Even if your content is of the highest quality, even if your ideas are changing the marketing game as we know it, creating quality content is only half the battle. After all, the real challenge is getting people to read, engage with, and share what you’re making.
Unless you fell backwards into a Twitter base the size of Ashton Kutcher’s, getting the masses to spread the word takes smarts, strategy, and a whole lot of outreach. So, if you want your content to start spreading like wildfire, follow these steps to start results.
1. Ask People to Share your Content
Granted, there’s a fine line between asking people to do you a solid and coming off as a shameless self-promoter. Figuring out how to walk that line is a matter of tact and experience. Unsurprisingly, the numbers show that asking people pays off. Not only are you 51% more likely to get a post retweeted if you ask people to retweet it, but Pinterest pins with a call to action get 80% more shares than those that don’t. As they say, it never hurts to ask.
2. Use Images
Speaking of numbers, tweets that contain images are 92% more likely to be shared and Facebook posts with photos get 53% percent more likes than those without. It’s no mystery why Instagram got over 25,000 users on the day it launched, folks. People love pictures, so give them what they want and start reaping the benefits with social media photography.
3. Don’t be Afraid of the Long Form
In the age of TL;DR (“too long; didn’t read”) and rapidly-declining attention spans, one would think long-form posts are going the way of Pets.com. Lo and behold, studies show that posts with more than 2,500 words get shared nearly twice the amount on social media than posts with less than 2,500 words. Since less than 5% of bloggers write posts longer than 1,500 words, there’s also a great deal of potential to be tapped.
4. Target Influencers
When it comes to social media, who are the big dogs in your field? Reach out to them and ask if they’ll plug your work, because why not? Incorporate them into your content, because everyone loves free advertising. See if they’d like to join forces and write something with you, because teamwork makes the dream work. Most importantly, create quality content that they can’t ignore.
Rallying the troops and recruiting more followers rarely makes for an overnight success story, but if you put in the work and put yourself out there, your audience is bound to share your content, as long as it resonates.
