Guest Blog

8 Ways to Make Your Blog Articles More Shareable

More than 3.6 billion people use social media worldwide, and over half of them use online platforms to research products. Yet, just 26% ever use the share button to engage with brands and spread their content. If companies could boost that rate by a few percentage points, they could raise brand awareness, increase website traffic, attract customers and drive more sales.  Here are a few ways you can make blog articles more shareable so you can do all that and more. 

Devin Partida

Guest writer

1. Optimize Your Posting Schedule

One of the best ways to make your blog articles more shareable is to post them on your social media pages. Link your accounts back to your blog if you haven’t done so already. Then, optimize your posting schedule so your articles get more exposure and engagement. Because newsfeed algorithms use recency to rank posts, sharing content when your followers are online is essential to improving organic reach. 

Typically, the best time to share on social media is at 10 a.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. However, the ideal time varies depending on which platform you’re using. As your accounts grow, tweak your posting schedule to match your audience’s behavior patterns. 

2. Create Audience Personas

If you only ever post company news and data-heavy articles, your audience engagement will likely suffer. In other words, you probably won’t get too many shares. While more technical content is acceptable occasionally, it’s better to share more relevant topics that your followers will click on, read and share. 

Create audience personas based on demographics, challenges and how your company relates to consumers. Then, write as if you’re addressing that person directly. House painting company Paintzen does a good job of this on its blog. Article topics are relevant to the audience and range from apartment painting tips to choosing the best painter’s tape. These subjects are typically relatable to at least a few different personas. 

3. Write Better Headlines

Hot takes, bold claims and controversial topics are all fair game when you’re trying to make blog articles more shareable. These posts lend themselves well to catchy headlines and clickworthy titles that tend to generate higher engagement levels. Of course, you should still avoid sensationalized headlines and refrain from using clickbait. Otherwise, readers might begin to see your content as untrustworthy. 

Craft strong, relevant headlines by asking questions and pointing out benefits. Use colons, facts, numbers and power words like “brilliant” and “cringeworthy” to grab followers’ attention. These important elements pique the reader’s curiosity and can evoke an emotional response that’ll make them click the share button. 

4. Structure for Scannability

People rarely read entire articles these days, and most choose to scan or skim them instead. This fundamental truth has remained unchanged for more than two decades, which means you should already be structuring your posts for scannability. 

Create a clear outline and stick to it. Keep paragraphs short and sentences concise. Use lists, bullet points, numbers and pull quotes to break up the text into smaller, more skimmable sections. You can also utilize color blocking to attract readers’ attention and highlight important points, just like Method did in its blog’s “About Us” section. 

5. Start a Group

Starting a group is a surefire way to strengthen your online presence and expand your reach beyond your social media page. Create a community on LinkedIn or Facebook and invite everyone who likes your page to join. Then, share blog articles that cater to members’ interests. 

Since Facebook prioritizes posts by friends, family and groups, users will be more likely to see and share these posts. Just remember to keep the group public so members can share articles with their network of followers, too.

6. Integrate Social Media Icons

Does your blog have social media icons? Are they visible to visitors? Integrating them into your webpage makes sharing and saving easier than ever. Rather than copy and paste a hyperlink into a post, all guests have to do is click a button to instantly share the article across various platforms. 

Where you place these social media icons depends on your page layout. For example, Mashable puts them at the top of each article just below the byline. Meanwhile, Tech Crunch’s icons are located in a collapsible tab at the bottom. Other companies utilize the sidebar for vertical icon placement. 

7. Include Visuals

Nearly 60% of marketers agree that video drives more engagement on social media platforms like Facebook. Photos and graphics also increase a post’s shareability. That’s because they’re easier to scan than text and more appealing to the human eye. 

Create videos that hook viewers within the first few seconds and search for images that fit your topic. Resize photos to 1,200 by 630 pixels when posting to Facebook and 1,000 by 1,500 pixels when uploading blogs to Pinterest. This way, when someone hits the share button, their followers will see clear, undistorted images and video.

8. Use Hashtags

Strategically used hashtags can make your blog articles more shareable and easier to find. Get your content in front of a larger audience, target a specific group of people and use trending topics to your advantage. Research the hottest hashtags and use them to create relevant content or add them to existing articles to boost engagement. 

As a rule of thumb, use precise hashtags and draw inspiration from what your competitors are doing. Branded hashtags are also useful for monitoring your campaign’s performance. Just remember that overusing them can incite shadow bans from Instagram and other prominent platforms, so stick with relevant tags and only use a handful per post. 

Sharing Can Boost Your Bottom Line

Regardless of how shareable your blog articles are, some posts will inevitably perform better than others. Often, it’s the content you least expect that goes viral. However, as long as you implement the tips above, you’ll have a recipe for success that drives engagement and boosts your bottom line.

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