Social media is always changing course. But, throughout all these fast moving landscape shifts, one thing has never changed: the value of the social share.
A social share is nowadays word-of-mouth and its value is immeasurable. When somebody shares on social media it transforms the message. It’s not just something a brand tells a prospect, now it’s a recommendation from one friend to another.
This singular, rocket-powered factor makes social sharing an extremely sought-after commodity and something that can completely transform the fortunes of social media marketing.
Social sharing = Digitally winning
Now that you understand it’s ever-increasing importance, it’s time to figure out how we can boost your social shares and friend recommendations.
The first step in this process is understanding why people share. After that, you are armed with the information you need before creating social posts that tap into these reasons.
To bring value or entertainment to others
The top reason people share on social media is to provide their connections with valuable or entertaining content that they might otherwise miss.
Whilst this is very predictable, it’s not something that many marketers actually make a concerted effort to hit.
Think about those two factors and look back at your content marketing efforts, do they provide your audience with value? Are they entertaining in any way?
If your content won’t help to improve a specific audience’s life (valuable content) or brighten their day (entertaining content), you aren’t going to gain any social shares!
To define themselves
Do you have any friends on social networks who constantly share posts about a specific topic? These people are most likely not doing it for anybody else but themselves, but by doing it, they are hammering home the importance of their passions. Basically, they share content to define themselves to the rest of the world!
People who share for themselves are the people who will spread your messages widest and hardest. They become brand ambassadors and their efforts to align themselves with a specific niche will reap heavy returns.
In order to tap into this market of social sharers, you’ll need to create a brand that represents a particular corner of your market. You cannot waver or attempt broad targeting methods, it requires really going after the die-hard lovers of your niche.
To grow and nourish relationships
People also share content that brings people to together, creates emotion and makes people reminisce about relationships they already share. How can you incorporate this into your social media marketing campaigns?
A really simple way to do this is posting day relevant content, for example, creating a post toasting Mother’s on Mother’s Day. This might sound like nothing new, but if you’re able to include your branding you’ll hit those social shares, boost your brand awareness and create an impression of a caring brand.
Share causes
Causes can grow quickly on social, especially those that hit emotional triggers in your audience. Think about causes that you regularly see shared on your newsfeeds, what are they raising awareness about?
Most of these causes will be shared in an attempt to help others and the world around us. Brands that are able to align themselves with a cause like this will often see heavy sharing, but those businesses that align themselves with a cause that is close to their industry, can experience viral-like sharing within their target market.
It goes without saying that every piece of content you create should have your target audience in mind, but the question you should be asking yourself is, how can you angle it to create more shares?