Your company Twitter feed is filled with curated content because you learned it’s important to share the content of others. But, when it comes to your own content, you’re left sitting in the dark. Why are my blog posts and white papers never shared?
We all know why we want our content shared:
- It attracts more viewership by increasing our visibility.
- It makes us seem more credible; a share can act as an endorsement.
- It increases our search engine rank with an inbound link.
Through research and our own experience, we found the four main reasons nobody is sharing your content:
1. You have no incoming traffic.
If nobody sees your content, it won’t get shared. If you content doesn’t get shared, nobody will see your content. It’s a classic chicken and egg situation.
You need time and patience to build up viewership. On average, it can take anywhere from 2-6 months before you start seeing significant ROI on your content marketing. You can also expect to see a 45% jump in traffic growth when you reach 21-50 articles.
If you can write about topics that are both trending and relevant to your audience, you should also see bumps in traffic. When a topic is hot, it’s going to be searched more. Remember the old PR adage:
“Timing is everything.”
Make your content clickable. Choose titles that stand out and grab attention. When your content actually does get shared by others, they’ll usually share the link with your verbatim title.
Plan a realistic publishing frequency with an editorial calendar and stick to it. Your audience will start following you because they expect content from you.
On top of writing and publishing, you also need to be promoting. Don’t expect your audience to find you on their own. Decide on the best channels to reach your targets and share your content yourself.
2. Your content is too salesy.
How much of your content is about your own brand, products, and services, instead of providing value to your audience? Almost everyone has a “what’s in it for me” attitude, coupled with the need for immediate gratification when consuming content on the web.
Your audience doesn’t care about your latest release. They care about being more awesome right now!
The other problem with salesy content is lack of trust. Your audience will have a hard time reconciling your content if it’s a sales pitch.
When your audience shares content, they put their own reputation on the line. Just like you wouldn’t recommend an untrustworthy mechanic, your audience won’t recommend disingenuous content. Your material also needs to be valuable for your audience’s audience.
3. Your content is boring.
The topics you write about should be things your audience cares about. You should know that your audience will find interesting based on their personas. Look at what your clients are currently reading, sharing, and commenting on to get a better idea.
Formality can also do more harm than good in some cases. Most audiences want content presented in a conversational and emotional tone. Instead of being dry, learn how to tell a great story.
The presentation of your content can also make or break you. Paragraph text without headers, lists, images, or links is plain and boring. Look at how your content is displayed on both desktops and mobile devices.
4. You aren’t making your content easy to share.
If your audience can’t find the Tweet button, they probably won’t share your content on Twitter. The same goes for every other channel you wish to have a presence on.
Don’t expect your audience to copy and paste your link – you need to prompt them. Make your social share buttons blatantly obvious!
There’s also nothing wrong with asking your audience to share your content. Just be incredibly polite and respectful about it. A simple line, “Like this article? Please share it with your friends.” is enough to get people thinking about it.
When your content is shared, thank them in public. Who doesn’t like to engage with their favourite thought leaders! It will encourage your audience to share more often, and it might get you noticed by other potential viewers.
Thanks for having a read. If you like this article, please share it with your friends!
John is the Founder & CEO of Wriber. He’s passionate about entrepreneurship, high-tech startups, thought leadership, content marketing, and artificial intelligence. John frequently volunteers his time at the University of Waterloo to help young entrepreneurs get their businesses off the ground. He’s also a faithful Toronto Maple Leafs fan, frequent Redditor, and lifelong learner.