9 Things You Need to Create Ridiculously Shareable Content

There’s good news, and there’s bad news. The good news is that today, more than ever, it’s easy to make good content. The bad news, however, is that anyone can make content.

Your content can be set apart, but it needs to avoid the bandwagon.

A lot of content struggles with achieving all-time highs. In fact, a surprising 16 percent of B2B content marketing efforts “flop.” What’s the deal?

There’s a lot of white noise out there. Anyone can write content, but writing the right content will set you apart.

To create ridiculously good content, you’ll need to enhance your strategy from the ground up. More importantly: You’ll need content your readers will share.

Let’s check out the fundamentals of shareable content, get your strategy rolling and make your initiative worthwhile.

It’s All About Engagement

About 43 million blog posts exist about social media engagement. Why?

Because it’s the cornerstone of modern digital marketing. Whether you’re creating website content, SMS leads or Facebook posts, your ability to engage others will determine your campaign’s success.

That said, social media engagement itself can be difficult to pin down. To maximize your social media share quality, you’ll need to do a few things.

Mention People

More than ever, mentioning social influencers is a non-negotiable social marketing strategy.

In the past, creating shareable content was easy. You’d post a picture, link your friends, and sit back.

Now, a majority of Facebook posts are images. Instagram, owned by Facebook, has increased this paradigm.

Focus on people first when you share out your content. Utilize the social network’s mention or tagging feature to directly link to relevant influencers. Of course, you’ll want to be sure and do this in a way that is tasteful and relevant.

Don’t be a mention-spammer.

When you do this, that social post becomes more likely to get the attention of the influencer, who will then, hopefully, amplify it further.

Get the Conversation Going

Next, you’ll need to create conversation. You may already be creating conversation topics, but are you replying?

Again, there’s the white noise factor. If you’re posing questions, waiting for answers and reaping Likes, you’re one of the billions of similar entrepreneurs, small businesses and social impactors who’re doing the same.

To stand apart, you need to rise above base-level quality. Engage others, and hone your conversation skills.

70 percent of Facebook users log in every day. If you can wrangle this audience quickly, you’ll be set up to grow your content’s relevancy.

And remember, Facebook is actively ranking shared content by how much engagement it’s getting. When a social post has a lively comments section, this signals to Facebook’s algorithm that it should be shown to more people.

Facebook is actively ranking shared content by how much engagement it’s getting.Click To Tweet

So make it a point to engage people in the comments of your shared content.

Use Unique Hashtags

For hashtags themselves, you should be a little creative. Imagine, for a moment, the pages riddled with hashtags. They’re all relevant, right?

Well, sometimes creating content which uses hashtags in an unorthodox, funny way can slide past the “white noise.”

Think about the articles you’re seeing on Facebook. Likely, at least half of them are interesting. Which ones do you click? Are you reading the same, drab content?

Likely, you’re clicking on blog post links, videos and hashtag links which are unique. For this reason, your followers won’t pay attention to average content.

This stands for any used hashtags, too. Use your hashtags ironically, if possible. Stand out from the crowd, and your linked page’s readers will pick your link out from the hundreds of drab, everyday stuff.

Use Click-to-Tweet Features

Next, you should make Tweeting your on-site content easy. Yeah, Twitter is useful. Incredibly useful, actually.

Create in-post quotes that are easily tweetable, making it super-easy for people to share your quotes to Twitter. Trust us, it takes out a lot of the legwork.

Create 'tweetable' quotes within your content to boost shares and engagement! Click To Tweet

Your click-to-tweet quotes won’t be complete without a custom touch. For this reason, you should probably make sure your tweets are pre-populated. If a reader clicks your tweet, they won’t share it unless it’s interesting.

Lucky for you, our WordPress social sharing plugin, Social Warfare, alows you to do exactly this.

Not only can you create tweetable quotes in your blog posts, you can customize what is shared when someone just hits the regular Tweet button.

Use Custom Pinterest Images

You can upload Pinterest-optimized images which are ready to be shared if you’re using the right plugins.

Why is this important?

Well, firstly, it’s a known fact that taller images perform better on Pinterest. And although you might think it’s a great idea to let your users pin whatever image they want from your site, think about this:

• We know for a fact that giving people more options leads to less action
• Having pre-selected the best possible image makes sharing less work for the reader
• Pre-selecting the image ensures they will share the right image which will result in more click-throughs to your website

Secondly, your Pinterest images should have intuitive, hand-crafted descriptions. Again, it isn’t enough to simply post an image. Make sure every Pin is optimized to perform long-term in Pinterest’s search, which is the fastest growing search engine around!

This happens to be one of the premium features we’ve baked into Social Warfare from day 1. And it flat-out works!

The Psychological Factor

Alright, so you’re set on the social media functionality end. Now, let’s dig into the content itself. Based on the study of human behavior we know that there are certain psychological triggers that compel people to share content.

Positivity Wins

In a study initiated by Jonah Berger, over 7,000 New York Times articles were examined for share capability.

Positive news, the study found, was more likely to go viral. Social media users enjoy being “the bearer of good news.” Content which elicits high-arousal emotions like excitement, delight, and awe will be shared more often than low-arousal emotions, such as sadness.

Positive content is far more likely to be shared, so stay positive!Click To Tweet

By tapping into this knowledge, you can be sure that your content contains positivity and excitement.

Is it Practical?

You should determine whether or not your shared content is practical. Shared content must be informative, as 94 percent of readers assess a piece’s “usefulness” before determining whether to share it.

People share content to help others, enrich lives and spread information. This is why “how-to” articles thrive. They’re genuinely useful, and they offer information which strays beyond the typical day-to-day information waterfall.

Is it Inspiring?

Call-to-action marketing works for a reason. On average, people are more likely to share content which defines themselves in a social realm.

In fact, a majority of people will share content which simultaneously gives information while defining themselves. People want to mirror their image.

If you can link your content to a cause, highlight modern issues and—even better—provide a solution, your audience will follow.

The Importance of Aesthetics

Is Your Content “Good-Looking?” Shareable content looks good, and it won’t be annoying to absorb. Looks matter when content is considered.

Make sure your content is easily scannable, and make sure it doesn’t require an unorthodox eye path to read (remember the importance of user experience).

If your users are smacked with enormous blocks of text, they won’t read. Even worse: They’ll avoid your content in the future.

Your written and visual content should mesh.

Aesthetics aren’t only about the text. From typography and web design to colors and pictures, your content should mesh. Every element should benefit the other.

From typography and web design to colors and pictures, your content should mesh.Click To Tweet

When possible, break up the content with bullets and subheads.

Make sure your font is easy to read and help people comprehend by making sure the font is not so small that they have to strain their eyes. You want people to have a stunning reading experience.

The Growth Factor

High-quality content is well worth the effort. A study by Neil Patel reveals that leaders of content marketing experience 7.8 times more website traffic than non-leaders.

If you can handle the content side of your strategy, you’ll grow. More importantly: You’ll keep growing.

People who craft valuable, compelling and emotional content will be shared. It’s just what catches the eye.

It can’t be said enough: There’s a lot of noise out there.

Think about how many people, today, are promoting their own content, trying to start their own business and are trying to surpass their competitors.

Your brand image matters, and it’ll grow if your power it with healthy content.

Informative material works, as do intuitive links, cross-channel social media marketing options and having the right social sharing plugins.

Take charge with tools like Social Warfare, strategize your content and go viral.