Chirp, chirp.
It's that sound again; the sound you've been dreading. Crickets.
Chirp, chirp, chirp.
But what went wrong? This happened the last time you published a blog and you swore you wouldn't let it happen again. You spent hours analyzing heat maps and click through rates, shares, and traffic sources. You exhausted any and all metrics you could get your hands on and worked for days perfecting this latest blog post with your newfound knowledge. You THOUGHT you had learned your lesson. So why is your audience still giving you the cold shoulder? Why aren't they sharing your content?
Not to worry. Pretty much everyone, besides Barack Obama (Klout score 99.0) and Beyonce, (Klout score 93.4) has struggled to gain interweb prowess and authority at one time or another. You've always got to start somewhere. If it makes you feel any better, even the Dalai Lama has room for improvement (Klout score 89.7). Here are a few steps to help you dial up the discussion and spark some conversation.
1. Get Personal
In order to understand how to create share-worthy content, you need to first understand why people share it. And, what better subject to study than yourself! What was the last piece of content you shared? Was it that sneezing baby panda video? Or maybe you were giving a nod to one of our beloved presidential candidates. Who did it belong to? How did it make you feel? And finally, why did you decide to take the leap and share it? Chances are it was probably one of the following reasons:
- You felt emotionally connected to the content.
- You found the content entertaining.
- You wanted to be the first to inform your followers of something.
- The content represented some sort of achievement.
- You wanted to support the content creator.
- By sharing the content, it benefited you in some psychological way.
2. Peek Inside Their Heads
You can see from the reasons above that pretty much any time anyone distributes a piece of content, it is "me" focused. They want to make themselves feel good! This is the golden ticket to sharing, the Holy Grail of influencer insight if you will. When they spread content that's interesting, extraordinary, or remarkable, they themselves feel all of those things.
3. Give the People What They Want
So, ask yourself, what makes your brand remarkable and uniquely your own? How can you craft your content in a way that taps into your consumers' emotions and makes them share your post over others? Here are a few things to keep in mind while you're getting started:
- Always think about the value you are creating for them. Take a break from talking about your brand (I know, it may sound crazy) and write about a question your reader may have or something functional that you can provide to them.
- If you've exhausted answering your audience's questions, try provoking new questions. People like to be challenged and enjoy seeing a topic in a completely different light.
- Encourage discussion. Whether it's actually implementing reader-inspired content or asking for their input in a comment's section, if you create attention-grabbing material and ask people for their honest opion, they'll give it.
- Consider interjecting some humor or lightheartedness into your content. If it is authentic and an extention of who you are, let it out. Everyone prefers to read something with personality and humor.
- Lastly, make it easy for them. Take a serious look at your user experience and make sure that sharing comes naturally on your site.
It isn't easy, we know.
The art of creating shareable content isn't cut and dried. Sometimes, the one piece of content you are most proud of—the one you are convinced will be the most-shared post of all time— turns out to generate little to no (chirp, chirp) engagement. Harnessing the emotions of someone you "know" principally through your identified personas is difficult. It requires practice, patience, and a great amount of brand self-awareness. If you'd like some assistance in exploring how you can increase your content's shareability, please let us know. 