5 Ways to Optimize Content Marketing and Increase Social Media Shares
Social media is an important element of the marketing mix nowadays. Any business can achieve success or fail big time because of social media. Moreover, it is no longer a secret that content is the king. Marketing experts are focusing on producing content which is easy to share and attract more followers with each post. However, maximizing social shares and optimizing your content marketing strategy is not something easy. Keep reading this article and discover what techniques to apply to knock down your competition on social media.
5 Ways to Optimize Content Marketing and Increase Social Media Shares
- Don’t let your followers forget that they have to share your content
You may have created the most shareable content in the world. However, you will be surprised to find that in just 30 seconds your followers might be attracted by a different video or post and share it immediately. This is when all your efforts to optimize your content and maximize social media shares are in vain. What should you do? For example, studies have shown that if you add a social sharing button, your mentions will increase 7 times more than if you don’t. You shouldn’t leave your followers to forget that they have to share your content. There are various methods for how you can do it.
You can invite people to comment on your post. This is the simplest method as you don’t need any plugins or tools to encourage your audience to engage with your content. It is enough to just mention at the end of the text that your readers can leave their opinion in a comment, and your social media shares will increase significantly. Furthermore, you can add social media buttons at the end of your content. Thus, you will induce the sharing idea to your fans.
- Use hashtags
Before sharing your content on social media, your followers should first find your posts. Therefore, one of the best methods that you can count on is using hashtags. When it comes to hashtags, everyone is familiar to them. If you are posting content on Twitter, you can use hashtags as keywords and ensure increased visibility for your content. In addition, hashtags can become a great way of communication between users. Let’s say that you are following a particular hashtag. If you want to find other users interested in the same subject, it is enough to just search for the post tagged with the respective hashtag and contact the users that you want to talk with.
- Use high-quality images
Optimizing content marketing means not only to use the right words to attract users but also to choose the suggestive and high-quality photos related to your topic. Images shouldn’t miss from any blog post. Choosing the right photos and keeping high standards in terms of quality can double your engagement rate. Social media platforms have been created for image sharing. If you think of Instagram, you understand how important images are for your social media success. If you wonder why images are important in social media, you should take into consideration that people are visual, and they don’t have too much time nowadays. Instead of reading a written post, they prefer to watch a suggestive image which gives them a clear message and makes them share it.
When they open their Facebook or Instagram profile, people tend to scroll and scan the posts from their wall until they see something that really impresses them. The post which catches their eye should be yours. If you test this strategy, you will see how, on many occasions, the posts containing images are the ones that have the biggest likes, shares, and comments from your followers. Thus, you should redirect your efforts into finding the right images for your content. As long as you use eye-catching and entertaining photos, then you shouldn’t worry too much about your social media success.
- Tag influencers in your social media posts
Influencers are a big deal nowadays. People need to trust your brand before they buy your products. Therefore, mentioning influencers in your social media posts can bring you many benefits. This is an excellent method to show your followers that you are aware of your industry trends. Furthermore, it increases your content’s believability, showing social media users that you are a professional in what you are doing, and you know what you are talking about. It is very easy to mention influencers in your social media posts. Whether you are writing a short guide on a certain subject or you twist the content on your tone and voice, you can mention the name of an influencer in your niche.
- Create your content based on trending topics
Great content requires a lot of intensive research. You need to catch your audience’s attention and using trending topics is the best method that you can try. But, how do you know which is the trending topic for your niche? You can use various tools to identify the content with the biggest shares. Furthermore, you can also identify popular keywords which will make your content more shareable. Moreover, you can also monitor your past posts and identify which topics had the biggest success. This is a great starting point when you want to optimize your content and grab the attention of many more followers. On the other hand, this strategy doesn’t mean that you should repost your past content. Everything you posted in the past should rather be a starting point for new conversations.
Conclusion
Social media helps you add a human touch to your brand. You can use the content as an efficient way of communication. However, even though all your marketing efforts focus on getting more social media shares and increase your engagement rates, you shouldn’t concentrate on just reaching the numbers you want. There are plenty of articles produced by writing companies showing that irrespective of how the numbers look like, you should never compromise on quality. Whether you are focusing on the written content or post plenty of images, you should keep high standards and impress your followers with each post. In addition, you should never forget about your brand’s message and create your content around it.
Author’s bio
Daniela McVicker is a writer and editor. She graduated from Durham University and has an MA in Psychological Science. In addition, Daniela also has experience in digital marketing. Besides doing her work as an editor and writer, Daniela has been applying her knowledge of psychology and marketing in order to contribute some valuable insights to website owners who want to find and apply best practices and innovative approaches to improve the user experience.