You would love if your blog content received more social shares, right? When your content is shared on social media it introduces a new audience to your brand. Social shares are essentially free exposure and advertising for your business -- use these six tips to help increase the number of social shares your blog content receives.
1. Split-test multiple posting times
What is the best time to post blog content in order to attract the most social shares? There isn't an answer that is going to be the same for every business. You need to split-test multiple posting times and analyze your social share data. The audience you are targeting, geographical locations and the type of content you are publishing will all come into play.
Software such as Hootsuite, Buffer and Sprout Social can help you schedule posts on various social media outlets at different times. This data will show you what times result in the most engagement, allowing you to tailor your blog posting schedule around the times that produce the most sharing.
2. Use a click-to-tweet plugin
Using a click-to-tweet plugin is a great addition to your blog. It allows you to select any piece of text and make it tweetable with a single click. If you have an interesting fact or piece of data turn it into a click-to-tweet option and watch your social shares climb.
Empower your blog visitors to share interesting information. Not every visitors is going to look for your social share options after they finish reading your blog posts, so include some click-to-tweet options throughout your content. This increases the chance of you gaining a social share from each visitor.
3. Experiment with post excerpts and post titles
Most people just use the blog post title when sharing on social media. When you are resharing your blog posts make sure to include some shares that don't include the title, instead using an excerpt from the post. Use data, stats or very interesting pieces of your content to attract those that might have originally passed over your title.
4. Share your content several times
Most businesses will share a piece of content on social media once and by doing this they miss a huge opportunity. Your entire audience isn't going to see every blog post the first time you publish it. Every time you create a new blog post make sure you schedule it to be shared multiple times in the future, as this increases your total reach. The more people that see it, the better chance of attracting social shares. Re-share posts at different times to really expand your reach.
5. Provide visitors with easy sharing options
As mentioned above, a click-to-tweet option makes it simple for your visitors to tweet your content. But what about the other social media platforms? To attract social shares you need to make it easy. Use a very minimalistic sharing tool that your visitors aren't going to miss.
6. Make sure your blog is mobile-friendly
If your website is not mobile friendly you are at a severe disadvantage. Mobile traffic is increasing at a very rapid rate and Google has even announced that a mobile friendly design will be a factor in their mobile search algorithm, which is being released on April 21st. A quick look at your Google Analytics account will show you how much of your traffic is coming from mobile devices.
If you have a mobile friendly website along with a social sharing option that displays nicely on mobile devices it will increase the likelihood that your visitors share your content. Pull up your website on a mobile device and view your blog posts. Can you easily read them and navigate to other pieces of content? Is your social sharing tool optimized for mobile? If you have difficulties then imagine what your visitors are experiencing. Make the necessary changes to have a responsive design and mobile sharing options.
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