When followers share the posts made to your social media business account, your brand stands much to gain. However, getting shares on social media may seem easier said than done. Getting users to share your posts takes some planning and strategizing, but it all pays off when your social reach gets this very useful boost. Let’s review a few strategies to encourage users to share your posts and expand your brand’s influence.
Understanding Shares
Sharing a post can mean similar, but still different things. When you post to your business social media accounts, users can like or share your post. When you publish a post to your blog, users can take the link to that page and share it on their social media accounts. Both of these types of shares benefit your brand.
Value of Shares
When users share your social media or blog posts, they position your content in front of their network. Your followers are part of your demographic, so it’s likely they have relatives or friends or other connections who are also part of your demographic. A share also serves as an endorsement of your brand, so a single share from one follower has the potential to convert sales. Not every share will convert sales, but the more shares you receive the greater the odds of scoring a few sales or at least gaining new followers and subscribers. Down the line, these new followers may become paying customers or further help to grow your social reach.
Working the Algorithms
Recently, Facebook has taken many steps to encourage interaction between users, which comes at the cost of de-emphasizing posts from businesses. Facebook business posts are typically only seen by a percentage of users who follow that business. The more likes and shares a business post receives, the more value Facebook’s algorithms assign the post, and the greater the distribution that post will receive. Social media posts that link back to your website can help drive traffic to your site, which will also help your site’s ranking with search engines. Social media shares are a bit of a popularity contest, but they provide value by expanding your social reach.
How to Increase Engagement
When users interact with your posts they further develop their relationship with your brand. At the same time, they also spread the social reach of your message and help your brand form bonds with new followers. It takes time and consistent work, but increasing your social reach can increase your followers, and lead to increased sales.
Seek Out Your Customers
Each social media platform appeals to specific demographics. You need to figure out which platforms your customers use, and start establishing a presence there. Most users have accounts across multiple platforms, so you may find it useful to maintain a few accounts. It’s not likely worth your time to have an account on a platform not frequented by your demographic.
Quality Content
Good content is the key to social media engagement. In order for followers to like and share your social media posts, you need to give them something worth sharing. Quality content provides value by delivering a solution or explanation. For instance, if you specialize in kitchen remodels, explain the types of countertop materials available and the pros and cons of each. If your company created an app, explain what the app does and how it helps users.
Useful information will help convince users of the value your company provides, and it may also cause your readers to think that if they found it useful, their friends, family or followers may agree.
Trend Spotting
Latching on to a trend can give your social media posts a helpful boost. However, trends can be fleeting, so you need to get in early enough while the issue is still relevant. Being late to the party may not provide any value. Identifying trends early gives you the opportunity to provide relevant and useful content and present your brand as an authority and industry leader.
Spot trends by keeping tabs on the newsletters and social media posts put out by your competitors, media and industry leaders and influencers. You can also use the app, Keyhole, to monitor specific keywords across various social media platforms. If your keywords begin to generate traction you’ll be the first to know, and you can quickly capitalize on this trend by writing about it on your blog or on social media.
Make Sharing Easy
The easier it is for your readers and followers to share your posts, the more likely they will do just that. Include social media share buttons on your site, so readers can easily share your blog posts to their social media accounts. When you publish a new blog entry, post about it on your business accounts. Your followers will see this social media post and be able to like and share your post, or follow the link to your blog, where they will also be presented with the option to share your blog post to their social accounts.
Just Ask
Quality content, social media share buttons and the other techniques listed here are subtle attempts to expand your social reach. It’s a bit bolder and still effective, but you can just ask your followers to share your content. Sometimes readers may not think to share your post, but if you ask them, that will get them thinking about it. At the end of each blog post, ask your readers to share the post to their social media accounts. Frame it by explaining that if they found the post useful their friends, colleagues, followers or whomever, may find it useful, too.
Increase Your Social Reach
Social media shares can increase organic traffic to your site and improve your standings with both search engines and social media platforms. Making an effort to establish a presence on the social media platforms your demographic uses, improving the quality and relevance of your content and taking steps to simplify sharing content can all improve your social reach. Have you tried any of these techniques? Do you have a method that didn’t make this roundup? Let me know, reach out if you have questions and feel free to share this post if you think anyone in your network may find it useful (see what I just did there?).
