Every blogger dreams of their content going viral. Having additional eyes on your site and watching the likes, shares and comments go up is a great thing as it means more page views and social followers. However, it can sometimes be hit or miss over what goes viral – sometimes it’s the content that you least expect that goes viral. Until then, use these tips for increasing social shares on your blog.
Create Content That Inspires People to Share
Creating great content is the most important piece of hitting that viral button. If your content is old, outdated and tired, it definitely won’t inspire anyone to share it. Look for trendy topics – Google Trends is a great way to find them. Go to the Google Trends website and enter in your topic or keyword. You’ll be able to see whether it’s currently being searched and even what part of the country the searches are coming from.
Make Sharing From Your Site and Social Media Easy
Once you have a great piece of content, you need to make it easy for your readers to share it! Most blogs have automatic sharing button that can be added to each piece of content, so double check that they’re working correctly. However, you’re not done there. Too many sharing options can actually deincentivize sharing — when faced with too many choices, some people find it easier to ignore them all. Instead, think about which sites you want your content shared to. Are your readers more active on Instagram over Twitter? Remove the Twitter share button.
It’s also possible to set up your images so that they’re easily shareable too. There’s a WordPress plug in that makes this easy to do. Your readers can simply hit a button and share the image with their own audience.
Don’t discount the shares from your social media content! Facebook makes it easy to share content, but if you have your page set up as a personal one, rather than a business account (you’re fixing, that right?), just check that your settings allow anyone to view the shared content.
Encourage Sharing With Contests
A contest is a great way to get your content out there. If you can, consider joining forces with a group of bloggers and put together a contest. A gift card or prize worth at least $50 is the best – anything lower than that won’t seem worth your readers’ time to enter and share. If you can, make social sharing a way to earn more entries. The giveaway tool Gleam makes setting up a contest easy and it’s not terribly expensive for a one month membership.
Create Shareable Graphics & Memes
No matter what your niche, you’ve probably seen a graphic or meme with a simple saying go viral. But don’t worry – you don’t have to be a Photoshop expert to create these small graphics. The free graphic design software, Canva is perfect for shareable social graphics. Make sure that you put your branding on your graphics so when they’re shared, you get the credit for it!
While social shares alone can’t tell the success story of your blog, increasing them definitely will help get your site noticed. Until you get that one magic piece of viral content, use these tips to increase your site’s social shares.
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