How to Share Content and Get Others to Share Yours

1. Use good quality images.

Visualisation is key when it comes to content sharing. Aesthetically pleasing images and good quality images are much more likely to be shared or engaged with, especially on Instagram. Blurry images or using the wrong dimensions for specific social platforms can affect how people see your content when scrolling. This could be the difference between your content being shared or scrolled past. If you’re unsure of the correct social media image sizes, check out Sprout Social’s guide.

2. Boost your social shares.

To ensure you reach new audiences who share similar interests to your current followers, why not set aside a small budget to boost your posts across Facebook and Instagram? Extending the reach of your posts via boosting means you can not only get more shares and engagement on posts, but it could also mean new followers! We recommend budgeting around £5 per day for a week to start with, then scaling up once you’ve reviewed the results and got to grips with the audience you want to target.

3. Share content with the businesses or people you’ve featured.

When writing blogs, it’s important to include external links, expertise and data. If you’ve linked to another person’s blog or data they’ve collected and presented, you should let them know. Not only will this create a great line of communication to build relationships (useful for link building opportunities), it’ll also encourage the featured party to share your content. After all, they’ll be happy to present themselves as an expert or an authority on the topic you choose to feature them for. It’s a win-win!

4. Add sharing buttons.

It’s important to make it as easy as possible for your readers to share your blogs, guides, and other content forms. Adding buttons at the bottom of a post is a great way to help your readers share your content on their social platforms. Adding these shareable buttons in the form of relevant social platform icons at the bottom of the page is the easiest way for your readers to share your content, giving you instant social shares at just the touch of a button.

5. Share other people’s content.

Giving back to your followers, fans and readers by sharing useful content from other sources is a great way to encourage others to share your content too. Remember to tag or link to the person whose content you’re sharing so they can see it, and hopefully, they’ll return the favour in the future. Not only does this create the impression that if others were to share your content, you’re likely to share something of theirs in the future. But, if you share and tag someone on social media, and that person engages with the post, it will likely reach a percentage of their audience too, extending your reach!

6. Keep it current.

On social media, in particular, trends are very important and creating content and using images/memes/gifs that are trending can really help with engagement and sharing of your posts. Most people want to be a part of popular culture and with social media playing a large part in that, merging the two to produce shareable content is key!

7. Just ask!

It may sound obvious, but if you want your content to be shared via social media or online, just ask. Whether it’s asking your readers to share your content with others who may find it useful or interesting or asking your friends, colleagues and family members to share social posts. As long as you’re willing and show you’re happy to do the same for them, this is the easiest way to ensure your content reaches as many people as possible organically.

Above, we mentioned the importance of sharing others people’s content. Finding existing content relevant to you and your target market and then sharing it with your audience online is called content curation. Rather than creating every piece of content from scratch, adding other people’s content into the mix can be easier.

So, what are the benefits of doing this?

When sharing someone else’s work, it is important to remember these four crucial factors to ensure you are sharing the content legally:

1. Make it easy to find the right content.

According to data collected by Worldometers, millions of blog posts are published every single day, so pinpointing the right piece of content to share is often the hardest part. Follow relevant businesses on social media and sign up for email updates so you can easily get the most relevant content that you can, then share on social media or elsewhere online.

2. Offer your perspective.

Even when you are sharing content that is relevant to your industry, don’t just share the information with no context. Ask a question within your post or summarise the information in the post, this shows the reader that it will be useful content that is actually relevant to them.

3. Give credit to the author.

Sharing someone else’s content can be a great way to develop relationships with other businesses and industry leaders. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to connect with other content creators.

If you are sharing the content on social media, don’t forget to include links to the author’s website and the original piece of content. Regardless of what social platform you share the content on, if you tag the creator, they will receive a notification. Remember, if people see you using their content, they are much more likely to interact with you.

4. Encourage others to share too.

The great thing about sharing content is that it’s contagious. Your readers will appreciate you sharing more than just your own content, and encouraging them to share other content (as well as your own) makes your business look more trustworthy because you’re focusing on more than just self-promotion.

Blog posts:

If you want to share insight, quotes or stats from another content creator, always link back to the original post when you can.

Images:

Wherever possible, we would always recommend using your own original images. If you do want to use someone else’s images, make sure you have gained their permission before you publish the content. Or, ensure the image has a creative commons licence. If you’re using images for commercial reasons, its image licensing must cover commercial use. Unsplash and Shutterstock are great places to look for copyright-free images, but always double-check the license before use if you’re not sure.

Social media:

Most social media platforms provide you with a way to link back to the original piece of content easily. The easiest way is to add a link to the page where the content is and to also tag or mention (@) the author in the post or story when sharing.

For more information on how to acknowledge the content creator legally and site sources correctly, check out HubSpot’s blog post which goes into a little more detail.

Developing a social media strategy which works cohesively with your content strategy is essential for stronger online visibility.

Make sure you include at least one piece of external content within your plan to be shared throughout the week (only use a trustworthy source that will be relevant for your user). Striking the right balance between original and existing content will strengthen your online presence and help you build loyal relationships with both your audience and other businesses within your industry.

Locate content that fits in with your brand aesthetic and allows you to add insight or perspective when you share. But, be sure to check that the brand or individual whose content you’re sharing has values that aligns with yours. Do a thorough check of their most recently published content and social channels to check they’re not promoting anything your readers may find insensitive or offensive should they go to their website or profiles. Once you’ve researched the creators of the content, sharing the valuable content with your readers will help both engagement and reach.

To help get you started, we’ve put together a handy list of 5 tips for crafting a cohesive social media brand so you can establish your own identity on social media before searching for and sharing other content.

Essentially, learning how to get your content shared and how to share content online isn’t too hard, once you know the basics of the best and correct ways to share it. We have a number of specialists who are dedicated to writing relevant content for businesses in a range of sectors. If you would like any more advice, don’t hesitate to get in touch and we’d be happy to help.