10 Ways to Increase Your Content's Social Shares

Published by Nicole Karlis on Wednesday, October 7, 2015 in Content Marketing.

Is your content ready to be shared? Find out with our list of top ten shareable qualities.

The days of creating content to just publish it and hope for the best are over. Since millions of pieces are shared online each day -- a majority of them that are created and published by brands -- it's never been harder to rise above the competition. However, like many savvy content marketers know, the best way to stand out and reach a relevant audience is by creating shareable content. Shareable content is the kind that evokes emotion and encourages readers to share it with their friends and networks. It's the modern day form of word-of-mouth marketing. And as marketing expert Seth Godin says, "Ideas that spread, win."

See also: Why The Content You Create Shouldn't Be Limited by Business Size or Budget

How exactly can you get your ideas to spread through the art of blogging though?

#1: Be Relevant

When a reader comes to your blog -- whether it's from search engines, another blog, or through your main site -- delivering relevant content is key. You build an audience by delivering content pertinent to their needs. If a piece of content is relevant to that person's interests, they will be more likely to share it.

#2: Be Unique

The Internet has millions of blogs, many of them repeating the same common themes. You have a unique selling proposition for your products or services, so create one for your blog. Address industry topics no one else wants to touch, approach an old topic in a new way, or you can create a tie-in between popular culture and important industry issues.

#3: Have an Opinion

No one wants to sit through a dry topic. Let your voice and personality show through by having strong opinions on a topic. Engage your audience and show them your core business values. Opinion pieces are often shared when the reader strongly agrees or disagrees on a specific topic. These are great pieces of content to create that will guarantee shares.

#4: Express Positivity

Incorporate a positive view or tone in your blog posts. You don't have to post solely about positive topics, but approach potentially negative topics with a tone that won't bring down your audience's mood.

#5: Become Awe-Inspiring

Create content that makes your audience sit back and go, "Whoa." Storytelling is a great way to accomplish this, especially if you poll your customers for inspirational stories involving your products or services.

See also: How to be a Good Storyteller in Content Marketing, According to Kevin Spacey

#6: Evoke Emotion

People historically make buying decisions emotionally -- so it stands to reason you need to evoke the right emotions to motivate them to share your content. After reading an article, if you have managed to make them feel happy, sad or anywhere in between, you can bet they will share it with their networks too.

#7: Stay Trustworthy

Establishing yourself as a trustworthy figure and authority in your industry through your blog is incredibly beneficial to your long-term business growth. Provide fact-checked information backed up by your own data, recent studies or quotes from other industry leaders to grow your audience's trust levels.

#8: Include Visuals

Visual content, such as infographics, get plenty of shares. When used correctly, visual content can help keep your audience engaged.

#9: Use Effective Headlines

Your audience sees your blog headline first before any visual or text content. Grab them with an engaging or compelling headline.

#10: Integrate Problem Solving

Explain how the audience can solve their day-to-day problems with the solutions you present through your blog posts. Blogging is an excellent way to educate customers on how your products and services fit in their everyday lives.

Which Businesses Are Doing Blogging Right?

Now it's time to look at some business blogging inspirations. These companies spend time educating their customers, showing their personalities and revealing their core values in entertaining, compelling or downright inspiring ways.

HubSpot

Anytime someone asks about a marketing, sales or agency blog, Hubspot's name comes up. This marketing-software company delivers a wide variety of useful content for a B2B market. It segments its blog audience between its three core markets, delivering customized content that's likely to become more relevant to the reader than one primary blog. HubSpot is often praised for consistently publishing relevant and consumable content. They are a good example of a brand that creates shareable content because they know how to communicate with their audience.

Buffer

This social media sharing platform is also a great example of a brand that knows how to blog. Their articles' share-count ranges from the hundreds to thousands per blog post. Typically, their most popular posts are about how they're doing content marketing at Buffer. It's their honesty, opinions and fearlessness to have a voice that keeps their audience coming back for more.

See also: A Look Inside Buffer's Content Marketing Strategy

OKCupid

OKCupid, one of the largest Internet dating sites, found itself with a wealth of user data. Pairing this data up with other demographic information from user profiles gave OKCupid all the information it needed to fuel plenty of content marketing. By sharing the insights of their business through their blog they created truly unique and fascinating content.

See also: OKCupid's Christian Rudder on Turning Your Blog Into a Viral Success

American Express Open Forum

American Express took content marketing to a new level for brands when they started their own media hub. From interviewing notable thought leaders to providing insightful tips for small businesses, they developed an impressive content marketing strategy that is often pointed to as an example of top-quality content. American Express Open Forum has earned their audience's continued engagement by consistently producing content that has key shareable qualities.

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