Your mom was right along – sharing is indeed the polite thing to do. But little did she know, way back when, that her sage life lesson would turn out to be a staple of the new economy. While your mother was likely encouraging you to share a piece of candy with a sibling or a toy with a friend, in the age of social media sharing means getting your content in front of as many people as possible with the help of the social community. Sometimes this type of sharing happens organically, but there are plenty of things you can do to dramatically increase the chances of your social media content reaching a wider audience via sharing. If you're looking for ways how to grow your Facebook page, then you must know how to get more social media shares.
It stands to reason that topics that are trending in the news on Facebook or hashtags on Twitter are also garnering a healthy number of shares across the social media landscape. While it doesn’t necessarily make sense to try and chase down every trending topic with a post (some just won’t mesh with your industry or specialty, after all), it makes a lot of sense to jump on those that touch upon your particular niche or line of business with a timely – and very shareable – addition to the conversation.You can easily see what's trending on Facebook. If you're at your computer, you can see all the trending topics on the right side of your News Feed. If you're on a mobile device, just tap the search box and scroll down.
If you want to do more in depth research on trending topics beyond what's popular on Facebook (you can also search industries, market's and competitors), we recommend that you check out Buzzsumo.
You put a lot of effort into keeping your blog fresh and informative, which is why you want to have as many people reading, sharing and commenting on your content as possible. But even those visitors who love your blog are unlikely to share their favorite post if the process is difficult or time-consuming. On the other hand, if you include social buttons directly on your site, right at the top or bottom (or both) of every post, you’re giving readers a quick and convenient way to instantly pass along a post they like to others via social media. There are a plethora of different options to make your site more shareable. Which one to use depends on your website.
Watching dedicated social media users scroll through huge amounts of information in just seconds can be a daunting slap of reality for a content marketer. That narrow window of opportunity is your quickly fleeting chance to get that user’s attention and get them interested in what you have to say. Good luck! Well, the truth is there’s more than just luck involved – you simply have to do more with less; that is, your headline has to quickly sell your idea and get that scroller to stop and read your content. The shorter, punchier and more relevant your headline is to the type of reader you want to speak to, the better it will play on social media and the more likely your target reader will take the time to share your content with others.
Besides having a great, share-friendly headline, it always helps to have a great image to go along with your content. Speaking of visuals...
If a punchy, attention-grabbing headline is like catnip on social media, a bold, eye-catching photo is the whole ball of yarn. As you will likely notice by monitoring what’s trending on Facebook and Twitter, the most shared and most viewed posts tend to include some type of strong visual component. Of course, the old picture-is-worth-a-thousand-words conversion formula doesn’t mean you should slack off on the quality or substance of your underlying content, but a picture can be a great way to grab the eye of a reader and increase the chances that he or she will want to read further and share your post.
Don't be afraid. Even the most graphic design illiterate folks can create beautiful images. One of the best free resources out there is Canva.com. This online tool is one of the easiest to create amazing eye catching visuals. We highly recommend it.
Many people tend to think of social media as one giant monolith, but in reality the space is made up of hundreds of different potential outlets. So when looking for sharing opportunities, it makes sense to prioritize your best possible chances for success across this multifaceted landscape. Facebook and Twitter are the big boys, of course, with millions and millions of active users and potential sharers – but also plenty of competing noise. Other possibilities include LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+, each of which may be able to help expand your audience through social sharing. The key is to get a better understanding of who it is you’re trying to reach and where they spend their time in the social space.
It may seem like the majority of people today are on their phones 24/7 (and many are), but even so data shows that there are certain days and times when social media users are at their most active or engaged. These are the times when you want to jump in – when those readers are most likely to respond to your content and share it with others. According to research from HubSpot, the most fertile posting periods on various social media platforms include:
While this research is real and these times are worth keeping in mind when timing your posts, it’s important to remember that missing one of these “magic windows” by 15 minutes or posting something on a Monday is not going to automatically sink your post, just as hitting the heart of one of these periods is no guarantee of massive sharing. None of these recommendations, of course, is a sure path to more social media shares, but paying attention to them as you craft your marketing content can give you a better chance of increasing your reach and having better social success. After all, it’s certainly what your mom would want you to do. To make traversing the realm of social media even more difficult, all of the social platforms are constantly changing the rules. This means you will have to stay up to date with things. If this sounds over overwhelming, well, it can be.
