Make The Content Your Readers Will Share

The power of social media is so high today that you can’t ignore it. You should pay attention to what people read and share to get your piece of the market pie. And create the content that wows people and attracts likes and shares. The best content that people share online converts the readers into happy customers of your brand.

Not any content gets viral on social media. You should learn your audience well to know what kind of content they would like to consume. Here are a few practical tips the should teach you on how to create the shareable content for your readers.

Choose Trending Topics

No secret that popular topics that everyone is talking about attract more attention and become viral fast. If you manage to create the content that keeps pace with the latest event, season or buzz topic, you will most likely get tons of likes, shares, and comments on social media.

It’s easy to stay abreast of the recurring events and topics by checking Google Trends. It is perfect for checking out seasonal and recurring events popularity and include related topics into your strategy. Check out its demand across various regions and note the dates when you should drop such posts. E.g., you can create a post with Halloween recipes for your food website and update it every year with new info or tricks closer to the “spike” on the graph you see:

Another excellent tool for researching trending topics is BuzzSumo. Drop your keyword into the search field and explore what’s creating the buzz around the web in your niche. You can also set up the alerts and get the email notification of what’s trending on a monthly, daily or hourly basis.

Check out Twitter for “What’s Trending” and the “Hottest Hashtags” as well.

Follow Up Your Competitors

One of the easiest ways to understand what drives your audience is to check out your competitors and see what content performs the best for them. Thus, you should check out the media channels your competitors use for promotion and note what types of content (and on what topics) bring them the most engagement.

What people loved the most about that content? Was is the topic that your audience was interested in the most? Was it the headline that enticed the users to click on it? How was the content presented on the page? What media your competitors used in the post? Was it the video that explored the topic in depth or showcased the benefits of the product?

E.g., you can check their top performing articles in Ahrefs and see where they get shared the most – Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest. When you get those insights, try to create the similar content (on the same topic or in similar form, e.g., a product video) but provides 10x better value to the audience. Your users should see from the start that you are the best option to solve their questions.

Check out users’ opinions

Asking your audience to share their opinions on different topics is a great way to encourage discussions and attract more attention to your posts. Earlier this year, Adam Mosseri, Head of Facebook News Feed, announced that Facebook would prioritize posts that spark meaningful discussions and would show them higher in the news feed. Thus, you should treat commenting very seriously today.

At the same time, avoid dropping engagement-bait posts that encourage meaningless comments or actions like “Comment YES if you’re going to visit the event” or “LIKE this post if you’re in love!” Facebook is to downgrade such kinds of content.

Choose the right type of the content

The best type of content that attracts tons of shares is the one that brings value to your audience. You should evaluate your existing articles and social media posts to understand what brings you traffic. Analyze the topic and the form of those posts: how they present the information, what media they include.

One of the Buzzsumo surveys states that people are more likely to share long-form articles. Thus, >3,000-word articles received more shares in average than shorter posts. Lists and infographics also got more interactions than other types of articles. Today videos perform better than graphics or average posts on social media. So, consider creating helpful videos and include them in your posts.

Offer valuable content

Creating a content that aligns with the values of your audience is a great way to entice people to share it. If you know the demographics of your audience, its age, and sphere of interests – you can create articles that speak about what’s essential for them. Think about the content that solves the audience’s issues the best possible way. Then check out the relevant keywords for the topic keeping the searcher’s intent in mind.

Structure the content in a way that your readers understand from the beginning if its valuable for them and worth reading. It’s great if your content can provide a step-by-step solution to the issue or answer the question in detail. You should also keep the same tone and voice your audience is used to get the info from your brand.

And remember, you don’t have to promote your product in every piece of content that you create! The value should be your top priority. In this case, users will turn to you for advice more in various situations.

Appeal to reader’s emotions

Emotions may be an outstanding sharing trigger if appropriately used. Cute cat videos go viral in seconds but do they help establish a strong emotional connection with your brand? Choose topics that evoke positive emotions in your audience and connect those emotions with your brand.

Respond to social events that people discuss, offer your support in complex situations, celebrate users’ victories. Express genuine gratitude for their help with your case studies or researches.

Add sharing triggers

Always add something at the end of your posts that triggers your readers to perform some activities. It’s odd that sometimes websites don’t even have a share bar on the content page! People are lazy, and if they can’t share the article with a single click, most of them won’t bother sharing it at all.

You can add social plugins to your website that allow twitting or sharing a piece of your content. Thus, Click to Tweet is one of the most popular plugins that helps you to create a catchy section with a prominent quote from your article that allows instantly sharing this quote to Twitter.

And always ask your readers’ opinion on the topic you’ve discussed. Encourage them to share it with their friends and ask their opinions. You can also offer some lovely gifts to those who share your article or write the most thought-out comment. Meaningful comments have more weigh in the Facebook algorithm, so involve your users into discussions about your content.

Up to You!

Social media were created for people to share their thoughts and discuss the things that matter for them. People love talking about topics that are emotionally or somehow otherwise appealing to them. So it’s up to you how you communicate with your audience and what relationships you establish. Just remember that you should be honest with your readers and express genuine interest in their lives. Am I right?

Author bio: Helen Stark is a content marketer at Ahrefs. She explores new things every day to impress her readers with catchy stories. Apart from all that marketing stuff, Helen loves listening to rock music, reading and traveling. A lot! Feel free to follow Helen on Twitter.