Semalt Expert: Secrets Of Creating Shareable Content

Content marketing is an effective way to get content in front of an audience. Even though sharing content is one of the top digital trends, most people seem unaware of what it entails. The key is to develop content that has enough value to share.

Andrew Dyhan, the Semalt Customer Success Manager presents the following ten tips to help any individual acquire shareable content.

1. Genuinely Great Content

The only way people share content is if they can find value in it. Great content in this context refers to combining relevancy and quality. Content should be highly relevant to the target audience, and with the highest level of quality.

2. Bite Sized Works Best

Work that is either too technical or in-depth loses readers or viewers thus reducing the share rates. Content can be long, but readers also need to find it digestible. At the top of this, it should have a clear heading and concise summary. Speaking about long texts, they have to be broken into readable sections.

3. Dive in Deep

Content marketers should not hesitate to conduct deeper research on the content they write. It matters a lot especially if one is trying to educate another concerning a given topic, which also brings relevance into question. If the person is to share the information, it must respond to the specific question, in detail, remembering to break it into smaller readable chunks.

4. Involve Visuals

Statistics from HubSpot indicate that visual content receives more engagement on social media. It does not mean that one needs to get an illustrator or build an info-graph for everything in the content. Instead, the content should be visually appealing by simply adding a header photo or thumbnail relevant to the material.

5. Add a Dash of Surprise

Content marketers should find value in shocking, but enlightening content. If the content one wishes to put forward shocks users in the right way, there is a high likelihood that it will receive shares.

6. Info-graphics Have Great Value

Info-graphics are neither easy nor cheap to create. Nevertheless, if one can find some use in their content, then they would serve as a major part of the strategy used to share content. They are visual, it is easy to understand, and sometimes present the "wow" aspect of content. Info-graphics summarize what the content marketer speaks about, and if they make it interesting enough, users will find it easy to share.

7. Get Analytical

Content marketers should make sure that they track every single thing, and the number of shares their content receives. One way to create new content is to base the results of a previous strategy. Building on a successful strategy in the past ensures success in new content. Getting analytical makes it possible to see what works for business.

8. Include Humor

Sometimes humor is hard to pull off in content. Unless one has a great sense of humor and understands the audience and knows what appeals to them, a marketer needs to avoid humor or keep it at a minimum. Creating funny things for the sake may fall flat, and lead to the loss of an audience.

9. Genuine Content

If one wishes to create quality content to appeal to a reader base, they must do so in totality. People can sniff out sales pitches from content. It creates the perception that one has an ulterior agenda that may result in a landfill. People reward honesty and would love to share genuine content. They also do not set aside the content from companies, as long as they are forward and honest.

10. Call to Action

Content marketers need to make their content easy to share, especially if it resides on their websites. They can add social buttons, highlight the ability to share, or ask people to share if they liked it. It is a simple action that could do wonders for content.

Bonus: Interact with the Audience

Releasing content into the market requires the writer to get involved. It has the effect of expanding the lifecycle of the content. In the process, content marketers develop meaningful relationships with their audience. With such proximity, it is easy to pick out any gaps they can fill.

Conclusion

The ten points act as a checklist. One does not need to have their content attain all of the tips at once. Though, if content achieves some of the points on the list, it has a higher likelihood of having readers share it.