Its official. Social media is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to build your brand and get your business name out there.
Long gone are the days when you had to blow huge budgets on advertisements in the newspapers, Yellow Page and leaflet campaigns. Nowadays, a simple article or video posted to your page can be the ultimate breakthrough for a small business’s social media presence.
The key to this is online success are the amount of shares a post will get. Some companies with a large following are able to get hundreds and thousands of shares and comments, while others aren’t always so lucky.
If you’re in the latter category, by the end of this article you won’t be as you will be equipped with an action plan to help you increase the amount of shares your posts get.
Let’s get started!
Who Do You Want to Reach?
It is important to determine who you want to share your content. Influencers are people who are experienced, knowledgeable or well known in your industry. They often have high follower counts, and almost always get plenty of shares on the content they post.
Influencers are the key to your sharing success and these are the people that you want to reach. If you can get them to share your post, chances are it’s going to reach a lot of people that are interested in your product or service.
So how do you get them to share your content?
To get noticed, it’s important to do your research. Look through their social media pages for ideas and inspiration.
For example:
- What kind of things have they shared before?
- What are their interests?
- What kind of posts do they share on a regular basis?
Once you have this information, you can start working on a post that caters to their interests and is relevant to your business.
What Are You Going to Post?
A good way to generate interest and shares of your content is to focus on what people are currently concerned with.
Trending topics are your friend- pay attention to them. You can use Twitter and Facebook to get a real-time report of what people are talking about. Wondering where to start?
#heresaclue!
If you have a topic in mind, searching it using a hashtag is a really good way to get an idea of how people are currently engaging with it.
Facebook is particularly good for this because it shows you exactly how many people are talking about a particular issue. It’s a great indicator of how many people could potentially be interested in what you are posting about.
Carefully research until you find a topic that is interesting and entertaining for your followers, while still related to your business.
Don’t forget to include hashtags in your own posts. They will help you get shares by making it easy for people to come across your content.
Where Are You Going to Post Your Content?
The simple answer is: wherever your influencers are. You want to make sure your post is seen by all the right people to increase your chances of getting shares.
When you do your research, you will know exactly what social media channels your influencers are using, so be sure to promote your content in all the same places. Facebook and Twitter are brilliant, but don’t forget the other little gems: LinkedIn, Snapchat, Pinterest, and Instagram… the list is endless.
Don’t be afraid to share the same post on different social media channels. Promoting your content across different platforms is a great way to make sure your work gets seen by as many people as possible.
Will Your Content Be Liked?
There’s only one way to find out: test it! Publish a few varied posts and see how your existing audience engages and reacts to it. You will see for yourself how popular it is by how many times each post gets liked, commented on and most importantly, shared. Which post was most popular amongst your followers? The posts that come out on top are the ones you’re going to take to promote.
Testing your posts will allow you to gauge what your followers find interesting and what kind of content they want to see.
Take Action!
Once you’ve identified and tested your best content, you can really put the plan into action and start to boost your shares.
Paying to promote your posts can be a wise investment for your business. It allows you to reach people who are interested in your business who may not have seen your posts otherwise.
Every business has a Twitter account these days, so it really does pay off to do all you can to make sure your posts get seen and shared. Sometimes one or two great posts is all it takes to gain a follower, and if that follower is an influencer that’s great news for your business.
This is why it’s really important to identify your best posts. You will and only pay to promote these to get maximum engagement. If you pay to promote every little bit of content you post it’ll be an overload, and will leave potential followers with no reason to visit your page. It simply wouldn’t be a good investment for your business. The rule is not to go overboard: remember that the aim is to attract new followers with quality content.
Many social media platforms make paying to promote your posts an easy process. Twitter, for example, allows you to create Follower Campaigns, which enable you to target promoted tweets at your influencers and other people interested in your business.
It doesn’t have to be expensive either. The payment process is auction style, so you decide how much you’re willing to pay for a follower, and you only actually pay when somebody follows you.
Review Your Action Plan
Every action plan needs a review, and once your share numbers start to increase it would be a great idea to analyze what has worked for you and why.
By doing this, you can make each post better than the last, seeing an increase in shares each time. Running out of ideas for things to post?
You Don’t Have to do it Alone
We understand that as a busy business owner you might not have the time to put all of these tips into action in order to run a successful social media campaign. The good news is that you don’t have to do it all yourself.
We are experienced social media and online marketing experts and are here to help businesses just like yours. Why not contact us today to find out how we can help your business.
