If you’ve been around social media, you would’ve noticed that unfortunately over the past couple years, organic reach (the natural occurring and free kind) is continuing to dwindle, with harsh but maybe well-deserved updates in search algorithms.Â
One of the most sought after and often times elusive forms of interaction is the ‘share’, allowing you to multiply reach from 0 – 100…real quick. When it comes to Facebook especially, the more share and interactions you attain, the more the platform rewards you for being valuable to your audience.
Here’s how to supercharge your content and get the word out:
1. Craft compelling titles
Most of us need less than five seconds to decide whether what we’re checking out is worth any more of our precious time. Bottom line; your title can make or break your article. Here’s how to put one together:
- Like your tweets, keep it short and sweet. Around 70-90 characters is advised.
- Emphasise the value. If the topic is on point, you should have no trouble with this.
- Add relevant keywords to ensure the article is highly searchable.
- Don’t be too clever. The perfect title is one which is unique enough to stand out and be clear in intent, without giving the search engines a hard time figuring out what your article is about.
Quick bonus tip, make sure you’re article delivers! There’s nothing worse than a click baiter.
2. Switch it up
Use a variety of content formats from info graphics one day to videos and tutorials the next to keep your page lively and diverse.
Please don’t take it out of context, note the word ‘format’. What definitely needs to be a constant is the themes behind your content, only post what’s relevant to your field. No DIY tools one day and politics the next.
What do we mean by content themes? Take 5, and find out through our piece on ‘Never Running Out Of Content’.
3. Enable your readers
The easier it is for your audience to get from A to B…the better. Add share buttons on each and every one of your articles to make to encourage shares.
4. Get everyone involved
Take advantage of people’s intrinsic need to debate (and be right) and make use of polls, discussions, Q&A’s, votes, etc to get some user participation.
Also, one of the most effective means of inciting participation is offering incentive. When is the last time you came across a teaser of something free and just scrolled by.
5. Make your stuff easy to find
Search Engine Optimization all day, not just for your site in general but every piece of content. Everything from your title, to your articles, and your articles on other people’s sites plays a role.
The good news is, contrary to what you hear a lot, 75% of SEO can be done with little to no technical knowledge; and lucky for you we have a guide on that too. (link to guide)
6. Keep Your Audience Filled In
Share news and updates in your industry; you don’t need to be the very first to do it, the sooner the better of course, but your audience will appreciate it and will work towards recognising you as an authority and sole news source.
7. Jump On Trends
An essential part of your content marketing strategy should be to remain vigilant on general news and of course that within your industry. To help you keep an ear closer to the ground, you can employ the use of tools like BuzzSumo to see what‘s hot by region and topic.
It even allows you to identify top influencers. Would bode well for you to see what conversations they’re taking part in too. Who knows, it might even score you some collaboration opps.
8. Flex Those Stats
Once you’re starting to see the numbers come in, boast them by displaying the real time number of shares on every article.
Should be fairly simple to enable if using a CMS (Content Management System) like WordPress or Drupal.
For new visitors, exorbitant engagement numbers convey instant credibility. In other words, if the information is wrong, they’re not going down alone.
Hope you found this useful; follow us on our channels for tons more content like this.