Your social media #socialmedia followers do not spend their waking moments thinking of ways to boost the bottom line of your business. But they are prepared to help others, and this is where you the small business owner can come in. Social content sharing is a vital part of your social media campaign.
People love #love sharing #sharing stuff and they do so for a number of reasons: to nourish their relationships, to define themselves for others, to enhance their personal standing, to be useful, to get the word out about something they care about and for self-fulfilment.
Given the right motivation, your followers will share your content. The evidence is in the data:
- Facebook: 3.2 billion likes and comments are posted daily
- Pinterest: 80% of pins are repins
- Google+: the Google +1 button is used 5 billion times a day
- Instagram: nearly 4 billion photos have been shared on Instagram since it was launched.
- Messages: 23% of social media messages include links to content.
Every time one of your followers shares your posts, the content can potentially spread to several hundred people. This is wonderful third party validation that can be more powerful than any paid advertising #advertising campaign #campaign.
However, the plain and ugly truth for many small business owners is that their superbly written content #content isn’t being passed around. The hours spent crafting something awesome are wasted.
Below are five ways to make it easier for your followers to spread your content:
Write great content – writing valuable, linkable material is a great way of establishing your authority and increasing exposure to your brand #brand. You must always be thinking about what the reader is going to gain from your posts and whether they will want to share them.
People never share #share material with their friends and say: “I saw this pile of rubbish on the internet, check it out!” You have to give them a reason. The most popular content that gets shared are how-to articles and tutorials, informative and entertaining videos, interviews with prominent industry leaders and free eBooks and reports.
Additionally, don’t neglect the creation of original content. Most of us love being the first to pass on something new and exciting to our friends.
Encourage sharing – writing great content is not enough. You can’t expect your audience to share something just because it is high quality and answers their needs. You must ask your followers to like, retweet and share.
Most people are busy and their time is precious. Sharing your content is something that just doesn’t register with them. They need a little encouragement #encouragement. Use calls to action such as: “Feel free to comment and share.” Keep the request short, simple and courteous.
Make sharing easy – install social media sharing buttons. They provide an effortless way for people to repost and share your content.
Mix it up a bit – don’t rely on one form of content. Keep things interesting by using a mixture of article formats, videos and photos.
Reward key influencers – reach out to your most active community members and reward #reward them for sharing your content. This could be with a public pat on the back or with coupons, discounts or other special offers.
