your social circles, you want it to be compelling enough that your followers share it, too. The more Likes, shares and re-Tweets you get, the broader your exposure.
Share-worthy content is more than just a standard blog post or a well-written web page. To be share-worthy, your content has to engage the reader in some way—whether you’re providing information they can’t get anywhere else, entertaining them or sparking their interest in some other way.
Here are a few tips for creating content that gets shared.
Headlines Matter
Your headlines is the first thing most users will see on a social network, so it has to be enticing enough to earn a click. If you think about your content headlines the same way you think about PPC ad headlines, you’re on the right track. When you’re running ads, the headline is one of the most critical factors that determine whether your ads will be clicked—and the same is true of share-worthy content.
- Use numbers, such as “Top X Blogs about Content Marketing”.
- Include the year if relevant, such as “X SEO Strategies to Ditch in 2013”.
- Incorporate keywords so your posts show up in relevant searches.
- If it’s a how-to post, say so.
- Say something wildly controversial, like “Social Media is Ruining Our Minds!”
Keep Spelling and Grammar in Check
It probably sounds obvious, but you don’t know how many articles I encounter on Twitter and other social networks that have the headline thing down, but not the content. Even if a headline is enticing enough to get your users to click, glaring spelling and grammar errors are a big red flag for quality and will undermines the credibility of the content. Also, most users won’t share content that comes across as poorly-written and shabby.
Break It Down: Make It Digestible
If a user clicks on your link and is taken to a lengthy blog of text with few or no subheadings, they may not take the time to read it. And if they don’t read it first, they’re less likely to share it. However, if your article is broken down into easily-digestible segments of text with engaging headings that give readers a sense of what the content is about, users might even share it before they’ve read it in full. Use subheadings to convey the gist of the article and try to engage users, and you’ll get more exposure on your social channels.
Use Images
Images are good to include in any piece of content, because they break up the text and supplement the topic. If you’re going for Facebook shares or Likes, images are critical. In fact, HubSpot points out that Facebook posts with images get 53 percent more Likes than those without. Enough said.
Always Provide Social Sharing Buttons
If you want readers to share your content, make it easy for them. That’s as simple as installing a social sharing widget from the WordPress widget library or pasting a few snippets of code into your website. Widgets that include trackers are also useful for providing social proof with no additional effort on your part—readers will instantly see that your content is good enough to earn 50, 75 or 100 Likes and Tweets. It’s almost like a mini-testimonial.
One of my favorite Wordpress sharing plugins is Sharebar.
Relate to Your Readers: Be Yourself
Social networking is all about conversation, so users share content that fits that mold. Be conversational in your posts—just don’t go overboard. Too much of anything can be a bad thing, and if you talk like a sailor to your family, it might be better to tone it down a notch or two in your professional content. Unless, of course, that resonates with your audience. If so, go for it.
Be Useful: Solve a Problem
Share-worthy content carries an inherent value—if you can solve a problem for your readers, you’re one step ahead of the game. Think about the topic laid out in front of you and how you can turn it into something that will help your readers. Can you offer actionable advice? Give a tutorial on how to accomplish a task? Share strategies for overcoming common challenges?
Use an Emotional Hook
Share-worthy content often plays on readers’ emotions. Whether that’s fear, humor, excitement, sadness or any other sense or feeling, dig down and really connect with how your readers will relate to your words. If you can connect on an emotional level, you’re practically guaranteed more shares.
Capitalize on Trending Topics
Here’s the thing about trending topics: They’re trendy and people like trendy. Great share-worthy content is often something totally original, but there’s also plenty of highly engaging, shareable content that leverages current trends.
Remember the News of the World phone hacking scandal? This site saw an opportunity and capitalized on it to create a really engaging and sensational timeline infographic.
If you’re looking for trending topic ideas, check out:
Make the Most of Your Network: Mention Others
Share-worthy content can get a major boost in the sharing department if your content includes mentions of other publishers, thought leaders or businesses (also known as “ego bait”). If you’ve mentioned someone in your content (hopefully in a positive way), Tweet it to them. Or send an email asking them to share it. It’s publicity for them and most are more than willing to toot their own horn and toot yours in the process.
Even mentioning their blog as one of the top sites on the Web is a great way to get on their radar and elicit shares.
Keep It Relevant
With all that discussion about trending topics, it’s important to mention that you must stay relevant. Think about your followers. Is the content you’re producing something that will engage them? Remember, it’s your own followers that will be seeing it first, and if it doesn’t click with them, they won’t share it.
Many of these tips won’t only get your content shared more often, but it will help with your search rankings, too. Why? Because you’re emphasizing quality, and that’s exactly what Google is looking for these days. And the more shares and mentions you earn, the more value Google places on your content—pushing your rankings even higher. So you can clearly see why focusing on creating share-worthy content is effort well spent.
