Creating Shareable Content

You know you should create compelling, relevant content as part of your overall personal branding strategy. But is your effective, relevant content being shared with others on social media? Probably not. Most people don’t want to share your content. In fact, a study of social transmission across millions of Twitter accounts revealed that the majority of users are passive and rarely share their information with their network. The average Twitter user only retweets one in every 300 tweets they read. Content that moves is content that effectively markets you and promotes your brand. 

Emotion is a huge driver of social sharing. People will share things that bring them joy and content that upsets or disturbs them. If we look at the reasons why people do decide to share content, they net down to the following: 

To be useful. The number one reason people share content that resonates with them is to help their networks. 

To grow relationships. People see content sharing as a way to stay connected with others. It’s easy to do and requires minimal effort. 

Self-fulfillment. Sharing content and getting positive feedback makes people feel valued. 

To promote something they believe in. Sharing content can rally others around a user’s cause. 

So, when creating content for your audience, it is essential to make sure that your content is relevant and useful and touches an emotional chord. How do you do that? An effective strategy to engage your consumers is to ask them instead of telling them. For example, you might write an article on what you think is the best tablet device on the market today and then ask for your readers’ opinions in the comments. Outside perspective makes content more engaging, and engaging content is shared content. 

Another way to improve your content shares is by making shareability easy. Embed native social sharing buttons in your content feed. It’s much easier to share something if all your user has to do is click a button. No one wants to copy and paste links or go to different sites to share content. 

Most of all, your content should not be BORING. Your content should be entertaining, funny, and engaging. There is a reason that so many people share cat videos and pictures of puppies, and that’s because they make people smile. There is enough dry, dull, technical content in the world. You don’t need to add to it, so ensure you differentiate yourself by creating content your audience looks forward to consuming. 

All personal branding is an exercise in content marketing, and shared content means greater influence for you. Shareable content gets your message out quickly and effectively. It does the work for you. The more shares of your content you get, the wider your audience becomes, and the greater chance of you getting that spark!