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If, a decade ago, someone told you that people would be scrolling on devices for a living – would you believe that?
Probably, no. So, what changed?
Well, content happened.
From texts to videos and carousels, social media is flooded with content today, yet only a handful are share-worthy.
Wondering why? Because there’s quite a gap between ‘just’ creating content and creating shareable content on social media.
Today, in this article, we will tell you some best practices to bridge the gap and create shareable content that will not only engage your audience but will also get them talking!
Understand The Psychology Of Sharing – Why People Share Content?
If you want your post to get the most shares on social media – the first step is not to brainstorm or scour through viral content ideas but to sit back, switch on your social media marketer mode, and ask yourself:
- How will my target audience react after reading/watching this?
- Can they relate to this content?
- What value am I adding to them through this content?
Do you have answers to all these questions?
Start brainstorming if your answer is “Yes” to all of them.
Otherwise, go back and redo your customer research – interact with them, see what they engage with the most, and try to predict their behavior.
These questions are of utmost importance if you want to understand the psychological triggers and evaluate the behavior patterns of your ideal audience.
Best Practices To Create Shareable Content On Social Media
1. Find Out What’s Trending
If your goal is to go viral on social media – then NOT following the trend isn’t an option for you!
Before starting a new content calendar, take a day to explore what’s trending in your particular industry.
Remember when Emily in Paris’s Season 3 came in December 2022, and Brit + Co shared this?
Maybe it wasn’t exactly in line with their branding – but they kept it general just to get some extra engagement out of the trend.
However, one con of following the trend is that – you might often end up risking your brand’s online reputation.
A major example of such a situation is the difference in the POV between the brand and the audience. A post that may seem a positive approach to the brand might be perceived negatively by the audience.
That’s where reputation management comes in. From taking advantage of positive customer feedback to flagging negative comments and taking corrective measures – online reputation management is like a knight in shining armor for your brand!
Focusing on online reputation management can cater to your social growth too. Here’s how:
- Monitoring and responding to user comments and reviews
- Building brand awareness and promoting trust & credibility with potential customers
- Getting positive feedback from the audience contributes to better organic reach and better SERP rankings
2. Find Out Where Majority Engagement Is Coming From
Are you someone who has put engagement in the back seat already? Then you’re in trouble, my friend – because engagement is at the heart of social media.
If you want to create shareable content, there’s no better savior than your loyal audience. It’s the audience you interact with daily, just like a friend or a next-door neighbor. And you should provide more of what your audience wants, be it memes, reels, or infographics.
You can create content calendars, jot down ideas and then make the best out of all. You can share these ideas with the content team and decide on the final content. For this, you can use online whiteboard tools that increase productivity and efficiency.
As Brendan Hufford said in his Walt Disney story: “The customer has to be at the center of your culture.”
By engaging with your audience, you can build trust with them and create a more meaningful connection. If you want to sell online, you must be prompt, keep your customers informed regarding offers, discounts, campaigns, etc., and, most importantly, try to interact and engage with them as much as possible.
You can do this by replying to comments, liking posts, creating polls and surveys, and even sending direct messages. To manage your engagement better, you can use social media management tools like sprout social or sprout social alternatives.
It’s important to listen to your audience, so you can create content that they actually want to see! For this, you can provide feedback and suggestion forms to your customers. Also, the data collected from the forms can be used for Sales purposes by sharing resources, offers, and discounts with those contacts.
But for all this to work as desired, you will need creative automation. Your forms should be very presentable and well-formatted. Using a form builder for this would be suitable.
3. Be Mindful Of The Content Format
Whether or not your audience will share your content is directly proportional to your content format. Are you giving them a long text post and expecting 100k impressions on it?
Even though your content is the king – It’s nearly impossible because text posts are hard to read and certainly not easily consumable.
As Sara Stella Lattanzio said it:
Instead, you can try posting carousels, static images, listicles, and even short vertical videos – that are easily comprehensible and can offer value faster.
The smarter you structure your content on different channels, the better results you will get.
But imagine posting 4 times a week on 3 different channels – that makes it 12 uploads!
Do you have time to do that? Probably, no.
Then why don’t you use social media automation tools where you can bulk-schedule your content with hashtags, emojis, and more?
4. Trigger Your Audience’s Emotions
Do you know what kind of posts gets the most number of shares?
It’s those that can trigger an emotion in you – it can be anything from a meme that triggers hearty laughter to a video narrating a heart-touching story or breaking a social stigma.
But how do you stir your audience’s emotions?
Well, by targeting their pain points and going with a personalized approach seems appropriate.
It’s the interactions between you and your audience that make a difference and create an unforgettable experience for your audience.
But is it always possible to add the touch of personalization for all your audience manually? Well, quite challenging!
But with the right customer experience management tools at your disposal, fostering relationships with your customers becomes a cakewalk that goes beyond marketing.
To ensure your content is worth sharing, it should be relatable to your ideal audience.
Try to understand your customer’s needs and requirements so that you can address their issues faster and retain them longer.
5. Make Your Content Visually Appealing
Remember the story of the crow that was attracted to all things shiny? Your social audience is no different.
Every day, 1,209,600 new content is uploaded on social media, but an individual only spends 2 hours 27 minutes scrolling through social media.
Can you imagine the ratio?
So, how do you ensure your content gets the maximum engagement in such a scenario?
You can use various tools like an infographic maker or a video maker to improve and enhance your visual content
By uploading visually appealing creatives and quality content that’s easily readable and contrasting – you can catch your viewers’ attention in no time.
6. Don’t Miss Out On The CTA
You may be successful at targeting your audience right; you may be winning your content game – but everything will boil down to zero results if you do not tell the audience what to do – once they finish reading/watching your content.
Here’s how KitKat did it – they asked a question and ended their tweet by asking for a reply from the audience.
After reading this, their audience knows what they need to do next!
So, brainstorm some CTAs that can work for your audience – and start testing them out!
7. Collaborate With Other Brands/Influencers
Collaboration can be an excellent strategy for any brand to get more shares on social media – be it B2B or B2C.
While this is not a must-do for all your social posts, it can be a great strategy for both the collaborating brands and to gain some extra traction.
Remember the newsletter campaign by The Marketing Millennials when they collaborated with Klaviyo very recently?
It’s just one of the examples we had off the top of our heads – many brands are skyrocketing their growth with social media collaborations daily.
However, ensure that the brand you are collaborating with
- Is it your niche/ domain
- Has a voice and tone similar to yours
- Has a decent following that aligns with your target audience
Takeaways
Creating shareable content on social media doesn’t always have to be a hit or miss if you know the drill. By following these best practices, you can create content that resonates with your audience, triggers their emotions, and convinces them to click the share button!
What’s your trick for creating shareable content on social media? We told you ours!
