Sharing digital content has rhyme and reason behind it but more importantly there’s science behind it. Researchers have found triggers that inspire people to engage in online activities like so:
Social Approval: The general crowd expresses when they receive positive feedback from their peers and social circle. Sharing content is a way to display one’s personality to a group of people.
Communication: Being social is key, people want to nurture relationships with other folks. Digital content is often how we say hello, sharing content that starts a conversation is ideal.
Support Ideas: Social media is often used to seek support from others for ideas, political views and belief systems. In this way, users connect over general themes.
Entertainment : People use social media to relax and escape. Entertaining content includes memes, movies, music and more. This type of content is more popular.
Create High-Quality Content
There’s no escaping high quality content, it’s often forgotten in the midst of creating a lot of content. Shareable content is always good quality content. Superficial topics and too many trendy topics don’t give the best result. You need to spend enough time into research or creation, this will ensure that your followers become interested and engaged.
Use Smart Structuring
Internet users are quick when reading and having a text chunker will not do the job. Ensure that you format your content in a smart way. Break the text by bullet points, listicles, quotes, headlines and more.
Add Value to Readers Lives
How does your content benefit readers? Why should they take out the time? If your content isn’t useful then they’re not going to stick with it. A crucial goal is to solve a reader’s problem or give them information that is relevant in their life in some way or another. Create content that is helpful and can be passed around.
Keep Your Audience in Mind
Before even creating the content, think about your target audience. This should lead the entire content creation process. Ask yourself if your audience will read and share this content. Create engagement and observe the same so you can create better in the future as well.
Infographics are handy
Infographics bring in the visual element that can really help break down the monotony that comes with content creation. It also helps reduce a large amount of data into simpler graphs. It further promotes impact and readability. Infographics are also easier to share - they keep the essence of the information. The most important thing is to use your business expertise and data to create something your audience will find valuable.
Elicit Emotions
If you’re not triggering emotions, your content is not getting through. A lot of successful marketing campaigns achieve this by sparking strong emotional reactions in their audience. Emotions like joy, sorrow, intrigue have the power to impact how a person acts and in this case, share content with others. It’s important to use this impact in a way that is beneficial.
Nostalgia factor
You must have seen a social media post at some point and thought “I used to do that!”. Users universally enjoy content that takes them back to their older days and if you can analyze your audience right, you can find what would appeal to them. It could be a 90s inspired campaign or an early 20s trend, bring back the disco era and watch your audience engage based on nostalgia.
Offer something
Who doesn’t love free stuff? Noone. Social media pages are often the hubs of offers, be it a discount, a product/service, a coupon and more! You can even offer incentives in exchange for participation on social media. There are giveaways and special editions shared often by digital magazines on social media! This creates a ripple effect that compensates for the investment in a reward.
Trendy Topics
Trends work for a reason. It’s simply data of what people are into at this point in time. Staying up to date with trendy topics can help you create that doesn’t end up in archives. Follow industry and look keenly into what type of content is being shared. most. Consider you can contribute content for the same and dive right in.
Encourage engagement
Having online contests is a great way to have your audience come forward and inspire them to share your content. Digital users don’t mind competing due to the comfort of the platform. You see people ready to forward content and interact on all platforms. Get an innovative idea and encourage your audience to engage through contests that are both fun and have a reward attached.
Develop a sense of humor
Publishing is a serious industry but your social media doesn't have to be. This is a platform where people come to talk and interact. Funny posts, images, memes and videos grab more attention. Having content that intrigues the audience, gives them a little laugh, increases the shelf life of your content. It also helps you get more followers.
Video content
Video content is all the rave. It’s dominating most social platforms today. Especially shorter videos. As a content creator ensure that the content you put out is also aided with videos that hold the essence of your text content. Videos have a better scope of going viral as they’re more accessible and easy to share. Short form videos are the most popular medium today, make use of those 60 secs and communicate your powerful story.