1. Do Your Research on Trending Topics
It’s always in your best interest to do your research before proceeding with your Social Media posting strategy. Make sure you do some solid research on what’s trending Online, as this is the kind of content that will really catch people’s attention and get them talking.
Whether it’s content for Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, by analyzing what people are responding to and watching your competitors, you’ll be better placed to create content that is relevant and “of the moment”, which is a sure-fire way to gain traction with your audience.
Remember that these Social Platforms are made for sharing, and people love to share relevant and of-the-minute content, so they can appear “in the know” to their friends and followers. By filling your Social feeds with relevant, up to date content, you’re giving yourself the best chance of increasing your Social Shares.
If you’re a little stumped for content ideas, there are Online Tools you can use, such as Buzzsomo and PostReach, which allow you to monitor the performance of content on different Social Media platforms. This will provide you with some inspiration for your next topic, but will ensure that you never duplicate any existing content. Remember that it’s vital to be original!
2. Use Enticing Images
Visual information is processed much faster by the human brain than text, which is why Social Media audience have gradually become slowly more obsessed with visually-based content. It’s easy to digest, engaging and can tell a story with one glance. As a Small Business Owner, you can optimize your posts for Social Sharing by taking advantage of this desire for imagery.
This shift towards the visual can be seen through the popularity of Instagram, with it now being ranked as the second most popular Social Platform, behind Facebook. And it’s not just Instagram that’s pushing the pictures! Statistics show that:
- Tweets with images receive 150% more retweets than tweets without images.
- Organic Facebook engagement is highest on posts with videos and photos.
- Infographics are "liked" and shared on social media 3 times more than other any other type of content.
This proves that the use of visuals within your Social content will, not only significantly boost engagement, but will also drive your Social Shares through the roof.
There are Online Tools you can use to create aesthetic images for your Social Media, one of the most popular being Canva. This user-friendly tool provides beautiful templates that you can customise to create content that’s appropriate for your Business.
3. Create Short Videos
When we talk about visuals, the mind immediately thinks of still images, but it’s important to remember that video content is also very effective in engaging users Online, and could be your way to scoring more Social Shares.
Did you know that there are more than 7 billion videos watched each and every day on Facebook? And it’s said that by 2019, there will be around a million minutes of videos that will be shared every second on Social Media. With this in mind, it’s definitely time for you to start utilizing this highly engaging visual media for your Social Channels.
Unlike pictures however, there are a lot of elements to be considered when creating videos for Social Media. You need to capture a lot in a short space of time and ensure the quality of your video is high enough so that it looks professional and authoritative.
4. Know the Peak Hours for Your Target Market
It pays to remember that your target market won’t be highly active on Social Media 24 hours a day. For this reason, you need to know when your audience is most active, so you can reach the most people and achieve the highest possible share and repost rate by.
To figure out when your target audience are most active, you can gather data from your own posts and see which times and days have received the most engagement from your followers. There are also lots of Online resources which can be helpful in helping you determine the best times to post for your specific industry, so you don’t have to go making any wild guesses!
Scheduling Tools, such as HootSuite, Later and ScheduGram, are all helpful when it comes to planning your Social Media strategy, as they allow you to create months-worth of content well in advance. They also ensure that you’re not awake at 3am trying to target your audience with posts when they’re most likely to share your content!
Timing counts for a lot on Social Media, so make sure you post at the time that’s best for your Business, so that your content will be noticed and shared.
5. Provide an Incentive
Nothing will promote Social Shares quite like the promise of an incentive! If you really want your audience to share your Social Media posts, provide them something in return; a chance to win one of your products, a gift certificate, a discount code, or any other offer that would compensate their effort.
It doesn’t have to be something big, it should just be enough to make them feel excited about sharing your content. Sure, you’re giving away something for free, but by having more Social Shares, you’re extending you Business’s Online reach significantly, which will likely pay off in the long run.
Generating more Social Shares on your Social Platforms can be a huge win for your Small Business. Your content will reach more prospective customers, you’ll strengthen your branding and help grow your relationship with current followers and fans. Take these 5 tips into consideration when creating your content and hopefully you should start to notice greater engagement and more of those Social Shares you’ve been hoping for – no more frustration!
