This is a guest post by Amy of Amy Howard Social. She recently launched her new site and is here on blog ambitions to share 6 easy ways you can encourage social sharing for your blog posts!
Us bloggers spend a heck of a lot of time writing our blog posts. Am I right or am I right? However, just writing fabulous content isn’t enough. We must make our blog posts social media friendly and sharable. If you want to learn How to Get Your Blog Posts Shared on Social Media keep reading…
1) Write Great Content
The first step in getting your blog post shared is to write great content. Create in depth, lengthy blog posts; don’t leave anything out. Add audios, videos, strong images, and/or research to separate the text. For every single one of your blog posts, you should be able to answer the following question. What are my readers going to get out of this post? What is the takeaway? Why will they want to share this post? Being passionate about what you’re writing about will make this first step easy peasy!
2) Include Pretty Images
As most of us know, blog posts are all about pretty images. Every social media network from Pinterest to Instagram (especially Instagram) emphasizes visual content. That means each one of your blog posts should have an image that inspires your readers enough to share it. What makes an attractive image? Something that’s clean, professional and includes text that explains what your post is about. Please remember that people share content that reflects well on them. Make your images positive, inspirational, and educational. Need more info on blog photography? Check out this Launch Girls post on Blog Photography Tips & Tools!
You can also check out Kristie’s master list of Blog Photography Tips
3) Share first
This may seem really simple, but if you want your audience to share your content, you must share it first! On the day that your blog post goes live, share your article on ALL of your active social media sites. Share your article first thing in the morning and in the evening change up the wording and imagery to create a different look for your evening post. Sharing your blog posts first makes your content easy to find and promote.
4) Make Sharing Easy
Let’s be honest, we all like for things to be easy. This is especially important for your blog post shares. I highly recommend installing the Frizzly Plugin and Shareaholic plugins to your WordPress site. Frizzly allows you to share your posts on three social networks: Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Personally, I use this on my site. Download the Frizzly Plugin for your WordPress site.
Shareaholic makes it a snap for any website — big or small — to engage and grow their traffic, market their content, gain insights, and monetize their traffic, all from one powerful but easy-to-use dashboard. Place this plugin at the very end of your blog post. It will be an easy way for your readers to share your fabulous post! You can download Shareaholic here.
Kristie uses the Gensis Simple Share Icons to encourage sharing at the bottom of her posts here at Blog Ambitions.
These sharing plugins insert a call-to-action for readers and reminds them to share our content, or pin it for later. In this busy, crazy life we could all use gentle reminders like these, right?
5) Share Others’ Content
Another fabulous way to get your content shared, is to share other bloggers’ blog posts! If someone shares your content, you will more than likely remember and return the favor for them in the future. Social media is all about being social, so share content other than your own. Sharing is caring y’all and a great marketing strategy.
6) Comment on those shares
One last tip I have for you, is when someone shares your blog post, comment on the post and thank them! Acknowledge that you noticed their kindness and start a conversation with them. Building relationships with fellow bloggers will open the door for future collaborations and great friendships!
Recap! How to Get Your Blog Posts Shared on Social Media:
– Write Great Content
– Use Pretty Images
– Share First
– Make Sharing Easy
– Share Others’ Content
– Comment on Those Shares
Encourage your website visitors to share your content. This leads to more website visitors, which leads to more sharing. Use these strategies and give them the tools they need to make sharing as easy as possible.
I am offering a Social Media Weekly Planner over at Amy Howard Social, download it here! It will help you be more consistent in your social media postings.
So tell us, what are your tips for getting your blog posts shared on social media?
About the Author – Amy Howard
I believe that by sharing other people’s content, karma will work to your favor and you will also get shares. It’s about building relations with other bloggers in your niche.
Building relationships with other bloggers really can help your blog grow! Thanks for sharing.
Hi Amy, really great tips. My favorite is to share others content first and make sure you have those social buttons to share. So many bloggers do not. It makes it much easier with them there
I am always surprised when bloggers don’t have their own social media sharing buttons! You’re right, definitely a must.
I didn’t appreciated the importance of images until recently – especially for networks like Pinterest, but even for Twitter and Facebook! Text only status updates just aren’t enough anymore.
Thanks for the tips Amy and Kristie!
NK
http://www.diywptips.com
Great tips to note down. Thanks for the useful information. 🙂
Best post Ive read so far on blog content. It was an easy read and straight to the point. This has really helped me as a new blogger. Thank you 🙂
Great to hear! Good luck with your blogging.
Great tips! Especially as a new blogger, i need all the help i can get. Thank you Amy!
What a very informative article! Those were actually pretty nice tips that are easy to follow. But hey, do you know what you get when you have your post shared? Traffic and a community! Wouldn’t that be great for your internet market?!
Traffic and community are the greatest outcome of your posts being shared. Thanks for stopping by.
Comment by: Stephen Walker
Hi Amy,
Like the look of Frizly, I will definitely be checking this one out.
Commenting is a great way of engaging and the first step in sharing.
Helpful tips!
I definitely need to work on the better pictures and commenting when someone shares.
Lot of great tips here I can use.
Thanks for the helpful information.
Great info! Very helpful for us newbie bloggers. Much appreciated!
You’re welcome.
Glad you found this helpful. Good luck with your newbie blogging adventures.
Great post! Haven’t graduated to actually sharing a post yet, but boy when I’m ready….this is great!
Love these- great tips!!
Whoa! This is awesome! As a blogger at http://blog.cashkaro.com/ , I find it hard to discover ways to make my content reach more to audience. Your post is surely going to come handy.
These are some great tips though I know I’d need to become self-hosted for using some of them (added plug-ins). One thing I ‘struggle’ with slightly is thanking others when they share my posts or retweet me. Saying ‘thanks’ or ‘you’re welcome’ (in those cases where I share others’ posts) a dozen times in a row feels a little … uncreative and boring. Are there any alternatives you’d suggest?
Thanks for sharing your knowledge! I was wondering about how to get those social media buttons on the side of my blog and know I know.
You’ll have to let us know if you get more shares when you start using the social media plugin, Brittany. Good luck socializing.
Amen to all of these things, Amy. I definitely agree that creating a great post is the first step! I would also note that when using Shareaholic, people need to be sure to add their username/handles into the plugin, so you will be tagged when someone shares. I hate to see when people don’t have their handles and so I have to go grab their name from Twitter I am trying to help them out by passing along their post. You know? 🙂
YES! Great addition Ashley, I love it when people add their handles to Shareaholic, I want them to know I’m sharing their stuff.
This is such helpful information Amy!
I love pretty images (like the one you used for this post – ooooooh, aaaaahhhh).
I think it’s important to get your content out there to be shared. We can’t expect people to stop by, we have to give them a little push to stop by (whether that means pinning our posts, sharing on FB, or tweeting). It’s so important with those shares to have a hook too… something for people to think, I have to click and get the rest of the info. I also agree with sharing others’ content. It’s so important!
Thanks for sharing!
xoxo
Love that you mentioned a “hook”! Images are a great way to give a little bit and leave ’em wanting more!
You are great at sgaei5others content.
Such great tips! I love this. I’m a new blogger so thanks so much!
Thank you Monica!! Us newbies have to stick together. 🙂
Wow, another great post Kristie! Amy I am a new (almost there ) blogger and can use all the tips and hints I can get. I do have one question though ( may be a stupid one ) do I have to do something for the Frizzly plug in to show up in my post or once it is downloaded to my wordpress blog does it automatically show in the blog? (told you it was stupid but I really don’t know much about plug ins).
Thank you for sharing your insight and knowledge.
Hi Sherry! No questions are dumb questions…so please don’t feel bad for asking! Once the Frizzly lugin is added to your site that’s all you have to do. Easy peasy!!! I appreciate this plugin so much because your readers can choose to share on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. Best wishes on your new blog…it is such a fun adventure!
Hi! This was a great help! I’m a brand new blogger and I just have one question about your article. How do I see who has shared my posts? I see where it says how many shared it has had but not sure WHO shared it! I’d love to comment and thank them! Thanks! (I have a WordPress blog)
Hi Crystal! As far as being notified on the shares, there isn’t a certain way, that I know of, that will tell us that. On Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter they should tag you in the post to alarm you of sharing. On Pinterest you can search for shares from your website by inserting this into your bar: http://www.pinterest.com/source/yourwebsite.com
I hope this helps!
Thank you for having me as a guest blogger Kristie! I loved writing this post and collaborating with you. 🙂
Thank you for the post Amy, very helpful tips for how we can get more shares. I’m trying them out on this post.