10+ Pro Tips to Boost Your Blog’s Social Shares

Let’s face it, blogging is hard work … and it can be especially difficult to stay motivated if you aren’t getting many social shares. However, in order to take full advantage of these tips to maximize your blog’s social shares, you need to get busy blogging!

We reached out to some of the members of our Facebook group and asked them to share some of their best blogging tips and we came up with a list of pro tips to help boost your blog’s social shares. Hopefully, this will help get you excited about blogging again!

---

Pro Tip: Before you get started implementing these tips to maximize your blog’s social shares, one of the most important things you can do to set yourself up for success is to make sure that your blog has a great design, loads fast, and is mobile-friendly.

---

Improving your website’s design can dramatically improve the likelihood that your visitors will be willing to share your blog posts.

And, of course, you need great content. That should go without saying, so I won’t bore you with tips like “create content worth sharing,” that should just be obvious. Of course, you need to create content worth sharing! Duh!

With that said, here’s what happened when we reached out to our community of bloggers.

Lynsey Jones Kmetz, Blogger at MoscatoMom and Owner at Party Plan Divas responded to my call and offered the following (terrific) advice:

“My #1 tip is to be consistent. Assign a task to each day to help keep you on track. I gave mine corny names – but it helped me to remember them and now it is 100% habit. I have ‘Money Monday’ where I do all of my pitchings, write sponsored content, follow up with brands, campaign reporting, etc. ‘Tailwind Tuesday’ where I fill my queue from Tribes as well as Instagram. ‘Work Together Wednesday’ is my mastermind group day. ‘Thoughtful Thursday’ where I come up with new content, shoot recipes, etc. and ‘Facebook Friday’ where I use PostPlanner to schedule out FB for the week.”

I think that Lynsey has an awesome system going and it certainly shows by the quality of her blogs. I would encourage you to come up with your own system to keep yourself on track and hope that Lynsey has inspired you to do so!

Our friend Mike Allton, The Social Media Hat has been named one of the best social media bloggers in the world for several years running. His advice was as follows:

'My own tip, through troubled experience, is to narrow down your niche as much as possible, as soon as possible! Use keyword research tools to figure out what topics are attainable and forget the rest. It will take a little time up front, but that may save you months or YEARS of spinning wheels later!' ~ Mike Allton, The Social Media HatClick To Tweet

Robert Nissenbaum of Tactical Social Media, a highly respected social media consultant, and WordCamp contributor had this to say:

'Provide valuable, well-written content. Write for your reader, not for Google. Address their questions. Focus on readability. Make them want to read it, make them want to share it, and make it easy to share it. Focusing too much on SEO and keywords can diminish readability. Showing in SERPs matters, though it does no good if the content can't/won't be read, engaged with or shared.' ~ Robert Nissenbaum, Tactical Social MediaClick To Tweet

With these expert tips, you’re well on your way to boosting your blog’s social shares. However, we’ve gathered ten more top tips for you to implement.

Get 5 Bonus Tips! We’ve created a bonus of five exclusive tips that aren’t shared in this article. Jump straight to the bottom to get them instantly!

1. Don’t be afraid to share your own blog posts

Then share them again… and then again… and then again!

So many bloggers only share their blog posts once, when they publish their article, which is a shame since resharing posts is a great way to increase traffic. In fact, this reminds me of a post I read on Kissmetrics, “How to Easily Double Your Traffic from Social Media.” Definitely worth a read!

One of the keys is to reshare the content in multiple ways. For example, a travel blogger might write a post “10 Best Destinations to Travel with Kids” which could be shared many times in many ways:

• One post for each of the destinations for a total of 10 posts, or, even better,
• Multiple posts for each of the destinations, each using a different photo and written a different way.

By simply changing the words around a bit, you can share and reshare your posts over and over without appearing spammy. If you are really creative and put some thought into it, you could get upwards of 50 different social media shares out of that one article!

Another key is to spread the shares out over time and to mix them in with other posts. CoSchedule is a great tool to use to schedule your shares. Agorapulse is another great platform that you might want to try.

2. Send an email to your email list

You should be doing this each time you publish a new post on your blog.

This is something that most bloggers know they should do, perhaps even intend to do, but then usually don’t.

Wait… stop the presses! Did you just say that you don’t have an email list?

Well, here is a quote by Ramsay Taplin, Founder of BlogTyrant.com, that I think sums up why you MUST HAVE an email list:

“Even if all of my search rankings disappeared tomorrow I’d still be able to promote my blog to tens of thousands of people via email.” ~ Ramsay Taplin, Founder of @BlogTyrantClick To Tweet

Good for you Ramsay. Good for you.

The question is… what would you do?

Okay, Okay. Let’s get back on topic.

Yes, let your email list know that you published a new post and then ASK your subscribers to share it. And, give them a reason to do so, such as “If you think your audience would find this information useful, we would love if you would share it!” which is much stronger than the standard “Please share.”

Tip To Maximize Your Social Shares: Let your email list know each time you publish a new post and then ASK your subscribers to share it … AND give them a reason to do so!Click To Tweet

You might also want to send out a weekly or monthly digest, depending on how frequently you post.

3. Mention other people and businesses

It’s a great idea to quote and mention smart and influential people.. and let them know that you did.

Yes, people like to be quoted, and businesses like to be mentioned… and, if you let them know that you included them, they are likely to share your article and possibly link to it as well.

One caveat I will add is that you should NOT just go crazy mentioning people in the hopes that they will share. Every mention needs to make sense in your post and add value to your audience.

I don’t expect everyone that I mentioned in this post to share, and that’s okay. I included them because I wanted to include them, and if they share, it’s just gravy.

BONUS TIP: Using Social Warfare - Pro, you can easily include shareable quotes (aka “Click-to-Tweet”) that include a mention, a hashtag, and a link back to the post.Click To Tweet

BONUS TIP: Using Social Warfare – Pro, you can easily include shareable quotes (aka “Click-to-Tweet”) that include a mention, a hashtag, and a link back to the post.

Speaking of people who like to be quoted…

4. Invite influencers to contribute

Every niche has influencers, and social media shares by them can go a long way toward reaching a boatload of people that are interested in your topic. Get to know the movers and shakers around your blog topics. Share some of their posts and then, when the time is right, reach out to them.

You are going to want to make it as easy as possible for them to contribute, especially if your blog doesn’t get a lot of traffic. You can start by simply asking them to answer one question or asking them for one tip that they would like to share. You might be pleasantly surprised at how willing they are to participate.

5. Network with other bloggers

One way to do this is to join or start a social sharing Facebook group.

Let’s face it, doing this all on your own can really be overwhelming. Networking with other bloggers in your niche is a great way to share ideas, keep motivated, learn new things, and, yes, even do a bit of organizing sharing of each other’s blog posts. Is that cheating?

I don’t think so. I think it is just plain smart and can help your blog gain some traction.

We would love to have you join our Facebook group … and, if you write great content there is a good chance we will share it because #SocialWarfareShares. Click here to join us!

6. Write better titles

Okay, I feel like I am working backwards a bit, but that’s okay. This isn’t a step-by-step guide, these are tips. You will pick and choose which ones you want to try … and in which order.

Whoops… tangent. I tend to do that. Sorry.

Anyway, back to your titles. Write better ones. That’s my tip.

Oh, you want more? Okay, check out this article on HubSpot “How to Write Catchy Headlines and Blog Titles Your Readers Can’t Resist” and then do that.

BONUS TIP: You can customize the way people share your posts for each social network using Social Warfare – Pro! That allows you to not only write better titles but to write the best title for each network! Go ahead and try it by clicking one of our share buttons and you will see!

7. Write longer blog posts

Our own Dustin W. Stout swears by this and he would not budge when I tried to write a 300-word blog post!

Unfortunately, I couldn’t argue with him since there are stats to back up his belief that longer blog posts get more social media shares (not to mention more organic traffic from search).

Research by Buzzsumo, in a partnership with Moz, which analyzed over 1 million articles in 2015, found that articles that are 3,000–10,000 words get twice as many social media shares and 3x the links than content with fewer than 1,000 words get.

So… it appears that this post still has a bit of a way to go… Le Sigh.

8. Encourage contributors and team members to share

This includes blog contributors, authors, guest writers, and staff members as well.

In an ideal world, you wouldn’t even have to ask… but people are busy. They don’t think about it, they forget, or they don’t even realize that there is a new blog post to share. I have done work for quite a few companies that do not notify their employees or contractors when they publish a blog post.

Heck, I have done social media marketing for countless businesses that don’t even let me know that they are publishing a blog post. I find out when I visit their website to check. Talk about lack of communication!

I think this comes down to your process … you need a process or a checklist of the things that you need to do BEFORE you publish a post… and you need another process or checklist of the things that you need to do after you publish a post.

I remember back in the day when Google Plus was not dead even though everyone said it was, Mike Alton published a crazy checklist that detailed what he did after he hit the publish button. Let’s just say that he is a beast at promoting his blog posts. You can find his latest guide on “How To Promote a Blog Post” here.

Anyway, this doesn’t have to be difficult. Just create a list of your “blog team” and shoot them an email!

9. Share your posts at the “peak times”

Okay, when is that? I don’t know either. But, there are tools and insights and other ways to figure it out.

I try not to be too worried about that; however, for most niches, I would not recommend publishing in the middle of the night, or on a Friday late afternoon. On the other hand, if your blog is about “working the graveyard shift,” then, by all means, publish it in the middle of the night!

The point is, publish at times when your audience is likely to be online. This might take a little testing, but you can figure it out. The goal is to get as much reach and traction as possible as soon as possible.

10. Choose great photos and/or create amazing graphics

I will be honest, I struggled with whether or not to include this tip. To me, this should be obvious; however, I know from browsing the web every day that it is not.

If you head over to Instagram or Pinterest, you will know. Some people get it, and others do not.

If you aren’t sure whether or not you “get it” then you probably do not. Fortunately, you can train your eye and learn how to choose great photos. Plus, you can learn to “master visual content” and it can go a LONG way toward your quest to maximize your blog’s social media shares!

BONUS TIP: Using Social Warfare – Pro, you can upload a Pinterest-specific image and description to unlock the power of Pinterest and skyrocket your blog’s success!

BONUS TIPS to Maximize Your Blog’s Social Media Shares!

Wait, would you like five more (really awesome) bonus tips? Add your email in the form below and we’ll send them straight to your inbox!

---

We hope you enjoyed our article and these bonus tips. If you did, we would love it if you would share it!