How to write blog posts that people want to share.

After the #socialbloggers chat about writing sharable content, I wanted to write about how you can encourage people to share your posts a little more.

Getting people to share you blog posts is one of the best ways to get extra traffic and readers. People like to share content that moves them in some way, evokes an emotional reaction or is a bit clever or controversial.

This will lead to people sharing your posts on Facebook, Tweeting a link to it or even putting a link to your post on their blog.

Here are some ways you can tweak your content to encourage sharing.

1. Build trust with your audience. 

It’s time consuming to build an audience that you activity engage in on your blog. You want to make sure you’re communicating with your readers in the form of responding to blog comments, answer questions, replying to Tweets and visiting other blogs.

This builds your trust and also gets your name out there. Sometimes it only takes a handful of people to share a post before others start following suit.

2. Write a title to entice. 

While you don’t want to write a title that promises things that your post doesn’t deliver, you want to make your title as attractive as possible.

Aim to shock or cause curiosity. It needs to be a snappy title that people will want to share.

• Use trigger words such as how, what, when, why.
• Use words such as facts, reasons, tricks, hacks, lessons, ideas, secrets.
• Use adjectives such as effortless, easy, real, quick, fast, simple, smart, clever, new, incredible, astonishing, free.

Some examples:

8 simple secrets to losing 8 pounds.

5 hacks to getting your life back together after a breakup.

10 reasons why you should leave your iPhone at home.

3. Make it easy to read.

I’ve spoke about this in previous posts, but use a little words as possible.

Keep your paragraphs short, no more than 5 sentences and keep your sentences simple. Use headlines to break up text and let white space be your friend.

This makes it easier to read your post. Most people will be put off by large blogs of text.

4. Use share widgets and plugins.

There are plenty of plugins that you can install quickly onto your blog that will let readers share to social media at the click of a button.

I use DiggDigg, which you can see to the left of this post.

5. We all love a good list.

It’s true. List posts do well on social media. They’re quick and easy to read as well as right.

Some of my list posts are some of my most shared content.

6. Hit a chord.

Relatable content is sharable content.

If you’re not writing something that’s going to teach the reader something new, then write something that’s going to evoke emotion.

You want your audience to sit there and nod as their read your post. You want them to think I’ve been there, I’ve done that, that’s totally me!

Things that take people back to their teenage years, their childhood years, their university years are a good example of these. Such as TV shows you watched in the 90’s or things that were fashionable back them but horrific now (Adidas poppers and hair spraying your fringe, anyone?).

7. Just ask. 

Asking people to retweet a Tweet, or share your post can be the most effective way of getting people to share your post. It’s that simple.

Giving your readers a call to action can help. Ending posts with phrases such as: Share this if you feel the same’ or ‘ Tweet this if it reminds you of your childhood’ can just be the push your audience needs!

How do you make your content sharable?

If you like this, then put a share on it 😉