As social media has become more widely accepted as a marketing channel, many businesses are wondering how to make content more shareable.

Learn what works for other businesses

Monitor your competitors and a selection of other businesses that have a successful social media strategy. Look at what they are posting and learn from their successes (and mistakes). Consider who the key bloggers are in your industry sector and take the time to regularly read their posts. If certain things work for others, see how you can adapt their strategies for your business.

Write relatable content

People tend to respond to content that they can relate to on an “everyday” level. Food, relationships, family, lifestyles and home articles are some of the most popular articles out there. Business and tech articles, or standard news articles, only make up a small percentage of content that is shared. Essentially, people want to share with others something that touched them on a personal level.

Experiment

Don’t be afraid to try new things. Make changes, try different approaches and monitor the effect on your web statistics. Track “shares” and “click-throughs” in order to determine what works.

Different social media networks

Just because something works on one social media network, it doesn’t mean it will work on another. A video might go “viral” on YouTube but that doesn’t mean it will be widely shared on LinkedIn. Recycling your content is fine, but make sure that you adapt it appropriately for different media. LinkedIn tends to be more business-focused, whereas Facebook is more home-orientated and isn’t widely used for business. Twitter and YouTube tend to be used by both home and business users. Google+ is essentially an alternative to Facebook, and Pinterest is more for personal use than business. These are only broad guidelines – you need to decide which social media networks will work best for you.