How to Make Your Content Shareable
In the early days of social media, platforms including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram made it easier than ever for brands to market themselves. Fast forward to today and a mix of algorithms, bots and the sheer number of users online is making the space harder and harder for businesses to cut through.
We know that no two brands are the same (which is why we adopt a bespoke approach to social for each of our clients), and that your strategy depends on factors like your platform of choice, audience and their interests. However, there are a number of universal tips that can make your content travel beyond your own feed. As the good Trufflers that we are, we’ve compiled a list of our top tips.
1. Tags, tags, tags
First things first. Regardless of the platform you’re posting on, make sure to add plenty of tags, including any relevant brands, influencers, and followers involved in your post, as well as hashtags based on your location and the content of the post.
Tags are the best way to ensure that your content is getting seen in most places on the platform you are using, as it makes your content much easier to find. This also increases the chance of your content to be re-shared by other profiles (people and businesses you have tagged) and be seen by people who follow them.
Relevant hashtags can really boost a post’s engagement and make your content more discoverable if people are searching for posts in a specific location.
2. Bank on emotion
Emotion works. And it’s not just us saying this. Posts that make people laugh, cry, gasp, scream or cheer are 70% more likely to be shared. If your content is emotionally engaging, it has higher chances of getting remembered too (think of the infamous John Lewis Christmas ads). And even if you might not want to admit it, as humans, we LOVE talking about ourselves. In fact, 40% of what people talk about is based on their own personal experiences, so if your content resonates with your audience and how they feel, it’s much more likely to provoke a reaction. When a person feels passionate about an idea, they are much more likely to share it with others, which is important as word of mouth is responsible for between 20% and 50% of all purchasing decisions.
3. Interaction is key
Interactive posts or captions are a great way to increase the shareability of your content. Provoking a response from your community by asking questions or encourage them to tag someone will allow engagement to increase and create an avalanche effect. This also builds a connection between you and your fans and lets you gauge the type of content that resonates the most.
4. Have a uniquely powerful marketing message
Being different from everyone else on social media is hard these days, but it’s not impossible. As we say here at Truffle: Don’t be basic. One way to spark curiosity and conversation is to find a powerful message that fits your brand story but is somehow unexpected or even controversial (hint: controversial doesn’t mean offensive). Something that will surprise people, make them stop in their feeds and engage with what you have to say.
Take Nike’s “Dream Crazy” campaign. The ad featured NFL player Colin Kaepernick, who kneeled during the national anthem during an NFL game in 2016, causing a national values crisis, with the copy “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything”. This copy fits perfectly with Nike’s long-standing brand purpose (Just Do It), and encapsulates the spirit of Kaepernick and millions of people. Did it work? You bet it did. Within a week of the campaign launch, Nike gathered 2.7million mentions (an increase by 135% compared to the previous week) and 21,135,487 YouTube views, resulting in $43 million earned media in less than 24 hours since it first revealed the spot on Twitter and a 31% jump in online sales.
Another example that goes beyond a single campaign is Hinge’s recent redesign and the introduction of its new tagline: Designed to be Deleted - a purpose that supposedly goes against everything an app company would want, right? “We felt like designed to be deleted had an energy of positivity and optimism to it that the old design wasn’t living up to,” Tim MacGougan, the app’s chief product officer, told The Verge. “So the old design was communicating relationships, but in a way that was attempting to be maybe a bit more mature, so it was a little bit more muted, and we thought that that was not the right way to foster authenticity and courage from people.” While it might seem that it’s such a controversial message, it works in favour of the brand as it communicates the value that it brings to users - finding a partner.
5. Keep your content simple
People do not have time to spend ages looking into the details of your product, reading a long caption or watching a long video, and neither do their friends. You need to be able to quickly capture your audience’s attention in 8.5 seconds (the length of our attention span today). A punchy slogan, eye-catching picture or a witty caption all work well, nothing with too much detail.
How are you thinking about your content strategy? Slide into our DMs or give us a call to see how we can help
