I’ve mentioned before that creating shareable content is the best way to increase your organic reach on Facebook. But in that particular blog post, I didn’t do a wonderful job of actually explain what “shareable content” is nor how to create it.
So I want to fix that, because I did you a disservice. And that’s not what I’m about.
Let’s start by addressing what makes content shareable in the first place. According to Kala Linck (with whom I completely agree), shareable content has at least one of these three characteristics:
- It needs to be relatable
- It needs to be refutable
- It needs to be relevant
You’ve likely heard me mention relevance and relatability in the past – your social media followers aren’t going to be interested in engaging with you if they can’t relate to you or if what you’re posting isn’t relevant to them.
I don’t mention refutability as much for the same reason Kala discusses in her article: it can end badly for you if you don’t know what you’re doing. That being said, there is a way to “stir the pot” and get people sharing and commenting on your post without necessarily stating a controversial position. You do this by asking your followers a simple question: “What are your thoughts on this?”
On the other hand, you’re absolutely welcome to state your controversial position if you’re willing to possibly lose followers – if they can’t handle you, they probably shouldn’t be following you anyway! Which means everybody wins: you have followers who resonate with your message, and the ones that don’t resonate with your message move on.
To be relatable and relevant, refer back to the first 2 Keys to a Killer Social Media Presence (Know Who You Are & What You Offer and Know Who Your Ideal Clients Are). If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, download my free guide, the 7 Keys to a Killer Social Media Presence, here.
Now that you understand what the three characteristics of shareable content are, here are 11 quick and dirty ideas for writing and creating posts that are shareable:
1. Be positive.
Although it seems like our newsfeeds are full of bad news all the time, the truth is that “good” news is more likely to be shared than bad news – or so says Jonah Berger, author of Contagious. I tend to agree with him.
2. Invoke emotion.
Think about the reactions that Facebook released earlier this year: Love, Haha, Wow, Angry, and Sad. These reflect deep emotions triggered by experiencing any given piece of content. Create content that is designed to trigger one of these reactions and it is instantly more shareable.
3. Create a “how to” post.
Show someone how to do something – whether it’s how to use your product, how to manage their time, how to bake your favourite cake, or how you organize your email. When people feel inspired by something they’ve learned, they are more apt to share it.
4. Follow the trends.
This is where relevance comes in. I hope that you stay abreast of trends in your industry and of things that are of interest and value to your clients. When something happens, share it – with your take on it, of course.
5. Incentivize.
Make it habit to give shout-outs to your followers when they engage with you. Also make it a habit to follow them on social media and engage (and perhaps share, if you feel so moved) with their content, too.
To take the incentive one step higher, become known for randomly rewarding your followers for tagging you. Buffer does a great job of this. They’ve sent me tons of Buffer-branded stickers as a “thank you” for mentioning them in blogs and social media posts. (I’m hoping for a water bottle someday!)
6. Stay ahead of the competition.
Follow your competitors. Watch what they do. What gets engagement, what doesn’t? Improve on it and blow them out of the water.
7. Tell a story.
I don’t mean write a novel in one Facebook post. I’m talking about weaving a story around a common theme and publishing a series of posts about it with a variety of media: text, images, video.
People relate to stories. When they hear your stories, they are often compelled to share their own with you. This is beautiful. This is what social media is for – developing a level of trust that allows you to create wonderful relationships with your clients and prospects.
8. Plan ahead.
Create a content calendar ahead of time, with themes and campaigns mapped out. For many, it’s easier to create high-quality, shareable content when we have framework to work with rather than just throwing spaghetti on the Facebook wall and hoping it gets shared.
9. Solve a problem.
Similar to creating a how-to post, identify a problem your followers have and solve it – as I have done in this blog to help you create your own shareable content.
10. Utilize white space.
When you’re writing a text-only piece of content, don’t just post a block of text. You have a few ways to format it… chiefly by creating white space. You do this by breaking up the text into different lines.
White space is beautiful.
Embrace it.
11. Stop selling.
Calls-to-action are a vital, necessary part of your social media content. Every thing you post on social media should have some form of CTA.
Newsflash – a CTA is not only about asking people to buy from you. It is a call to make an action. To perform a verb. To deepen their relationship with you in some way.
There are more verbs in the English language than buy, purchase, click, visit, and download. These verbs have their place, to be sure, but certainly not 100% of the time.
A CTA can simply be “What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments.”
Remember – it’s called social media. So be social!
Which of these 11 ideas will you try next? Leave me a comment and let me know.
(See what I did there? 😉 )