7 Creative Ways To Encourage Your Readers To Share Your Content

You miss out on a great deal if the readers do not share your blog post on social media. But you can change this. You can make your blog readers share your content and help you reach out to a new audience. And may be also help you acquire new visitors, get new leads or make more sales. Remember that people love to share content or information if it is made good and the sharing is made convenient. Here’s how you can get more shares of your content. ~ Ed.

 

Let me guess…

You wrote a wonderful post, published it on your blog and received just a few shares.

It’s pretty surprising and disappointing considering the fact that you spent all weekend doing research and writing that two-thousand-word piece. What’s wrong with that post?

Well, there are a few reasons why people don’t want to share it.

First of all, your perfect post might not be as perfect as you think. Second, sharing your posts might be difficult for your readers. Lastly, you do nothing to encourage your audience to share your content. Do you disagree?

Let’s take a look at the issue in detail.

“Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read.” – Leo Burnett

To Share Or Not To Share? That Is The Question!

There are five main reasons why we share content:

• To bring valuable content into the lives of others,
• To define ourselves,
• To nourish our relationships,
• To feel fulfilled,
• To tell others about our beliefs.

Thus, as you can see, if your post doesn’t evoke any emotions, fails to make people reflect on their lives, isn’t helpful, and challenges people’s opinions and beliefs, it isn’t likely to go viral.

At least, not without help.

How To Get More Shares

Do you think that some people possess special powers that help them write amazing content which, once live, gets hundreds of shares? Is it about their style, skills, the time they spend on writing and doing research, or maybe… something else?

Here’s the truth: it’s all about psychology, convenience, and certain tricks. Ready to learn more about it? Let’s begin!

#1 Create Content Your Readers Will Want to Share

Obvious, but powerful. Scroll the page up and take a look at the five main reasons why people share content one more time.

Now, ask yourself, would you share a post, which doesn’t make you think, solve your problems or entertain you? Probably not, right? After all, if you didn’t enjoy reading a post and learned nothing valuable, others won’t as well. So, what for to share it?

Thus, remember, write posts that evoke emotions in your readers. Give value first. Make people feel inspired with quotes, surprised with facts and statistics, amused with videos and photos, and happy about improving their knowledge.

#2 Add More Social Sharing Buttons

I know. There are just a few popular social networks with billions of daily users: Facebook, YouTube or Instagram. Right. However, you shouldn’t forget that other platforms are also growing and getting more and more users every day.

Also, while some people tend to share every type of content on the same social media platform, others like to share posts only on Facebook, quotes on Twitter, videos on Instagram and photos on Pinterest. Thus, make sure you give your readers a choice. Add more social sharing buttons and so, make it easy to share your content.

#3 Make Your Images Shareable

Did you notice that on some websites you can share either the whole article or only the added photos? Pretty cool, isn’t it? If you don’t especially like the content of a post but got inspired by an image, you can share it with your friends. All you have to do is to hover over it and then, click on a social media button. That’s it!

Remember, not only text can be shared. So, make sure your readers can choose whether to share your whole post or just the images.

#4 Add “Click to Tweet” Widgets Within Your Content

Just as images can be shared, so can quotes. Thus, whenever you quote the words of a famous person, make an inspirational remark or write something that everyone should remember, allow your readers to share it by adding a “Click to Tweet” button.

#5 Ask Your Readers to Share Your Content

It may sound banal, but it actually works. Next time you write a post, ask your readers to share it. You can do it in several ways:

• Add an in-text reminder: “Share the post if you liked it.”
• Promise a reward: “Don’t forget to share the post! If we get 5k+ shares, we’ll give you a free ebook on how to grow your eCommerce business the way we did. Stay tuned.”
• Give them a reason: “As you can see, the new update of (name of an application) does more harm than good, so don’t install it. Also, share this post with your friends to make sure they know about the update and its evil powers.”
• Add a sense of urgency: “Share these essay writing service reviews now and let others know that (the name of the writing services) are a scam. Make sure your friends don’t get conned!”

#6 Optimize Your Social Meta Tags

Did you ever click on a Facebook share button under a post, and then, found out that the image didn’t load or there’s no meta description? If yes, did you share it? Probably not, right?

Thus, make sure your social meta tags are optimized and the content looks attractive when shared on social media. It will encourage your readers to share more of your posts in the future.

To give you an idea of how a post should look like when being shared, take a look at this photo:

As you can see, the post has a picture, website’s name, a title, and a meta description. Now, try to share a post from your blog. Does it look the same? If not, then it’s time for you to customize social meta tags.

#7 Thank Your Readers for Sharing Your Posts

Expressing gratitude can be beneficial not only in our daily lives but also when we write and publish blog posts.

If your readers are active on your blog (i.e. write comments, start discussions and share your content), thank them for doing so. Tell them how much you appreciate it. This way, you’ll improve your relationship with them. Next, they’ll be more likely to keep on reading your blog and share your content in the future.

Wrapping It Up

To encourage your readers to share your content, you need not only to write inspirational and helpful blog posts but also, add more sharing buttons and optimize your social meta tags.

Another good idea is to ask your readers to share your content and thank them for doing so.

Remember the tips, use them to your advantage and share them with your friends!

Over to You

Do you have any other ideas on how to encourage readers to share content on social media? If yes, tell us about them in the comments below.