Why no one is sharing your content [and 3 strategies to fix it]

Spread the love

Why No One is Sharing Your Content [and 3 Strategies to Fix It]

Are you embarrassed by the social sharing counts on your blog posts? Do you hit publish… only to hear crickets?

If you’re not getting many – or any – shares for your content, there is one bright spot: You’re not alone. I’ve seen hundreds of good, even great blog posts with single digit share counts. On any given day, thousands of unshared updates stream through my social media accounts.

As you know, there’s a tremendous amount of content getting published. If you’re not getting any sharing love, consider what you’re up against. This infographic from Domo  outlines the situation well. It shows how much content is published every minute. And it doesn’t even count the 2 million blog posts published every day.

DataNeverSleeps

So is the situation hopeless? Is content marketing a sham… or meant only for million dollar budgets?

No.

While the volume of content being created and shared is definitely at tsunami level, there is good news. You don’t have to compete with all those publishers. You only have to compete with the publishers in your niche or industry. You only have to get the attention of your ideal customers or clients.

You don’t have to try to outrun the entire tidal wave of content shock. You just have to stay one step ahead.

There’s an old joke that describes this situation perfectly.

Two guys are camping. They hear a hungry, angry bear crashing around outside their tent.

One guy starts putting on his running shoes. The other guy asks, “Why are you putting on your running shoes? You can’t outrun a bear.” 

The first guy says, “I don’t have to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun you.”

A little gruesome? Yup. But relevant. Because you don’t have to outrun the content shock bear. You just have to beat your competition. You just have to find and engage your audience, not the whole world. You need to get the attention of the type of customers and clients that generate the bulk of your business. The ones who love your services and your approach.

What makes this even better is that your ideal audience is by definition hard-wired to like your stuff. You and your ideal audience are soulmates, baby. They want what you have. You just gotta help them find you.

Herein lies the true, underlying problem of why no one is sharing your content: No one is sharing your content because you’re not doing enough to make it possible for your audience to find you. All we have to do is send out the right signals and get you and your unique voice to talk in a language they understand. And it’s fixed.

Here’s how to do that:

1. How to be you

  • Rigorously define your company brand.
  • Offer services or products in a way that is completely in line with that unique brand. Don’t just talk about your brand or write a mission statement and leave it in a drawer. Execute your daily business tasks 100% in line with your brand (or, if you dare, according to your business’s moral code).
  • Don’t be afraid to be a little weird, or unusually passionate. In other words, don’t quash your uniqueness. We expect designers to have strong opinions about color schemes. We hope coffee vendors obsess over the differences between City and Vienna roasts.

Still hungry for more details on how to be you? See our recent post, “9 Ways for SMBs to Beat Big Corporations on Social Media [With Examples]

2. How to speak in a language they understand

That last strategy was about you. This strategy is about them – your ideal audience.

  • Read the comments people post on blogs in your industry. If you’re selling products, read Amazon and other product site reviews. Actually, no matter what business you’re in, find some Amazon reviews to read. How-to book reviews are a goldmine of ideas. If you’re a local business, read the reviews on Yelp and other local business review sites.
  • Use the words and phrases people write in those reviews in your sales copy and in your content.
  • Survey the audience you have already to see what they want more of.
  • Check your analytics reports to see which content has done best so far.

Want more ideas about how to get into the heads of your audience? See this post: Audience and Content Publishing: 17 Ways to Find Out What Your Audience Wants You to Share.

3. How to send up the right sharing smoke signals. Aka, how to format your content so it’s easy to share.

Just dressing up your content the right way can double or triple shares. Here are the basics.

Include images.

Social media is more image-driven every day. On Facebook, images clearly rule:

pr-posts

Twitter found that tweets with photos are 35% more likely to get shared.

Add hashtags.

Stone Temple Consulting did a very interesting analysis a few years ago and found using hashtags can dramatically increase shares:

STC_TwitterStudy_Hashtags

Don’t post content that’s too salesy.

This is one of the easiest mistakes to make. Social media is not the place for the “hard sell” – in other words, a direct sales pitch. You’ll see direct sales pitches, but smart social media marketers use them sparingly. 90% or more of what they share or promote is designed to simply deliver value to their audience.

Don’t post boring content.

If you did your research, you know what your audience wants. Odds are they don’t want to be bored.

Customize your content for each social media platform.

I know, it takes more time. But you’ll look smarter and thus more trustworthy. Typical mistakes for this are including way too many hashtags on Twitter, but not enough on Instagram. Even worse is using a YouTube video link on Facebook, instead of directly uploading the video to Facebook. There are reports of natively uploaded Facebook videos getting 52 times more views than YouTube videos on Facebook. More views means more sharing opportunities.

Share at the right time.

You’ll have to test a bit to find out when is best for your particular audience, but here’s some insight on when is best to post for a general audience. Data is according to Fundivo.

social-media-best-time-of-day

Write good headlines.

Botch the headline, and your social media update is almost guaranteed to fail. Fortunately, social media expert Pam Dyer wrote a fabulous post earlier this year about how to create perfect headlines for social media posts.

Add sharing buttons to your blog posts, and consider asking people to share or like your social media updates.

Don’t ask people to share every single update you post, but once in a while, when you really need an extra lift, make the ask.

Check your updates for mistakes like a typo in the first paragraph, or broken links.

This is one of the most painful mistakes to make, and to see. But there’s an easy fix. Either have a second person look at your updates, or use a tool like Content Director to schedule your updates in advance. Then come back to those updates later with fresh eyes and proofread your own work.

Keep trying

If your content isn’t getting the shares you want, keep trying different tactics (like different timing, different formats, etc) until you hit the sweet spot. Just give each different approach enough time to be sure it works or not. Usually ten posts is enough to know if a certain trick either will or will not work. A full week is considered the minimum for A/B tests.

Just do keep trying. Sometimes it takes some finesse to build a following. If you want more ideas on how to build a social media following from the ground up, see our recent post, A beginner’s guide to promoting content on social media.

If you want to get 30 effective techniques to master content marketing along with valuable insights from 10+ influencers like Mark Schaefer, Rebecca Lieb, Lee Odden, Jason Miller or Ian Cleary, download our free eBook now!

roi-or-rip-cta-blog-scoop-it

Image by M.G. Kafkas.

 

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Rate this post: 1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

Loading...

About the Author

Pam Neely
Pam Neely has been marketing online for 17 years. She's a serial entrepreneur and an avid email and content marketing enthusiast with a background in publishing and journalism, including a New York Press Award. Her book "50 Ways to Build Your Email Marketing List" is available on Amazon.com. Pam holds a Master's Degree in Direct and Interactive Marketing from New York University. Follow her on Twitter @pamellaneely.
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
13 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Rachel
Rachel
8 years ago

Hey Pam,

Great advice. I have not used hashtags at all, but will be in the next week or so. I keep hearing that it is a viable tool to use for retweets and attention.

As for asking people to share, I am still learning to ask with confidence. I have seen requests of me, but I find them too in my face and would not like to use their strategies – I guess it comes down to finding my own style.

Thanks for the post it was a good reminder of things I still must learn to do.

Alice Fuller
8 years ago
Reply to  Rachel

Hey Rachel,

If you’re new to hashtag use, here’s a little something that might help you get started. I just did a presentation to a group of women business owners on the topic of hashtags, so know that you are not alone in not using them. http://www.slideshare.net/SheerSocial/how-to-use-hashtags-49618160

Rachel
Rachel
8 years ago
Reply to  Alice Fuller

Hey Alice,
So kind of you to send me that power point presentation. After I read your post last night, I used two hash tags. They were definitely generic and safe, but can I ask you a question. Where do you go to see what the hash tag stands for? Very new and have no idea. Thanks again.

pamellaneely
pamellaneely
8 years ago
Reply to  Rachel

Hi Rachel. Agreed – asking for the share can feel a little awkward. Sometimes it’s easier if you’re giving a resource away for free. That makes it feel less self-serving. I’ve had some luck just asking people what they think, like in this post. It’s authentic, because I really do want to know what people think, but for social updates it also seems to capture peoples’ interest just a bit more. It’s especially effective when I’m sharing something that’s just a wee bit controversial. I guess a distilled way to say all that would be that if asking for the… Read more »

scommetix
8 years ago

Hi Pam.

Thx for the advice. You are “the one” for me ! Keep sending this strategies!

Thomas | Betting tips

Karen Pierce Gonzalez
Karen Pierce Gonzalez
8 years ago

Some sensible advice here that is very clearly stated. Thank you!

pamellaneely
pamellaneely
8 years ago

Very glad you liked it, Karen. Thanks for letting us know.

Alice Fuller
8 years ago

Yes, great tips you’ve shared. I would add share other people’s content. It goes back to “do unto others.” But when you share it via tweet or Facebook say why you like it and actually mention the creator or author’s name. Everyone like acknowledgement and many will return the favor and share your content even when you don’t ask sometimes.

pamellaneely
pamellaneely
8 years ago
Reply to  Alice Fuller

Absolutely, Alice! If we only share our own content, we come off as not only self-centered, but also like we’re not giving the full story on what’s happening or what the larger conversation is. And it is definitely good social etiquette to always give people credit.

Thanks for your comment. 🙂

Pass4sureexam
8 years ago

This summer pass4sure is giving you discount on different dumps. Now you will get 25% discount on all products.Pass4sure 70-461 If you are worried about your any exam so, now you don’t need to take any worry. Just use our summer coupons, get 25% discount and pass your exam in first attempt. 70-461 Braindumps

Andreas Christodoulou
8 years ago

Nice read. Thanks for sharing Pam!

pamellaneely
pamellaneely
8 years ago

My pleasure. Glad you liked it.

Moral Max
Moral Max
8 years ago

Everyone like acknowledgement and many will return the favor and share your content even when you don’t ask sometimes.Casquette Huf

13
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x