How to Write Sharable Content

Content makes the web go round. If you want more traffic, if you want more loyal visitors and if you want better search rankings, then you need content.

But this is even truer on social media. Sharing your own content is perhaps the best social media strategy and if other people share it with their networks too? Even better. This can result in potentially exponential gains that massively accelerate your growth. But how do you write content in such a way that people will want to share it?

Tip 1: Make it Specific

The single most powerful tip I can possibly share on this topic is to aim your content at someone specific. That means that it should be tailored for your ‘persona’ – the demographic that you think will want to read your content.

This works because it leverages the communicative nature of social media. Generally, we share content with someone to show that we are thinking of them or we share it generally because it in some way reflects our personality.

For either of these things to work, you first need to write your content in such a way that it will specifically appeal to that certain type of person.

Tip 2: Facilitate Discussion

Another tip is to facilitate discussion, or to make your post something that can be used as part of discussion. Making your post something that asks a challenging question and takes a potentially controversial stance is one way to do that. A safer way is to make a post that can explain a topic or back up an argument, thereby making it something that people can share with their friends or people in online communities when they’re having discussions.

Tip 3: Choose the Right Images

The right images go a long way to making your content more sharable and engaging. Did you know that a lot of the time, people click ‘like’ or ‘share’ before they’ve even read the content? In that case, they’re going off of the title and the image alone. So make sure your image says something and really jumps out.

Tip 4: Choose the Right Title

And so with that in mind, you of course also need the right title. What is a good title for social media?

Clickbait titles work very well but are frowned upon for being spammy. So learn from them, don’t copy them. Make your titles emotionally resonant, unique and interesting while having some meat to deliver on when people click!