Recently, I told you why social shares—the number of times your content has been shared on social media—aren’t just a vanity metric. And I explained how getting more social shares on your blog posts helps you grow your business online.
However, you know as well as I do that even if you write a blog post that’s an absolute masterpiece, you don’t always feel the love for it on social media. After all, there are thousands of blog posts that get published every single day. So it’s no wonder that most of them get only a couple of likes on Facebook and one retweet on Twitter.
But there’s something else you and I both know: if you’re reading this post, you’re not most people. You’re determined and motivated to make your business succeed. And you already have an edge over your competition because you’re putting in the work to get the results you deserve.
So what can you do to outperform your competitors by boosting your social shares and, ultimately, growing your business online? Keep reading below because I’m about to break it all down.
Want a blog that gives you traffic, email subscribers, clients, or customers? Learn how to craft blog posts that convert.
Download my free blog post template + example.
1. Select shareable blog post topics
You may be a superstar at writing blog posts. But if the topic you choose for a post isn’t something your audience is at all interested in, you won’t get many social shares.
Of course, it isn’t always easy to know which specific topics your audience will be interested in reading about. But there’s a way to get a better idea so that selecting blog post topics doesn’t always feel like a torturous guessing game: use BuzzSumo.
With BuzzSumo, you can search for content related to a particular topic and see what received the most social shares. For example, if you search for content related to “email marketing best practices,” you can see the content related to this topic that received the greatest number of shares on different social media platforms. You can use the headlines and the actual content to make an educated guess about the topics related to email marketing best practices that your audience would be most interested in.
You can also use this information to apply the skyscraper technique and write better content than what’s already out there.
Related: How to generate blog post topics your audience will love + 72 blog title templates
2. Invoke curiosity with your headlines
You’ve probably heard that only a fraction of people who read the headline of your blog post will read the rest of it. And so you already know that if you want to get results from your blog posts—like gaining more email subscribers, leads, and sales—you need to write magnetic headlines for your blog posts.
There are lots of strategies for writing magnetic headlines. You can use numbers, turn your headline into a question, and use power words.
But there’s one particular strategy that I want to focus on in this blog post: invoking curiosity.
You see, people like having information and answers. Just look at how mind-blowingly successful Google is.
You can take advantage of this natural curiosity by writing headlines that tease information but don’t provide all the answers.
For example, take a look at these headlines:
Headline A: “Another product that’s bad for your health”
Headline B: “Nylon tea bags shed billions of microplastic particles into every cup of tea”
Headline C: “You’ll never guess what your tea bag is shedding into your tea.”
Which blog post headline would you be most likely to click on? You’d pick Headline C, right?
Why? Because Headline C invokes curiosity. It isn’t so vague that it doesn’t seem worth reading (like Headline A). And it isn’t so detailed that it already tells you everything you need to know (like Headline B). It gives you just the right amount of information so that you feel compelled to read the full post.
Although this technique won’t work for every blog post you write, it’s a great technique to experiment with if you want more people to check out your post—which is the first step to getting more people to share it.
Related: 9 blog title generator tools to help you craft the perfect headline + 72 title templates
3. Make them long
It’s tempting to write a 500-word blog post and call it a day. But the reality is that people are much more likely to share long-form content. In fact, a study by BuzzSumo and Backlinko showed that long-form content gets 56% more social shares than content that’s less than 1000 words. It also gets more backlinks.
Of course, you don’t want to write long posts just for the sake of packing in more words. Instead, focus on doing a deep dive on a topic so that your post provides a ton of value. Aim for over 1000 words and closer to 2000 or 3000 words if you can.
4. Include infographics or charts
People love visuals, especially when those visuals are packed with information. That’s why blog posts with infographics or charts tend to do especially well online.
Infographics and charts make information easy to digest. And when information is easy to digest, people are more likely to enjoy it and, therefore, share it.
You might not have time to create an infographic for every blog post you write. But you can take this strategy for a spin every now and then and analyze the results you get.
Example: Here’s an example of an infographic created by CoSchedule.
5. Ask for shares at the end
You never want to assume that people who read your content or copy will automatically know what to do next. That’s why it’s important to suggest a specific action that you want them to take. In other words, you always want to include a call to action (CTA) in your blog posts.
There are lots of different types of CTAs you can include in your blog posts. And the best ones for your posts will depend on your blogging and content marketing goals.
But if you want to increase your social shares, you can craft CTAs that explicitly ask people to share your post on social media. This strategy works because people are more likely to do something if you explicitly prompt them to do it.
Related: 9 effective places to put a CTA on your blog + 80 free CTA templates
6. Add social sharing buttons
A great way to boost your social shares is to make it super simple for people to share your blog posts on social media. The most common way to do this is to add social sharing buttons to your blog.
Social sharing buttons are buttons that appear on every blog post you publish. They let people share a blog post just by clicking on the button that matches the social platform they want to share the post on.
In addition to making sharing easy, many of these buttons can also display the total number of shares a post has received. As a result, they provide social proof by helping people see that others before them have shared the post too. And what does this do? It makes them more likely to share it.
There are many tools you can use to add social sharing buttons to your blog. I use the Social Warfare plugin on mine.
When adding social sharing buttons, choose ones that “float” so that they’ll be visible no matter how far down someone scrolls. And make sure your buttons look and work right on mobile devices.
7. Add Click-to-Tweet boxes
Like social sharing buttons, a Click-to-Tweet box makes it easier for people to share your blog post on social media. However, instead of just including a button to click on, a Click-to-Tweet box gives your audience a pre-written tweet to use. It doesn’t get much easier than that.
And because you can embed them throughout your post, they serve as subtle reminders to share it.
Want a blog that gives you traffic, email subscribers, clients, or customers? Learn how to craft blog posts that convert.
Download my free blog post template + example.
8. Customize your social titles and descriptions
When you share a post on Facebook, for example, you can write the copy for your post. But when you add your blog post’s URL, Facebook will also display a title and brief description that it pulls from some part of your post.
The information that Facebook pulls by default may not be the most optimal information to include. The good news is that you can control what Facebook displays by customizing this meta information in your blog post. If you use WordPress, Yoast’s SEO plugin makes it super easy to do this.
Now, I know what you’re thinking? Does customizing this info really make that much of a difference? Well, when Quick Sprout did it, they saw a 174% increase in Facebook traffic.
9. Share your posts on social media
This may seem obvious. But one of the best ways to get more social shares is to make sure you always get the ball rolling by sharing your posts on social media yourself. This way, all people have to do is reshare the post that you’ve already crafted to promote your blog post.
Related: The 5 best social media platforms for promoting your blog + free cheat sheet
10. Ask people to reshare your social media posts
Just like you can ask for a social share right in your blog post, you can also ask for a reshare of your post’s social media post. This encourages people who see the social media post to share the post with people in their network. In fact, just asking for a share can increase engagement by 40%!
Related: How to write social media CTAs that boost traffic, leads, and sales + 80 CTA templates
11. Use images in your social media posts
When you promote your blog post on social media, be sure that your post contains an image. After all, posts with images tend to get higher engagement. This is true on Facebook and on Twitter.
12. @mention influencers you’ve featured
Do you feature an influencer or refer to them extensively in your blog post? @mention them in the social media post you share to promote your blog post. There’s no guarantee that they’ll pay attention to it. But because you’re promoting them too, they might be motivated to share the post with their audience as well.
13. Use hashtags in your social media posts
When more people see the social media post about your blog post, there will be more people who can potentially share it. And what’s a great way to get more eyes on that social media post? Include hashtags.
Hashtags make it easier for people to find content that’s related to a topic. And it’s a great way to make people stumble across your content even if they don’t follow you on a platform. It’s not surprising, then, that on at least some social platforms, hashtags double the amount of engagement posts receive.
Not sure which social platforms to use hashtags on and how many to use? Check out my blog post on what to include in your social media posts for 5 platforms.
Want a blog that gives you traffic, email subscribers, clients, or customers? Learn how to craft blog posts that convert.
Download my free blog post template + example.
14. Use emojis
If you use them on the right platforms and in the right way, emojis can also increase your social shares. How? By attracting your audience’s attention and engaging them. In fact, Facebook posts with emojis get 33% more comments and shares.
Discover the best number of emojis to use on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
15. Share your blog posts on social media multiple times
Each time you share a blog post on social media, only a fraction of your followers will see it. What’s an easy way to give your blog posts more social exposure? Share them more than once on each platform. Every few months, promote the same blog post so that more of your followers get a chance to see and share it.
16. Post to social media at the right times
You’ll get more social shares for your blog post if you promote it on social media when your audience is online. You can find lots of stats that claim to identify the best times to share content on different social platforms. However, every niche and business is different. So the best way to identify the optimal posting times for your business is to test different times out yourself.
17. Encourage your team members to share
If you have employees, get them involved in promoting your content. They don’t have to do it every single time. But at least once in a while, encourage them to share your team’s blog posts using their own social media accounts. This will also give your posts some initial traction so that social media algorithms show them to more people.
18. Share your blog posts on Reddit
Reddit usually gets excluded from the list of common social media platforms. But because it has 330 million monthly active users, it’s a great place to promote your blog posts. And getting traction on Reddit can help you succeed on the more traditional social platforms too.
Just be sure to share high-quality content and avoid spamming users. You don’t want to be seen as that person who’s clearly only in it for themselves.
19. Send your blog posts to your email list
Social media may be the most obvious place to promote your blog post. But you can and should also send it to your email list. After all, your subscribers are people who have actively signed up to hear from you on a regular basis. So don’t be shy. Tell them about your latest blog post and ask them to share it with anyone they know who would find it helpful
Related: 8 tips for creating effective email campaigns + free list of 19 email campaign ideas
Start boosting your social shares today
Because social shares boost your brand’s exposure, credibility, and web traffic, they can play a key role in growing your business online. Boosting your social shares isn’t as easy as simply writing and publishing a great blog post. But by using the tips I’ve outlined in this post, you can optimize the way you craft and promote your posts so that more people feel compelled to share them online.
Want a blog that gives you traffic, email subscribers, clients, or customers? Learn how to craft blog posts that convert.
Download my free blog post template + example.