Giving Your Content Wings - Part III

If the answer to the questions, “Is my content findable?” and “Is my content accessible?” is yes, then you’re ready to proceed to the final step of giving your content wings: making your content easy to share.

Is my content shareable?

There are over 750 million Facebook users, and an estimated 200 million Twitter users. 65 million tweets are sent out daily, and more than 30 million pieces of content (including links, news stories, and blog posts) are shared each month on Facebook. Here are two steps to making sure that your content is part of the fun.

Make it easy

A user can always share a piece of content by copying its URL and pasting into a Facebook status or tweet — but why them users go the extra mile? The addition of some simple code to your website will allow you to place sharing buttons, like the ones at the top of this article, onto your blog or news content, making it easy for users to instantly share something they like.

Sometimes a little push helps, too. When you sent out a tweet with a link to your content, ask your followers to Retweet the link. Encourage your Facebook fans to “Like” your updates, and offer incentives for doing so (free Koozie, anyone?).

If you put the slides from your big presentation on your blog, make sure there’s a SlideShare and PDF version available for easy download; if you create a lot of videos, enable embedding so that users can share the video by embedding it elsewhere.

Don’t make users have to jump through hoops to share your content.

Make it irresistible

This is perhaps the most difficult step of all, because you must rely on your ingenuity, rather than your SEO skills or ability to add a sharing button to your website.

Creating irresistible content is about knowing your audience. If you know that your prospects are obsessed with the Zombie Apocalypse, why not write about that? Integrating your prospects’ interests into your content will make it irresistible to read and share.

If “make it irresistible” is too nebulous, take inspiration from this list of the most-often shared online content*:

• Lists
• Surprising articles
• Stories that inspire awe
• Content with positive themes, rather than negative ones
• Longer articles rather than shorter (this could be because longer articles are about more engaging topics)

Discovering which types of content work best for your prospects takes time and experimentation. Don’t be afraid to try something new and see how it goes.

Taking flight

That’s it for this “Giving Your Content Wings” series. I hope that the tips I’ve given help you create content that is findable, accessible, and shareable. Now hop to it, and enjoy watching your content soar!

*Research conducted by the University of Pennsylvania. Read the research here.

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• 8 Things Not to Do on Twitter
• How Much is Your Facebook Fan Page Worth?
• Social Media Strategy: LinkedIn

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