“Just a little more…”, you whisper to yourself as you email your article to your proofreader.
As you look back and think about when you first started working on it, you begin to realize that it has been in the making for about 3 months now. You know this because your file name is a dead giveaway. You’ve been diligently adding words to it everyday, even as you get home tired and stressed-out from working your double shifts.
However, none of that matters anymore. At this point, all you’re waiting for is for your proofreader to send you back the article, so you can give it the final polish, and publish it on your blog. The thought of publishing the piece excites you. After all, you spent countless hours working on it and you’re almost certain that your audience will love it.
Fast-forward a few weeks after you published the article, however, you noticed that it only still has a handful of shares. You felt devastated after seeing how poorly your article performed. At this point, you’re just about ready to give up publishing content altogether, since you’re not even getting the kind of traction you’re looking for even after exerting tons of effort, just to make it look awesome.
#ThePainIsReal
I know how frustrating it can be. However, I urge you not to give up just yet. Whether you believe it or not, creating shareable content isn’t as hard as others make it out to be. You just need to add a couple of elements on your article, give due diligence in marketing it, and you’re bound to see your content’s share count explode!
What “elements” am I talking about? I’m glad you asked.
1. Quotes From Influencers.
There are several ways that you can benefit from using this strategy.
- It makes your content look even more credible.
- You can use the quotes as a means to build links.
- You can use it to establish relationships.
- Adding Tweetable quotes makes for easier sharing.
Because you’re adding quotes, the chances of the person whom you quoted sharing it to their community drastically increases. After all, their names are in the article; should the article go viral, they can benefit from the free PR and better online visibility (among others).
Of course, instead of simply quoting people in random, I urge you to be a bit more strategic in choosing whom to quote. You’ll be better off if you purposefully choose influencers who have a healthy number of followers. That way, should they share it, your article will be read (and shared) by thousands of people.
2. Make it Easy for Them to Share. Add a Floating Social Sharing Buttons.
You’ll be amazed at how other website owners make it hard for their readers to share their content.
Some make their social sharing buttons annoyingly small. Others aren’t aware that their sharing buttons blend with their website’s background color, making it harder for the readers to find it. Or worse, others hide their sharing buttons behind drop down icons that are unknown to mankind.
Look, you need to realize that the online content consumers aren’t as patient as we’d want them to be.
If you want them to share your content, you’d better make it easy for them to do just that. Otherwise, if they have to spend a couple of seconds to look for your sharing buttons, there’s a good chance that they’ll just click away without sharing your content (even if they really wanted to).
3. Talk About Your Reader’s Problems, and How to Solve Them.
As you can probably imagine, one of the most common reasons why people use the internet is to look for answers to their questions. That’s the reason why “life-hack” type articles tend to go viral since it talks about the reader’s problems, and the easiest or most efficient ways possible of solving it.
When you have this basic yet very crucial element in your article, there is a good chance that your readers will share your content because it contains the solution to their problems.
4. Click-Worthy Headlines
Without an awesome headline, there might not be much of a point for you to follow the first 3 tips that I shared above. The fact is, your headline spells that difference between your prospect readers clicking your link and consuming your content, or them ignoring your link because they found the headline boring or uninteresting.
Make sure that your headline doesn’t fall under the latter, OK?
While there are several routes that you can take to creating click-worthy headlines, these 3 are my favorites:
- Add mystery to your headline.
- Mention the benefit that your readers can take advantage of when reading the post.
- Use a controversial headline.
Of course, I’m just scratching the surface with these 3 points. If you’ll do a quick Google search on how to create amazing headlines, I’m sure you’ll find a couple that will resonate with the dynamics of your business, and the audience that you’re writing for.
What’s next?
Have you ever published a post that managed to get thousands of organic shares? What do you think compelled your audience to share your post?
If there are tips that you’d like to share to the community about creating shareable content, please do so in the comments section below. Cheers!
