Have you ever wondered what makes people SHARE or LIKE on social media?
What is the psychology behind why people choose to share on social media?
For any company or business using social media, peoples’ sharing and liking on social media is kind of “free” marketing and branding.
If you use social media in a smart way, you’ll also get more customers and make more sales!
So what should you do to have your content go viral, and get as many likes and shares on social media as possible?
Some reasons why people share content is that:
- They want to look helpful
- They want to look smart or cool
- They want to support something (a cause, an idea, a message, a product, a person etc)
- They want to show others what they like and care about, what they find important and also connect with people with similar ideas and interests
- They want to make other people aware of something
- They like to share what’s fun, entertaining or inspirational
However, it’s also important to remember that people also guard and want to maintain their reputation.
Therefore, they don’t share just “anything” and usually only content that they trust.
Here Are 7 FREE Ways To Get More Social Media Shares of Your Content:
1) Have the right social sharing buttons installed on your blog and website
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Linkedin and Instagram are some of the most popular social media networks.
But it’s important to keep in mind that audiences of different niches are different.
To find out which social sharing buttons you should include on your website or blog, check out some of the influencers and top sites in your niche and see what platforms they are using and which social media networks get most shares and engagement.
Tip: If you don’t know exactly who your audience and best customer online is, get this => Find Your Best Customers Online
2) Have a Good and Catchy Title
A title should be simple and benefit driven. Try to evoke curiosity or amazement.
Here are 2 examples of curiosity driven titles:
“Before I discovered the Italian Secret to stay slim, I never could shed any weight off my hips”
“My emails never got read until I implemented this little change”
These titles evoke curiosity.
They make you want to read the content to see what did this person actually did, right?!
Here is an example of an amazement driven title:
“How I generated 5,811 leads and enrolled 168 new customers in less than 12 months”
This headline states desired results e.g. online marketers, affiliate marketers and network marketers want badly. Therefore, this headline would get their attention for sure!
Think about your target market, their pains and desires, and create headlines and social media posts using them.
Also check and model titles you see on Magazines.
If you want more ideas for titles and headlines, click here => FREE Headline Templates
3) Use Attention Grabbing Images
Images are super important on social media.
Make your content visually delicious!
Add images, infographics, or quote-image overlays that are highly pinnable and fun to share.
Blogs that include a nice image are waaaaay more likely to be shared on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.
You can include images in tweets, too!
Think about what emotion an image triggers, and if it’s something you would want on YOUR Facebook feed.
Images that are popular on social media in general are:
- Food
- Pretty ladies
- Tropical locations
- Quotes
A great free tool to put text on your images is: www.canva.com
4) Make Your Content Credible and Share STORIES
To make your content more credible, you can back it up with facts, stats or other proof (screenshots, photos).
You can also re-tell a story, your own or someone else’s.
Moreover, people love result driven content. They want to know HOW they can do it too.
Read your content and ask yourself: Will this content boost the sharer’s reputation?
5) ASK for the Share
Always ask for the share, but don’t beg for it!
Have share buttons on your blog and call out to your readers to share, tell them to click on the buttons.
On your blog you can say something like:
“Hey, if you liked this post and think anyone else could find value from it like you did, click on one of the Share buttons to the left and Like or Share this post”.
On a Facebook post you can say something like:
“If you liked this post make sure to share it and tag one of your friends in the comment section here below.”
6) Incenticise Your Readers to Share
To get more shares, you should also now and then incentizise your readers to share your content.
Make them feel like being part of a community.
You can do this by asking THEM about their best strategies, experience, opinions or thoughts about what you write about.
People love to share insights, they want recognition.
You can say:
“If you’re reading this right now and you have experience of “BLANK”, make sure to join the conversation below and share your tips and secrets.”
Always take time to respond back to comments.
7) Post When People Will See It
Most social media channels have analytics you can check out to learn more about your audience and when it’s most engaged – and what posts they like and share most etc.
There are also tools you can use, like e.g. www.FanpageKarma.com
Link your Facebook account with them, and you can see what times during the day you get the most Facebook engagement.
Schedule your posts around the times your audience is most engaged.
Tip! You can also “Boost” your content or social media post to get more eyeballs and social media shares
Several of the social media platforms have the option to “boost” your post.
Facebook, Twitter and also Pinterest have this option.
You have to pay for this, but you can spend as little as $5 a day, and you’ll reach a lot more people and you’ll get much more engagement and shares than you would otherwise.
For more social media strategies and how to get lots of targeted traffic to your posts and blog… here are some great tips about Social Media Marketing:
=> 8 Ways To Get Leads and Sales From Social Media
And here is a FREE eBook on how to create videos for Social Media that catch AND keep the attention of your audience:
I hope you enjoyed this post and found it useful. If you did, I’d appreciate it if you click on one of the social media buttons on this post to Like or Share it!
PS: Are we connected on Social Media?
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I share useful marketing tips, strategies and free trainings. Click here and let’s connect! =>> https://www.facebook.com/ckmarketingonline/
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=> Find and get to know your best customers online
=> Lead Magnet Creation Guide + Worksheet
=> Aweber – a reliable autoresponder system for your email follow-ups