Having a strong online presence in regards to content creation is an important brand and marketing strategy.
Content has become increasingly crucial to a business’s success as search engines like Google have put increasing importance on producing quality content.
Putting out great, shareable content is an indication that your business is recognized as a trustworthy resource in your industry. It can also help develop brand authority and recognition.
While we could make a laundry list of reasons as to why you should invest in repost-worthy content, it is likely that you already understand it’s value.
Which is why you are reading this article. Once you’ve recognized the importance of creating superior content, you might start to wonder, how to create shareable content.
The type of content you are going to create will be dependent on your niche. But regardless of what you are writing about, there are a few guidelines you should follow to ensure you are generating shareable content.
Research
One of the first steps you should take before actually developing your content is research.
Researching your topic and checking out other content campaigns that have been successful is a critical step. It will help you create a strategic plan for developing some stand-out, one-of-a-kind content.
This is a good time to consider the flexibility in your budget as well. While you can still create great content for no more than the time you spend investing in the piece, you can create something that sets you apart from your competition if you have a little overhead spend.
For example, if you can afford to spend around $100 you can create a Google Survey to find unique data that only you have access to.
You can take this unique data to make industry-specific inferences. This will provide your readers with data that they won’t be able to find elsewhere.
Each survey response to a single question costs ten cents! While this seems like an awesome deal, it’s important to keep in mind that it may be difficult to draw multiple inferences from only one question.
Additionally, most analytical data expects a group of 1,000 participants to be interviewed for accurate conclusions to be made.
Including unique data in your post can help leverage a post’s shareability since the statistics provided will only be available as a resource in your post!
Pro Tip: This is a great way to leverage and promote your piece on social channels! The copy that you include on your social channels can center around providing new, market-relevant research for your readers.
Creative
Another element of great content that should be taken into consideration is the creative that will be used in the post.
This often requires some budget flexibility but there are some ways to work around the cost associated with developing one-of-a-kind images for your post.
Infographics
One of the most popular and well-known creative resources to include in your posts are infographics. Infographics have been trending in the world of content for the last few years.
While some may argue that their popularity is on a decline, many reliable resources still indicate that infographics continue to help build brand awareness.
One statistic even claims that “infographics can build sites by 82% by intensifying brand awareness”. Infographics are creative assets that may take more time and resources to develop.
Make sure that they will truly add the value you are searching for prior to making the required investment.
If an infographic seems to be stretching a bit outside of your budget, do not fear! There are a number of other tools and resources available to help you create some killer creative assets for your post.
One of the easiest ways to develop individualized content for your posts with no additional costs is using Google Sheets.
Custom Images
Start by finding some unique data that you want to include in your post. This data can be repurposed from someone else’s content or can be collected from the Google Survey’s mentioned above.
Once you have decided on the statistics that you want to use, start a new spreadsheet in Google Drive and drop the data into your file.
The following data was pulled from a piece of content developed by Intuit Turbo on their January financial planning post.
After adding your data, select “Insert” and then select “Chart”. From here you can play around with the titles, text, colors and more.
This feature allows you to build out unique graphs, charts, interactive maps and more that can be included in your posts.
See below for the unique image we created for this post:
One other creative asset that you may want to consider including in your posts are “printable” resources.
Printable assets are creative resources included in a post that allows for a certain degree of user interaction.
These printables have some sort of call-to-action that requires the user to print them out and engage with them.
The above resource provided by Intuit Turbo provides readers with a “Financial To-Do List”.
It was created so that users can print out the calendar and indicate important financial action items throughout the month.
These types of creative assets can be less expensive to create than infographics but can still provide an added bonus to your content.
Pro Tip: Once you’ve created some unique images to accompany your post, repurpose these images for your social posts. Having creative assets attached to your posts will help increase its visibility and the likelihood of it being shared by other users.
Creating Shareable Content: The Elements
While adequate research and fun, interactive imagery can help enhance the shareability of your post, at the end of the day, the actual copy included in the post is going to be the most important element of your content.
There are a few important aspects to incorporate in your post when creating your outline.
Making sure that your post includes one of these elements is one of the ways you can ensure your content will be shareable.
These elements are: emotional appeal, identifiable, trending or value-adding.
Emotional Appeal
One of the most compelling aspects of the content you create involves your ability to evoke some type of emotional response from your readers.
The appeals you make to your readers’ emotional psychology is usually what gets them to take action or change their behavior.
It’s important to consider your call-to-action. Also, consider your audience’s desires and major pain points in order to create an emotional appeal.
Align your content and the story you tell with your readers search for helpful solutions. Empathize with your reader’s situation and convey that understanding through your content.
This will improve the chances you’ll have of persuading your readers to take action and share your content.
Trending
Examining trending stories and current events can be an effective way to come up with new content ideas.
These ideas will be timely, unique and newsworthy. Focus on storylines that are already promoting conversation. Ride that same wave and develop content that is more likely to earn attention and be shared.
Creating content that includes trending stories and ideas is also a good way to show your audience that you have your finger on the pulse of your industry.
It also shows you are dedicated to keeping up with the latest developments in that industry.
There are more ways now than ever to identify trending content ideas. Whether through niche online publications or social media platforms.
It’s important to keep an eye out and capitalize when the next major story breaks.
How-To Articles
If you know your audience is specifically looking to learn a new process or skill, creating simple, instructional content is a great idea.
By leading your audience step-by-step from a problem to a solution, you’re creating a shareable resource that your readers will be excited to promote.
How-to articles can address readers’ concerns in a straightforward way that many users will appreciate.
As a content creator, you can save time by cutting out the fluff and getting straight to the point. How-to articles can plainly address some very particular situations with a fair amount of detail.
For example, if you’re an employer about to conduct your first interview, this how-to article breaks down effective interviewing methods and provides examples.
This type of shareable content provides value upfront with the purpose usually stated clearly in the title, so readers know exactly what to expect.
Closing Thoughts
How you choose to develop your content and showcase your ideas will ultimately depend on your audience and how they tend to interact with your content.
In order for your creative, infographic or blog post to be shared, you need to spark interest. By providing a fresh take on an idea, delight your readers by providing useful information that helps your audience solve a problem and provides them with valuable knowledge.
Knowing your audience’s interests and struggles and creating content that addresses these points is key when developing content.
In the end, your audience will thank you for providing relevant and useful information.
And hopefully, end up sharing your content with someone else who might benefit from your original work.
