Social Media Sharing: 7 Tips

Brands today rely heavily on social media shares.

You can use shares to identify the messaging, campaigns, and images that are most engaging for your audience.

The opposite is also true: a lack of shares indicates a weak content strategy.

The problem with getting social media shares these days is that there is so much content on so many platforms that it can be difficult to get followers.

Our editorial team has compiled seven low-hanging strategies you can implement to encourage more sharing of your content if you feel there aren't enough eyes on it.

The first reason you should track social shares is to understand why they are important.

To understand why social shares matter, let's take a brief look at why they are so important.

Among the most important metrics for social marketing are engagement metrics, including shares, likes, and comments. Perhaps that's why 48% of social marketers measure campaigns by shares.

The number of shares on social media is sometimes considered a vanity metric by critics.

It's true that what number of shares a post receives doesn't necessarily indicate its quality. Celebrities' Tweets and brand Tweets go viral for proof of that.

Shares are great, but they are worthless if they don't impact the bottom line.

What's the point of having a post that receives thousands of shares but doesn't result in long-term engagement, no new followers, or no sales?

In this scenario, however, the post may result in some press coverage, lots of traffic, and a flood of new customers.

It is important to tie shares to the social media goals you have in order to make them a meaningful metric.

It's also important to dig deeper than share numbers to understand why followers chose to interact with a particular post. If you're interested in brand awareness or community engagement, shares are a clear indicator.

Share more on social media with these 8 simple tactics

It's time to get down to business!

Let me start by disclaiming something.

There is no secret or guarantee that you will get social shares. Social media algorithms are fickle.

The goal should be to build a foundation of shareable content while following social promotion best practices. Any combination of the tactics below can be beneficial.

1. Make videos, images, and breaking news the most shareable content types

Among social media's most successful and shared content is visual content.

Marketers insist that images (61%) and short-form videos (66%) are the most useful content formats for achieving social goals, according to the Sprout Social IndexTM: Social Media Trends for 2022 & Beyond.

TikTok and Instagram are two of the most popular bite-sized video platforms.

A video's viral status is based on its share-worthiness. Whether it's a short tutorial or a gimmick that promotes your business, videos are a great way to keep your audience engaged.

A visual representation of data or infographics is also a very efficient way for people to share information on social media, since it is easy to digest at a glance and doesn't involve a lot of reading.

You can still find news on social media and learn new things. When in doubt, publish breaking news and share new information.

2. Caption your posts in a way that makes them more visible

Keeping your captions in check is essential if you want to get more social shares and maintain good standing with social algorithms.

If you drop links and expect engagement, you will only end up limiting the reach of your posts. Simply adding links to videos and blog posts will not give people a reason to click, let alone share, your content.

To make your social captions more shareable, consider the following tips:

Use hashtags on networks such as Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn (hint: hashtags are associated with a higher reach than posts without them).
Copy should contain call-to-action (e.g., "retweet" or "share this”)
If you're posting on LinkedIn, Pinterest, or Twitter, be sure to use relevant, searchable terms in your copy (especially if there are character limits).

Using hashtags in your Instagram posts gets more views and regrams instantly.

Similarly, content that has tags and descriptions is more likely to be seen on social networks such as Pinterest.

Take advantage of the space you have on each social network by familiarizing yourself with character limits. However, you don't need to stuff your captions with keywords.

3. Ensure that every post can be viewed on a mobile device

Mobile devices account for most of the social traffic on social networks.

The majority of mobile optimization is handled by social platforms. There are a few other steps you can take to make sure your mobile audience is not neglected.

It can be tricky sometimes for Twitter to display legible, zoomable graphics (Twitter can be tricky about this).
You should avoid using hashtags or walls of text in your social captions by adding line breaks and punctuation
You can make your social videos accessible to everyone by adding captions, even if their phones are on silent

4. Post at the perfect time

If you want to reach your target audience, make sure you post your content during peak engagement times.

The best social media posting times are broken down according to network and industry in an in-depth guide we've created.

In order to achieve maximum exposure on social media, it's important to publish content at times when your followers are most active.

5. Utilize topics and formats that are trending

Trends in social media move quickly as well.

You can score shares by capitalizing on trends, hashtags, and memes that are already trending.

It might seem like trend jacking doesn't require much effort, but it’s definitely an effective way to create brand awareness as well as communicate your brand's personality. Just remember to read the room and use humor and trend-based content as necessary.

6. Questions and polls that encourage a response should be published

It comes down to driving conversations if you want social media shares.

It's for this reason that question-based posts are so popular. They're ideal for generating shares because they serve as a type of call-and-response.

Through frequent questions, you can build a stronger sense of community with your audience, win more shares, and build a stronger sense of community with your audience.

7. Ensure all marketing channels are integrated with social sharing

There's nothing complicated about sharing.

This should be the case.

To make it as simple for someone to share your content as possible, you should remove as many steps as possible.

You should be able to share content with just a click or tap, so that people do not have to copy-and-paste or manually type it.

Finally, ensure that your content is easy to share and that your brand is accessible on social media.

In other words, make your blog posts social sharing friendly...

Your readers can share your tweets by embedding them in your content.

For your eager subscribers to become dedicated followers, you should also include social share buttons in your email footer.

If you're particularly proud of a piece of content, don't be afraid to just ask for shares. The "like, share and subscribe" cliche on YouTube isn't just a cliche.

Our guide comes to an end here!

Is your social media share count satisfactory?

The goal of most marketers is to get more social shares.

A website can be helped by sticking to the tips above, as well as experimenting with different types of content and analyzing what works (and what doesn't).

Your target audience will share your content consistently over time when you develop a content strategy.

Got questions? Visit us @ www.sirkle.com and we’re happy to help.