I think we all know that share-ability is important for your content.

It’s arguably one of the most crucial components to your online success.

Sharing is how your content goes viral (potentially) or enables you to slowly but surely reach a wider audience (much more likely).

It will increase your brand recognition and make your site more credible to others.

However, I have found that it’s not always so easy to have your content shared as often as you’d like.

Take a look below for some of my personal tips on how to make your content shareable.

Start with a Good Reputation

You should be interacting with people on social networks!

As you’re building your following, be sure to start conversations with people online. This will bring you closer to them, which will increase the likelihood of them sharing your content.

It’s simply not good enough to be automating the whole process and never interacting personally.

Marketing automation is a great thing, but it shouldn’t be the only thing.

Automation + Interaction

I have found that marketing automation has given me traction to attract attention and initiate more personal interaction.

I have received these more personal connections via Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus and these have proven to be very valuable in terms of sales, partnerships, etc.

However, I had to actually take a moment to pause and write a unique response to that individual or entity.

This is the interaction.

Sometimes, it starts out by simply saying “Thank you!”

Following basic rules of personable interaction and politeness can go a long way in the world of social media which is dominated by robots, automated messages, and generally aloof behavior.

And believe me, the ROI of social sharing is tough to measure. It’s unlikely you’ll be able to find a real measurement of this unless you can directly sell your products through a social network and see consistent results.

If that’s you, then great! Keep doing it.

However, don’t expect that to happen in every case.

The way I see it, social media has a very intangible, and non-defined ROI because it’s basically about being available and a means to better service and communication to those around you.

Coffee Shop Example:

Pretend you own a coffee shop.

One of your most loyal customers walks in and you have a great conversation with him for 5 minutes. What’s the ROI of the conversation you had with that loyal customer of yours?

Tough to tell right? But you know it’s worth something.

Being there, and participating in an engaging conversation has a highly influential effect on that customer’s psychology.

He/she is more likely to come back to your coffee shop, refer your shop to friends, share his coffee with them, one of those friends may be an editor for the local newspaper. What a great PR opportunity – simply by being there and participating in a meaningful way.

This coffee shop example is analogous to the good reputation concept you should foster on social media. This will increase your shares.

Is there ROI? Yes.

Is that ROI always clearly defined and measurable? No.

Ask People

There’s no harm in asking people to share your content.

Actually, studies show that content is more likely to be shared when you ask for it.

Give People Something Good to Share

People don’t want to share content their followers won’t enjoy.

For this reason, impress your followers with high quality content.

This may take some trial and error before you learn what your followers like best, but once you figure it out, you’ll have a much easier time getting your content shared.

Use Share Buttons

You need to make it easy for your target audience to share your content. Use share buttons on your blog and website.

If you’re WordPress user, a simple plugin can do the job.

I’d recommend using something like the Monarch or Sumome to incorporate social sharing on your site.

Give People Something

If you have a whitepaper, eBook, template, or some other valuable piece of content, you can use it to get more shares.

Simply tell people that if they share something, they will receive a free copy.

Give to Get

It’s not always about people sharing your content, but instead, you sharing it.

When you share other people’s content, they will be more likely to share yours.

The psychology of reciprocity is very powerful and sometimes the best way to get someone to help you out is to help them out first.

Use Images

Images are more likely to be shared, so try to create memes or attach images to links.

Images make the content more engaging and even more interactive. This interactive content helps tell the story you’re trying to convey and makes the reader/viewer feel like they are participating.

That’s a great way to increase your engagement, lower your bounce rate, and increase the amount of time users spend on your site.

Share Numbers

People want something valuable to share and numbers usually mean you have a lot of information or there’s a statistic that’s worth knowing.

Statistics and numbers in a headline typically lead the reader to believe they will be getting exactly the information they need in a quick way.

It also hints at there being a list post or at least and ordered structure for the content. This makes your content much easier to digest and we all know how little time you have to impress users.

Hit Them with a Good Headline

You need to go after the WOW factor.

You can do that by having a good headline before posting the link. Upworthy and Buzzfeed do a great job creating article headlines.

They’re intense and really grab readers. Try to emulate their style and write headlines that will make it hard for readers to turn away.

Create Content with Someone Else

If you know someone has a huge following, ask if that person would like to create content with you. It could be an interview or a collaboration.

This way that person will want to share it on their social networks, and since he or she has more of an influence, the content may get shared more.

Guest posting is a potential strategy here. It’s a great way to start developing a relationship with another participant in your industry. Together, a symbiotic relationship can be the boost both parties need to take off.

In this instance, the success of one will likely lead to the success of the other.

Ask Friends to Share Content to Get the Ball Moving

Sometimes, all it takes is for a couple of people to share something to get others to do the same.

Ask your friends to share your content to see if their friends will share and so on and so forth.

This snowball effect can be a great means to initiate the distribution of your content.

However, using friends will only take you so far. You still have to have content that is valuable on some level for it to reach the masses.

Ask Followers What They Want

If you don’t know what type of content your followers want, just ask them.

That way you’ll be able to give them what they want, and that will increase the chances of them sharing your content.

Even if you don’t literally ask them, you could pay attention to what types of content are being shared within your industry.

This should be a big indicator to you. From there, simply emulate what you see to make your content formatted and displayed in a fashion that is more attractive to your audience.

Make a Reference

When you include someone in your social media post, it will get that person’s attention.

If the person likes what you’ve posted, you’ll get more shares. This is also a great way to start a partnership with another person or brand. Referencing their work is a great way to give kudos, and who doesn’t like to feel appreciated?

Conclusion

Hopefully, you have a better idea of how to make your content shareable. With some trial and error (I can’t emphasize this enough), you’ll start to figure out what works for you and your followers.

And before you know it, you’ll increase your online visibility, receive more website traffic, and revenue.

Speak your mind in the comments below!