7 Tips for Sharing Content on Social Media
You create an article or a video, post it on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn and then wait.
But nothing happens…
In reality most people don’t know what, when or how to share on Social Media.
Today we are going to fix that so read on!
- Picking the Winners
In fact, done wrong, it can damage your reputation and ultimately your business.
Social media sharing allows us to sift through our own content and pick the winners. If something gets nice traction on your website, it should be shared through social media.
In fact, you should use Social Media as part of your strategy once you hit publish.
These platforms help you reach more people.
By the time you decide to share something on Facebook, you will know which content has the potential of converting based on the initial site’s data.
In other words, if your social media posts are performing worse than average posts on your site, there is a good chance you’re doing something wrong.
With social media, you have an opportunity to present yourself in the best light possible.
Focus on winners and avoid posts that don’t covert well.
This way your social media audience will always come back for more.
This is what keeps them going.
Ideally, you should always focus on articles and videos that are promoting your products and services.
Unfortunately, this usually doesn’t sit well with the audience.
You need to tread very carefully here…
We have an 80/20 rule that we stick to – more on that later…
While some of your audience are potential buyers, the majority of them will have an issue if you try to forcefully sell something.
Sharing commercial messages is a double-edged sword: they can lead to a hefty profit but they can also alienate your loyal fans.
In an ideal world, you would like to increase your fan base while also seeing a steady increase in profit.
This is why sharing commercial posts is one of the most problematic topics.
Post a commercial message every few days, perhaps once a week. People who are following your posts shouldn’t feel too annoyed by them.
No matter how much knowledge you have or how actionable your regular blog posts are, there will always be someone agitated by commercial posts.
While this feedback can be beneficial (as it shows whether or not you’re overdoing it), sometimes you will have to ignore such individuals.
Further Reading
Here is a great post from Hubspot – How to Sell Anything to Anybody
And this one – 5 Common Misconceptions About Selling on Social Media – from Business.com
Finally from Jay Baer on Convince and Convert – The Key to Social Selling is Social, Not Selling
Subtle commercial messages are the best ones. In certain cases, you don’t have to directly sell a product or service.
Instead, show your social media audience that you’re better than the competition.
Always try to be moderate when creating commercial posts. At the same time, don’t be dissuaded by negative feedback as there will certainly be some.
The majority of the audience will see a particular post on social media before seeing it on your own website.
For most of them, this will be their first interaction with either your posts or your company.
Site owners usually perceive social media sharing as nothing more than simple copy-pasting of links.
They don’t give it the necessary attention. But if the audience sees a simple link without any text, they might not have an incentive of clicking on it.
This will only result in a waste of time and frustration.
Here are some tips that will help you improve social media shares:
- Create catchy titles. Titles are always a good way of attracting attention but more often than not they are boring and completely miss the mark. Craft a title that people ‘must’ click on.
- Know your audience. Social media fans may be different from your regular website audience. This is also something that needs to be taken into consideration as it may affect the message you’re sharing.
- Use the same brand voice. Companies (especially the big ones) have teams of content writers and social media managers. A message placed on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter may change along the way. The description should be an embodiment of your company through various platforms.
- Tie different posts together. It is always better if your social media posts are on a similar topic or if they are somewhat related.
Further Reading
17 Easy Tricks How to Write Catchy Titles and Headlines from Dreamgrow.com
How to Write Catchy Blog Post Titles That Get Clicked Like Crazy by Jeff Bullas
6 Tips for Writing Headlines That Drive Traffic by Social Media Examiner
4. The 80/20 Rule when sharing content
No matter how you feel about your website and business, internet audience is always focused on good content. It doesn’t matter if they’re your fan or not; they will always read and watch content that interests them.
That being said, you need to accept the fact that other sites are able to produce great content.
%
I have an 80/20 rule that I always stick to: 80% of the content I share is other peoples and only 20% is mine.
You need to plan at least one week ahead of time.
This may pose a problem for smaller blogs with limited resources.
Nevertheless, you need to create a plan according to your capabilities.
For example, if you’re able to create 3 blog posts each week, you will share the best out of these three.
As previously mentioned, sharing everything can pose a problem. Small companies can instead mix their own content with that made by the bigger sites.
Always prioritize quality no matter what.
You need to know where they are coming from, when they are active, what is their average age, sex, ethnicity etc. All this data will be crucial for planning.
Share content at the same time of the day and through various platforms.
There are lots of tools for social media automation that can help you with this. If you’re consistent, it will become easier for the audience to track your activity.
This is another thing that will increase the conversion and successfulness of your social media posts.
Keep in mind that plans are important but they can be changed if necessary.
Like everything else in business, you need to fine-tune it according to your needs and audience’s response.
You will also have to consider your overall marketing strategy and ultimate goals.
They have become extremely important in the last few years.
This coincides with the increased number of social networks.
But you can’t be everywhere and do it well…
Today, you have a social platform for almost anything: sharing images and videos, searching for jobs, posting quick messages and so on.
Unfortunately, this splits the audience.
Creating and managing various accounts can either be detrimental to your business or can provide a competitive edge.
Some experts say that it’s better to focus on 1 or 2 platforms as managing several of them will eat away your time.
This is where social media automation software comes into play.
You can use these tools to analyze data, create schedules and share posts on various platforms at the same time.
Even if you’re unable to manage all these platforms, by using this software you’re able to tell which ones are the winners and where you should focus the attention.
An unexpected problem can always pop-up endangering the success of the whole campaign.
Internet marketing is all about optimizing your results. No matter how good you are at something, you can always get better.
This is especially true when it comes to sharing your content on social media.
Whether you’re doing good or bad, don’t be afraid to implement small changes. Try different approaches and see how they fit.
Keep in mind that every industry is different so even if you have lots of experience, there will always be something that can surprise you.
Make sure to be proactive and analyze your results.
Like everything else on the Internet, sharing content on social media has numerous layers.
At first glance, it looks simple but there are numerous factors that need to be considered, things that you won’t realize until you start sharing content yourself.
With this particular piece, we have hopefully saved you some time and you will be able to avoid these most common mistakes.
Start sharing and make your social presence known!
