Once upon a time (you know, five years ago), the goal was just figuring out how to write great content for our blogs. Now the goal isn’t just great content – it’s sharable content. The more people you can get to share your content, the more successful you will feel (and appear to your peers).
So how do you do it? How do you get people to share your work?
Wouldn’t it be great if this key actually existed?
1. It Starts with You
Share it yourself! If you’re not willing to tweet, post to Facebook,
etc., about your work, why should anybody else take up the torch? Yes, self-promotion feels gross, but it’s necessary if you want to get more eyes on your work. Also, your followers are more likely to retweet and share your posts about your work than they are to create new posts about your work. Speaking of which…
2. Make it Easy
Include handy buttons people can click to quickly and easily share your work to their favorite feeds. There are all sorts of apps and widgets you can use to set up these sharing buttons in the footers and sidebars of your posts. Most of them are even free!
3. Create Great Work
The better your work, the more likely it is to get shared. Nobody is
going to want to share something that feels like it was phoned in. Take the time to, at the very least: spell check, grammar check, and do at least one editing pass on each post before you post it.
4. Timing and Volume of Self-Promotions Matter
That self-promotion we talked about? You need to do it more than once
for each post. Social media moves really fast, so you want to make sure everybody knows that you’ve posted something new. This means promoting your post at least twice if not three times – once when you post it, once for “the afternoon/evening crowd,” and once the next morning. More than that feels excessive, but less than that and you run the risk of getting lost in the shuffle.
5. Karma Is Real
Share other people’s work. Not only does sharing someone else’s work
attract that person’s attention to your own, it makes it more likely
that that person will return the favor and share your work in the
future. It works on you when others share your blog posts, right?
6. Vary Your Content
If all of your content is focused on yourself (especially if you’re
trying to sell something), people are going to get tired of sharing it, no matter how great it is. Write about other people or subjects once in a while. Your audience will appreciate the variation and be more likely to share it with others.
7. Quantity as Much as Quality
If you are a sporadic publisher, you risk people forgetting that your
blog even exists. You want people to think “I wonder what you’re posting today” not “I wonder if you’ll post today.” Plus, the more posts you create, the more chances you create for people to share your work.
8. Regular Maintenance
Every once in a while, make sure everything you’ve set up to facilitate sharing is working properly. Make sure your buttons work the way they are supposed to, make sure your Twitter updates are scheduled properly, etc. You don’t want to prevent people from sharing your posts by having a broken system.
9. Ask for It
There is no shame in coming right out and asking people to share your
work. A simple “Like this post? Share it!” at the end of your posts is perfectly acceptable. If you’ve written something you think will
resonate with someone else’s audience, tell them about it and invite
them to share it if they think it’s good. You’ll be amazed at the
response you get simply by asking for some attention.
It doesn’t matter how; it just matters that it happens. Photo Credit: Jason A Howie
What’s your favorite way to get people to share your blog posts? Have
you found any great “magic tricks” you feel comfortable sharing with the
rest of us?
About the Author: Erin Steiner writes about mobile payments, small business, and pop culture all over the web.
