How to boost your small business’s social media shares
It’s official – social media is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to get your business name out there. Nowadays, a simple article or video posted to your page can be the ultimate breakthrough for a small business’s social media presence – if enough people get to see it. The key to these breakthroughs are the amount of shares a post will get- some companies are able to get hundreds and thousands, while others aren’t always so lucky. If you’re in the latter category, by the end of this article you won’t be – as you’ll be equipped with an action plan to help you increase the amount of shares your posts get. Let’s get started!
Who?
Who do you want to share your content? Influencers are people who are experienced, knowledgeable or well-known in your industry. They often have high follower counts, and almost always get plenty of shares on the content they post. Influencers are the key to your sharing success – if you can get them to share your post; chances are it’s going to reach a lot of people that are interested in your business. So how do you get them to share your content? It’s important to really do your research- look through their social media pages for ideas. Things to consider: what kind of things have they shared before? What are their interests? What kind of posts do they share on a regular basis? Once you have this information, you can start working on a post that caters to their interests and is relevant to your business.
What?
What are you going to post? A good way to generate interest and shares of your content is to focus on what people are currently concerned with. Trending topics are your friend- pay attention to them. You can use Twitter and Facebook to get a real-time report of what people are talking about. Wondering where to start? #heresaclue!
If you have a topic in mind, searching it using a hashtag is a good way to get an idea of how people are currently engaging with it. Facebook in particular is great for this because it shows you exactly how many people are talking about a particular issue. It’s a great indicator of how many people could potentially be interested in what you are posting about.
Research until you find a topic that is interesting and entertaining for your followers, while still related to your business. Here are two examples of posts with the right balance of interest and relevance:
One last thing on hashtags. Don’t forget to include them in your own posts- they’ll help you get shares by making it easy for people to come across your content. For more information on using hashtags in your posts, check out this guide.
Where?
Where are you going to post your content? The simple answer is: wherever your influencers are. You want to make sure your post is seen by the right people to maximise your chances of getting shares. From your research, you already know what social media channels your influencers are using, so be sure to promote your content in the same places. Facebook and Twitter are brilliant, but don’t forget the other little gems: LinkedIn, Medium, Pinterest… the list is endless.
Don’t be afraid to share the same post on different social media channels – promoting your content across different platforms is a great way to make sure your work gets seen by as many people as possible.
How?
How is your content going to be received? There’s only one way to find out: test it! Publish a few varied posts and see how your existing audience reacts to it. Note how many times each post gets liked, commented on and most importantly- shared. Which post was most popular amongst your followers? The posts that come out on top are the ones you’re going to take to promote.
Testing your posts will allow you to gauge what your followers find interesting and what kind of content they want to see. You might also want to take a look at this article – it’s got loads of information on how ensure your posts to reach your audience.
Action!
Once you’ve identified and tested your best content, you can really put the plan into action and start to boost your shares.
Paying to promote your posts can be a rewarding investment for your business. It allows you to reach people who are interested in your business who may not have seen your posts otherwise. Every business has a Twitter account these days, so it really does pay off to do all you can to make sure your posts get seen and shared. Sometimes one or two great posts is all it takes to gain a follower, and if that follower is an influencer that’s great news for your business.
This is why it’s really important to identify your best posts- and only pay to promote these. If you pay to promote every little bit of content you post it’ll be an overload, and will leave potential followers with no reason to visit your page. Don’t go overboard: the aim is to attract new followers with quality content.
Many social media platforms make paying to promote your posts an easy process. Twitter, for example, allows you to create Follower Campaigns which enable you to target promoted tweets at your influencers and other people interested in your business. Payment is executed in an auction style- so you decide how much you’re willing to pay for a follower- and you only actually pay when somebody follows you. Here’s a guide that explains the process in further detail.
Review
Every action plan needs a review, and once your share numbers start to increase it would be a great idea to analyse what has worked for you and why. By doing this, you can make each post better than the last, seeing an increase in shares each time. Running out of ideas for things to post? Check out this article for some interesting suggestions.
Can you think of any other ways to encourage more shares on your content? Feel free to share them with us via Facebook or Twitter.
