7 Ways to Create Share-Worthy Content

By Olivia Dello Buono October 10, 2016

In this week’s #EmailChat, we teamed up with Express Writers, a copywriting agency known for creating epic content for their clients, to talk about the ways that modern marketers can optimize their content for maximum shareability.

From getting more likes, shares and retweets to increasing email opens and clicks, read on for your five-minute guide to share-worthy content.

When creating content, aim to engage

You can’t predict when or if a piece of content will go viral, but you can aim to make your content more engaging. And creating actionable, engaging content is a vital part of any marketing strategy.

Shareable content is – in it’s most simplest terms – content that has a likelihood to be shared. MovableInk calls it content that “makes you feel something.” It’s how you know you’re delivering a great experience to your readers.

Shareable content is not one-size-fits-all

We asked what the qualities of a share-worthy piece of content were, and we received quite the influx of tweets on the topic! Our guest, Express Writers, said, “Shareable content should provide value to your audience and speak to their interests. Give them what they’re looking for!”

Others stressed the importance of relevancy.

What is the goal of your content? What kind of feeling are you trying to evoke from your audience? It’s important that you answer these questions as you walk through the content creation process.

Some are more shareable than others

The content that sees the highest engagement really depends on your audience, but we have seen some stats that suggest that multimedia content has a higher likelihood of sharing.

Think eye-catching graphics, videos, and GIFs. List-style posts also do really well, as people love their quick and “snackable” format.

Optimize for shares

You guys couldn’t stress it enough: When it comes to creating shareable content, you should make it easy for your readers to share! This means adding social sharing buttons to every post, ‘Pin It’ buttons on images, click-to-tweet links, etc.

We loved what @PamelaHughes shared about promoting her email list:

Plus, teasing your email content is a great strategy for giving people incentive to sign up for your newsletter.

Add these words to your email vernacular

When’s the last time you asked your followers to retweet your post? Or your email subscribers to forward your newsletter to a friend?

Sometimes the most obvious answer is something that gets glossed over, but telling people to simply “share” your content can have a big impact.

Keep an eye on your performance

The numbers don’t lie; if you’re serious about optimizing your content, analyzing your data is a must.

Whether you’re looking to increase your reach on social media or improve your open and click through rates, you need to get down and dirty with your data. Again, remember the goal and make necessary tweaks to continuously improve.

TL;DR: Your share-worthy content checklist

Before you hit ‘send’ (…or post, tweet, pin), be sure to consider the following as you review your content:

• Emotion – How does it make your reader feel?
• Relevance – Does this piece of content fit your niche?
• Design – Are you using the right colors and graphics to optimize for shares?
• Targeting – Does your content include the right words, phrases and hashtags to get your audience to interact?

Next month

Join us on Thursday, November 3 at 12pm ET for the next #EmailChat, featuring guest host AddThis. Spread the word: