The more your content gets shared around, the more traffic you draw and the more conversions you are likely to make. It really is as simple as that. Every business owner knows that. Right? Apparently not, because small businesses, for the most part, are not producing content that gets shared across the social media platforms.
Recent marketing research done by Buzzsumo found that more than half of the one million articles they looked at got less than eight shares or, mostly, less and that all of the people involved that they spoke with, almost 80% of them never share content. Why not? Simple; it’s not interesting, doesn’t solve a problem or simply isn’t engaging enough to spur someone to action. That can be remedied, however, with a few simple to remember hacks.
- The reason everyone flocked to P.T. Barnum’s ridiculous and strange museum in New York City was simply that he promoted the heck out of it. No one had anything on ol’ P.T. when it came to brand awareness and name recognition. You need to constantly be promoting, always be selling, relentlessly driving traffic. And, when they get there, make sure your content is worthy of their visit. Also, don’t post anything without images. At Facebook, for example, posts with pictures are reacted to and engaged with 2.3 times more often than posts with no images. What’s even better, is to turn most of that content post into the form of images. Run photo stories or the ever popular infographic. You will get more engagement which means more name recognition which means more traffic.
- Do you know how many small business sites never use social media share buttons? You would be shocked to learn that most don’t. It’s the easiest thing you can do to generate viral content so make sure those buttons are everywhere. An old reporter’s trick from the old school was to always mention people by name in any story and always make sure you spell their name correctly. Populating your content with people is a sure fire way to get that content shared. Also, take the time to write engaging and stimulating headlines. If you don’t know how, learn. If you don’t have time, bring on the professionals who know how to do it.
-Written by Kevin Sawyer