Every online writer, blogger and marketer aims for popularity. That's one of the main goals of producing content for web publications. Unfortunately, there is no step-by-step guide you can follow precisely if you want to achieve the status of an online celebrity. The reason is simple: Success is an Individual Journey.
As a writer, you are targeting a unique audience with its own preferences and problems. However, there are universal principles of popularity that will make it easier for you to understand what your audience expects. In the continuation, you will find 8 tips that will help you create engaging, shareable content.
Ask questions that engage the readers
When you ask a question, people will like to answer it. When you encourage your readers to comment, they will do that through their social media profiles. Most readers will click the share button and provide their opinion on their own profiles. There is a reason for that; it's called ego. People use social media because they want others to know how awesome they are. That's why they want their friends to see the smart comment they wrote regarding your posts.
There are few ways to engage your audience:
- Ask questions related to their lifestyle and interests.
- Intrigue them with controversial topics and ask for their opinion.
- Request feedback on your products, services, or recommendations.
Remember: If your readers answer, you should reply. But you shouldn't post a response to every single comment you get, but do reply to the readers that have questions of their own.
Write valuable & Engaging content
If a potential reader doesn't think he would gain something by reading your post, he won't bother proceeding after seeing the title. In order to provide valuable content, you need to understand what your audience wants to see. Monitor social media networks to see what your target reader is interested in. Then, provide content written with authoritative style. You need to look like an expert who can offer solutions, tips, recommendations, and information that will improve the quality of their lives.
Write something that will add value to the general base of web content. Your readers will want their friends on social media to obtain the same benefits, so they will share your posts on their profiles. Check more tips to create eye catchy content.
Understand your Readers
If you don't know who your target reader is, you can't build a connection with him. First of all, you need to understand the demographics. What's the age, location, gender, and ethnicity of your ideal reader? When you have those parameters set, you'll be able to adjust a suitable tone.
You need to go a bit further than that. Analyze your readers' interests, mindset, problems, and behavior on social media. ComScore is one of the tools you can use for audience analytics. It analyzes your website visitors and provides information about the size and quality of the target audience.
When people share content on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other platforms, they like using relevant hashtags. This trend makes it easy for you to promote your content on the web. You can start your own hashtags and publish different posts related to them. When many people start sharing their opinions under that hashtags, it can easily go viral.
Another benefit of hashtagging is the ability to monitor the activity of your target audience. You just explore the hashtag you created, and you'll easily see all posts that contain it. From that point on, it will be up to you to find a way to communicate with your audience.
Sometimes you lack the needed knowledge to write an outstanding article covering a particular trend. Maybe you don't have time to write the weekly post you promise, but your audience is expecting it and you can't disappoint them. If you don't provide high-quality content on regular basis, your audience will soon forget about your site and the number of shares will go down.
That's why you need to ask for help from people who write professionally.
Make it easy for people who want to share it
If the reader can't find a social sharing toolbar after reading your great content, he won't bother copying the link to share it on his social media page. Failing to feature these buttons on a prominent place is a certain recipe for you to lose a great number of shares. You want to make everything easy for a reader, so make sure to offer a sharing button that does all the work for him.
ShareThis enables you to install buttons and bars of different styles on your page.
Add the perfect visual content
You need to combine your text with appealing, 'pinnable' images that will hold the reader's attention. You might be surprised to find out that your images will get more pins when compared to the number of shares the post gets. That's because Pinterest is a community that can make a great image go viral with the speed of light.
You can use istockphoto.com or stockfootage.com to find captivating images, but you can also create your own visual content with Canva, PicMonkey and similar online tools.
Use conversational tone
If you want to connect with your audience, you need to write in language they understand. Do not use 'academic' tone. Yes, it makes you look smart and it's perfectly suitable for essays and research papers, but that's not what the online audience wants to read. Explore the conversations of your target audience and analyze the tone they use.
Then, write in a language they understand. Imagine you're addressing the reader personally, and it will be easy for you to tailor the perfect style. When you establish a connection with your readers, they will visit your site in regular intervals, looking for more content to share.
When You Provide Useful Content and You Make It Engaging, Everyone Will Love to Share It!
Your target reader has different problems, unanswered questions, interests, and needs. If you can provide information that's useful for him, you'll discover the quickest and easiest way to increase the number of shares.
Above article is contributed by Stephanie Norman. She is a content marketing specialist and a professional writer associated with AustralianWritings. She writes business, creative, and academic contentas a freelancer. You can follow her at and .Don't miss to share your valuable response with us for the article, below is the comment section
