October 2019 – Lauriane Lebrun, Marketing & Communications Coordinator
According to Brand24, “Social media reach is an estimated number of social media users that could have contact with a social media post.” If you’re looking to increase your reach, creating more shareable content is a good place to start. Here’s a quick summary of the Shareable Content Checklist from Alexa Internet:
- Content should be helpful, amusing, or interesting.
- Focus on creating content that is emotional, tied to identity, trending, and valuable.
- Write strong, attention-grabbing titles/headlines.
- Include images, and make sure they are sized and designed for social sharing.
- Make sharing easy by including social sharing buttons and encouraging audiences to spread the word.
- Ensure that audiences can find your content in the first place by making it SEO-friendly.
Some of these suggestions are easier said than done, though, right? Let’s review them in a little more detail…
Points #1 and #2 in the above list have to do with creating content that engages and excites your audience. Luckily, as a nonprofit, you have an advantage here. As Phil Mershon of Social Media Examiner explains, “People rarely wake up wondering what they can do for XYZ brand today. But they do dream of ways to help their favorite cause.” Whether you’re a charity or a trade association, you’re sure to get more attention by sharing your story and appealing to people’s passions and interests.
Regarding Point #3, I’d recommend checking out Neil Patel’s article, “How to Boost Your Social Shares Through These 10 Headline Formulas.” As the article explains, “80% of users who see your post will read the headline, but only 20% will actually read the content.”
Point #4 is pretty straightforward, and there’s plenty of research to back up this suggestion. According to Convince & Convert, “Social Media Strategist Jeff Bullas reports that Facebook posts with photos receive an average 37% increase in engagement. And Buzzsumo found that posts with images receive 2.3 times more engagement than those without.”
When it comes to encouraging people to share your content as recommended in point #5, consider the following advice from Adam Toren of Entrepreneur: “As with everything, you can’t expect to get what you want without asking for it. It’s important to ask the right people in the right way, though. A blanket, ‘Hey, share my post!’ blasted out to your social networks probably won’t see a lot of results. Instead, ask specific people. Tell them how it will benefit them and their followers.”
Finally, point #6 in the list above addresses Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This can get to be extremely complex, but the most important aspect you’ll want to learn about is keywords. This article from WordStream, “SEO Keywords: How Better Keyword Research Gets You Better Results,” is a great place to start.
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