Social media is one of the hottest ways to market your products and services, largely because it makes information so easy to share. 

But while you can create a fantastic ad or informative post, that doesn’t guarantee a lot of people will see it. In fact, if you don’t have a strategy for how to reach more eyes with your social media, then it can fall flat. 

You could spend a bunch of money on sponsored posts, or you can grow your reach organically. One of the best organic methods is to encourage social media shares. But how do you do that? 

Let’s take a look at 7 strategies…

1. Create Emotional Content 

It’s easy to play it safe and create content that doesn’t evoke many reactions, whether happy or sad. But is mediocre the way you want people to think about your business?

Using emotion in content writing is one way to do this. You can do this by telling a story that the reader can connect to. You can also achieve emotional responses by creating video content that engages the viewer. 

But keep one thing in mind: it will make a difference if you evoke happy tears or sad tears. Engagement is high either way, but people are more likely to share positive content than they are negative. 

Whatever you do, don’t create social media posts that make your followers say “meh” and move on. 

2. Target Social Media Influencers

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or just arrived from 1920, then you’ll know there’s this whole movement of influencers online. These are generally younger, photogenic people who have amazing adventures seemingly every day. 

While some people roll their eyes at influencers, they also create an opportunity to really boost your shares. One way to do this is by figuring out a way to mention a celebrity in your content and to say something nice about them – perhaps how they run a charity to save endangered animals, for example. 

Or you can even ask an influencer if they’d like to create some content with you. For example, you could interview them about a particular topic and write an article that can be shared. 

3. Create a Contest

Dream up some kind of contest that people can take part in by sharing your content. Tell people one of the stipulations is they have to share the contest post to be eligible (but that’s not a requirement.)

You can also encourage the contestant to tag a friend to be considered for the prize. That way when the tagged person sees it, they may be inclined to allow it to be posted to their page, especially if that person stands to win something as well. 

One idea is to give away a pair of tickets to an event. Instruct entrants that the tagged person in your share is the one they want to go to the event with. 

4. Use Quality Images

While you may have created some insightful or informative content, it might not be shared without an image. A beautiful image can increase your likelihood that your post will be shared (or at least looked at more.)

Just make sure you have full permission to use the image in the post, whether it’s from a free site or you took the photo yourself. You may also think about hiring a professional photographer if you really want to invest in original, quality images for your posts. 

5. Post at The Right Time

Did you post a great piece of content, but it’s only received one like after an hour of going live?

There are a few possible reasons for this. One of them could be that your content just isn’t engaging, as was noted earlier. Another could be that you’re just posting the material at the wrong times. 

Think about when people will have time to sip a coffee and scroll through their social media feeds. This could be at 7:30 a.m. when people are sipping their morning coffee, or at 8:30 p.m. when people are done watching their primetime shows. 

The right time to post can vary by social network. You can try to use analytics to see spikes in your web traffic, or you can just use the trial and error method to see what time works best for engagement. 

6. Try a Guest Post 

A guest post is when you establish a relationship with another media site (or blogger) and write a post for them. You can choose blog hosts that specialize in the type of business you run – then your post will be from a bonafide industry insider! That’s a benefit for the host’s web traffic. 

The advantage of a guest post is that you or your business name will be made available to all of the audience of the hosting site. With larger media sites, that can be a very large number. It also means a lot more potential for sharing. 

Then you can add a backlink at the end of the guest post, which brings people back to your website or social media channel. 

7. Use Multiple Social Platforms

Some businesses only use one social media channel, such as Facebook. That’s not a bad thing, but you’re limiting the scope of how many people you can reach if you ignore Twitter and even LinkedIn. 

When you post a piece of content through apps, it will often give you the option of whether you want to share it through your other channels as well. You’ve instantly increased your audience and the potential for shares. 

You can also post something on Facebook and then do a teaser on Instagram that brings people to your Facebook page.

Social Media Shares Mean More Exposure

The power of social media for marketing is hard to deny. By creating the right kind of content that evokes emotion in your audience, as well as paying attention to timing and quality, you can enjoy a lot more social media shares. 

In the meantime, if you run a quality site that can host other people’s content, then you can make money in an affiliate program!