How to Craft Share-Worthy Content for Your Brand
Social media gives small brands the ability to reach thousands – even millions – of people. But engagement is not guaranteed. If you want to get results, you have to share the right type of content at the right time and in the right ways.
7 Keys to Generating Share-Worthy Content
Share-worthy content spreads like wild fire. And because each share puts your content in front of hundreds or thousands of new faces, there’s an exponential effect.
In this article, we’re going to walk you through some of the elements that give content a degree of healthy virality. Take a look:
1. Make People Feel Some Kind of Way
Your content needs to make people feel something. The precise emotion that you evoke is up to you, but there has to be something there. A bland, indifferent response will suppress conversion rates, prevent shares, and lead to wasted resources.
Share-worthy content is content that makes people feel positive or negative emotions. (We’re not recommending going the latter route – we’re just giving you the facts.) Positive feelings like joy, interest, anticipation, and trust often lead to sharing from users. Data also shows that having some element of surprise in the content makes people more likely to share the post with their followers.
2. Nail the Headline
The headline is one of the most prominent elements of your content. Whether it’s a blog post, video, or landing page, the headline – in tandem with the lead graphic – is what people evaluate first.
Don’t try to reinvent the wheel with headlines. Feel free to try new things, but your best bet is to study what’s already working. Websites like BuzzFeed and Upworthy are known for having tons of viral content. Keep an eye on these sites – as well as any websites that are relevant to your industry – and treat their headlines like formulas. Track what works and tailor them to your own content.
As a general rule of thumb, listicles, how-to headlines, resource headlines (using words like “guide” or “formula”), and question headlines tend to generate above average share data.
3. Make it Visually Stimulating
Blue Water Marketing has plenty of experience with producing viral content and they believe that the visual side of things is arguably the most significant element – particularly in today’s over-stimulated culture. They recommend adding pictures, infographics, or graphics to make blog posts more appealing. Lots of headers and sub headers also work well to break up text and create visual spacing.
4. Keep Readers Engaged
Very few people will read a blog post from start to finish. In fact, just a small percentage of people who share your content will actually consume it all. However, the more of the content a user is exposed to, the more likely they are to share.
It’s very important that you keep your readers engaged. You can do this by leveraging visuals (as mentioned in the previous tip) and keeping your copy conversational.
Avoid dense paragraphs.
Use short, one-line style paragraphs like this.
They keep the reader’s eyes moving down the page.
5. Write in Second-Person
People want to feel like you’re communicating with them – not at them. Avoid using third-person voice whenever possible. Instead, stick with first- and second-person.
Second-person voice works well because it’s very conversational and free flowing. It’s about you and the reader. If you’re going to brush up on one type of content writing, this should be it.
6. Compel People to Share
People are much simpler than you think. If you ask someone to share your content, they’re much more likely to do it. Aside from asking for shares in your social media posts, you can include things like social share buttons and calls-to-action in the content itself.
While most people remember to hit the major social platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, don’t forget to embed a pin image for Pinterest in every blog post. This is a great way to pick up some extra shares and discoverability without much additional effort.
7. Try These Content Formats
People are predictable. They’re much more likely to share content if they recognize the format. And as countless studies show, there are a few formats that work better than most. They include: user-generated content, podcasts, live streams, infographics, VR content, webinars, client testimonials, ebooks, and guides.
If you’re going to go the route of blog posts, make sure your content is actionable or highly insightful. How-to and roundup posts work really well at the moment.
Elevate Your Content Strategy
There’s plenty of evidence to support what share-worthy content looks like. There’s no excuse for not understanding what it takes. The biggest challenge is actually executing. And if you don’t have the in-house resources to create viral content, you may need to outsource it to someone who can. If it increases exposure and drivers conversions, this is money well spent.
