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You can't add links to your Instagram post captions (sorry, sales team). However, if you want to invite your Instagram followers to your other resources to increase traffic to your website, promote products and services, and enhance user engagement, all you need to...
In a world with more than 5 billion social media users (according to Statista), it’s not an understatement to say it’s a tad bit difficult to stand out from the crowd on these platforms. But what’s more challenging is to create posts that people like sharing or engaging with.
We hear from you, and we can help. Here’s a comprehensive guide on how to create shareable social media posts that people like engaging with. Aside from the basics, we also have a few expert-backed tips and tricks that can help elevate your brand.
Before we dive into the meatier bits, let’s first uncover the basics of creating shareable content for social media.
In today’s day and age of AI-enabled content generation, an authentic voice can help you stand out from the crowd by fostering a connection with your audience and boosting your credibility.
For example, think about the likes of Duolingo and Wendy’s. A quick look at their social media pages and the way they talk to their customers will show that they don’t use AI in their customer interactions.
Original content, such as research studies, expert interviews, or a unique idea/perspective, can again cut from the monotony we often see on social media and allow audiences to engage with your content (and link back or cite your post when they discuss a similar idea).
Just as an example of how original content performs better and is more “shareable” on social media, consider these three back-to-back posts on Jimmy Daly’s LinkedIn page. Of these three, the one post that saw significant engagement shared original research (i.e., a salary report).
Oftentimes, when we’re trying to educate our audiences on a new topic, we can tend to use a tone that gives off a “holier than thou” vibe and makes us sound a tad bit condescending. Obviously, this isn’t a good look and can cause people to not engage with your content.
Perhaps the only anomaly to this rule is when you use humor or sarcasm to get your point across (e.g., Duolingo and Wendy’s). However, as a word of caution, it’s important to mention that these brands have had a whole lot of delicate balance of trials and errors to create these perfectly crafted tones.
If you’re often active on social media, it’s always best to keep a pulse on algorithm updates to see which type of post you should create that’ll boost your visibility.
For example, in 2024, platforms like LinkedIn prioritize valuable and relevant content, penalize outbound links, and focus on quality over quantity (i.e., quality of followers vs. quantity and quality of posts vs. virality).
Just as starting a successful DIY lemonade stand requires understanding your local market and customer preferences, creating shareable content demands insight into your audience’s interests and content consumption habits.
Closely monitoring social media trends helps you stay relevant among the masses and allows you to market on topical content, both of which can again boost engagement.
For example, when India lost the Cricket World Cup against Australia, here’s how brands in India used social media platforms to create topical content:
Screenshots provided by the author
A small deviation from the topic, but a common myth is that you can only capitalize on trends on social media; however, more and more brands are keeping up with trends and creating unique marketing campaigns offline with the help of billboards.
Just as a reference, here’s a small example:
On social media, users’ attention spans are short, and the urge to scroll is high.
This often means that some of your audiences want to engage with shorter content that takes a limited time to interact with (e.g., an infographic), whereas other folks might want longer pieces of content (e.g., videos) that can properly lay out your points. The best way to decide which works for your audience is to experiment with different content sizes, formats, and posting times.
Consistency not only leads to social media algorithms like you more, but it can also boost brand recognition among your audience and build trust and reliability.
For example, all the big brands (e.g., Target, Ben & Jerry’s, Wet n Wild, etc.) have a consistent social media cadence.
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s explore some expert-backed tips and tricks for making your social media posts more shareable.
Nick Bennett, a LinkedIn influencer with upwards of 46k followers as well as the co-founder of TACK, a media network company, says that platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter are based on reciprocation — the more you engage with other creators, the more they engage with you.
In his own words, “I comment on 20-50 other creators’ posts per day, and the reciprocity is real. If you keep showing up, they’ll come back and engage with your stuff. I would say that works best with sub-75k followers on LinkedIn.”
Aside from this neat tip, here are a few more things he stated:
Additionally, honing your conference networking skills can significantly boost your reach and engagement
Taylor Scher, an SEO consultant and LinkedIn influencer with a following of nearly 15,000 users, says the best approach is to write for someone specifically as opposed to writing for a whole industry.
“Have a person in mind that you’re writing to and create your post on educating them,” he says.
“My focus is on VPs of marketing, so I’ll write with a specific VP in mind, writing how I would talk to them in a meeting. It helps keep my content more focused and usually resonates with others that are in my target audience.”
Taylor isn’t the only creator who believes in this philosophy, though. Experts like Rosanna Campbell (a content marketer with experience working with top B2B SaaS and HR Tech brands and a micro-influencer on LinkedIn) also write for one person.
Our focus should be user-generated content (UGC), says Diana Zheng, the head of marketing at Stallion Express (a company with a strong business presence in Canada and an impressive LinkedIn and Instagram following).
She says, “UGC is a goldmine. It’s like free marketing gold. Encourage your customers to share what they’ve experienced with your product/service. People trust peers more than brands, so UGC creates authentic engagement.”
The studies back Diana up on this one: More than 93% of marketers use UGC because they believe customers trust it more than vendors claim.
Paige Arnof-Fenn is an expert with more than 22 years of experience leading a digital marketing firm. She says that based on years of hands-on experience with marketing campaigns, she’s noticed a recent trend of visual content performing better and being easier to share.
In her own words, “In a mobile-first world, you have less time to hook people, and attention spans are shorter than ever, so video is used even more to boost rankings. As the world is moves to mobile-first/mobile-only, fewer people are accessing the web on big or huge screens, so everyone will keep tailoring their site/message/content accordingly.”
Some examples she shared are:
LinkedIn micro-influencers like Abhi Bavishi (who’s also a growth marketer and automation expert) and Md Faruk Khan (who’s also a digital marketer and SEO expert) had one insight that was a common denominator between both of them: Using storytelling techniques that elicit emotions to increase engagement levels on social media.
According to Abhi:
To propel content into the shareable sphere, one must innovate. Here’s the scoop. Human emotions drive shares. Content that sparks joy, awe, or surprise gets traction. Think less about products, more about stories. Stories resonate. They linger in memory.
Voicing the same opinion, Md Faruk said:
Beyond the basics, creating shareable content hinges on tapping into your audience’s emotional and psychological triggers. One effective strategy is to leverage storytelling, weaving narratives that resonate on a personal level, making your content not just seen but felt.
Antonio Gabrić, a LinkedIn influencer as well as the outreach manager at Hunter.io, shared two ways he drives engagement on social media:
1. I simply ask people (to share my content) in the CTA or a comment. Something like “Repost ♻️ this if you find it helpful” usually works for most of the post, but it works best for carousels. (Carousels seem to be the most shareable content type on LinkedIn.)
2. I tag relevant people in my posts and comments, and they usually join the conversation, which makes these posts visible to their audience. I noticed that if the tagged creator leaves a very insightful comment on a topic, it helps us not only to attract resharing but also increase the reach.
We know content curation and planning can be difficult, but we’ve got something to help. Sign up for Planable for free and manage your social media calendars and posts from one place (you can also work on social media pages of different brands and collaborate with multiple stakeholders in real-time).
Guillaume is a digital marketer focusing on content management at Wordable and Digital PR at uSERP. Outside of work, he enjoys his life in sunny Mexico, reading books, wandering around and catching the latest shows on TV.
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