Once you’ve developed a strong social media following, your next step is engagement. There are three ways that people can engage your social media account:
- They can “like” or “favorite” something.
- They can comment on a post or respond to you.
- They can share your post or retweet you for their own followers.
That latter option is the one that is most desirable, because it provides you with greater exposure while continuing to offer engagement opportunities (those that connect with the person that shares your post can continue to comment and like it).
Types of Posts That Are Shared
But of course, in order to get those shares you need to make the right posts. People don’t share just anything, and while not all of these types of posts are going to be relevant for your business, they are the most likely to get results. Popular posts for shares include:
- Jokes – Everyone likes humor, and the more genuinely funny you are, the more likely you are to get shares and engagement. Ideally, you need to make sure that you’re creating jokes that are appropriate for your audience and still professional. Since that can be difficult, it’s often best to stick to vanilla humor like puns and wordplay.
- Great Stories – Every business has some great stories, so this may be easier for your company to manage. These can be case studies, personal stories about your employees, personal stories about your clients, etc. If the story is amazing and meaningful, people become very likely to share it.
- Quotes as Images – Quotes are also popular for people to share. But keep in mind that for some reason, people do not like to share quotes as text. If you turn the quotes into an image, then people are more likely to share it. People love quotes, so if you choose the right ones you can gain some good visibility.
- Amazing Photos – The key word here is “amazing.” But of course, amazing is relative. Some pages gain visibility by posting extremely clever or funny photos that ask people to “share it if you get it.” Others get shared by simply being visually impressive. Photos are easier to share than text, so an amazing photo or two can really make a difference.
- Very Useful Content – Of course, perhaps the easiest way to get shares is to write up content that is extremely useful and valuable. When content has no fluff and provides tips that can make a big difference in someone’s life, you can get a lot of visibility. For example, if you’re a carpet cleaning company that has a unique at-home way of getting out carpet stains, you can get a lot of people sharing your content on social media trying to help out their friends.
These are clearly not the only types of posts, but they are valuable ways to get shares, and if you get shares you can help improve your online reputation, gain more likes, and hopefully improve your social media success.
