Approximately sixty per cent of B2B organisations state that creating engaging content is one of their biggest challenges.
This highlights the importance of understanding engagement metrics and learning what types of content speaks to your audience.
Social shares is one such metric. They help amplify your content, stand as proof that you’re a credible source of content and have an impact on SEO.
So why aren’t you hitting you social sharing targets? We take a look at three possible reasons why.
1. You haven’t enabled sharing
If you want to boost the amount of social shares shares you receive, you need to make it easier for your followers to share your content.
Adding social share buttons is the easiest way to do so. If your social sharing buttons show the amount of shares a piece of content has received, it gives readers social proof that others have found it helpful.
You can also include ‘click to tweet’ buttons in your content. This will prompt users to share helpful information to their own followers.
2. It’s not good enough to share
The New York Times conducted The Psychology of Sharing report and discovered that 94% of participants “carefully consider how the information they share will be useful to the recipient”. The report also suggests that you should think about appealing to your readers’ motivation to connect with one another, not just with your organisation.
So if your content isn’t relevant for your audience’s audience, it probably won’t be shared.
To make your content valuable, you need to know your audience inside-out – you need to know what makes them tick.
3. It’s situated within a poor experience
The success of your content is highly dependent on the content experience, or where your content lives. The environment not only adds context, but it adds relevance and can provide additional credibility and value.
When it comes to social shares, studies have proven that the environment can have a big impact on an individual’s motivation to act. So aim to ensure that your content hub is visually appealing, well organised, mobile responsive and relevant to your target audience.
Read and comment on the original Social Media Today article.