How To Make A Post Shareable On Facebook 2018

How to Create Social Media Posts That are 'Shareable'

*Shareable* means something that is suitable for posting or reposting on a social media website or application.

Shareable, as an adjective, means something that is "suitable for posting or reposting on a social media website or application". That's the technical definition. We know that because no one has used the word "application" to mean an app in over a decade.

But what does it mean?

What makes something "suitable for posting or re-posting on a social media website or application"? How does one make a shareable social media post?

What is 'Shareable', Really?

Anyone who posts on any soci a l media knows what 'shareable post' means, or at least, they know the essence of it; any post that makes you want to share it is a shareable post, right? It's that simple; if you ask them why they wanted to share it and you'll get answers like, " I wanted more people to know about this" "I felt good/happy/inspired, I wanted others to feel it too " "This is important information that people should know" "It is beautifully written text/a beautiful picture" "This is a cause that I believe in, I want to support it" Or, my personal favorite, "I had to suffer through that, so my followers should too" (The last one is usually for gross facts or a really bad piece of writing or one of those "if you don't re-blog this" posts.)

Content gives the viewers incentive to share and helps them connect with other people.

Or you'll get something as simple as "I don't know, I felt like it". But a post is nothing but a combination or words or images or both; so what makes something so simple compel so many people to share it? Mostly, it's the content and the emotions behind it. Let's break down the answers:

"I wanted more people to know about this": the content was informative

"I felt good/happy/inspired, I wanted others to feel it too": the content was uplifting

"This is important information that people should know": it gave important information

"It is beautifully written text/a beautiful picture": it was aesthetically pleasing

"This is a good cause that I firmly believe in, I want to support it": the post takes a stance

"I had to suffer through that, so my followers should too": sharing the post, and getting reactions similar to theirs, will make them feel validated.

Basically, the content of a shareable post gives the viewers incentive to share and helps them connect with other people.

How to Create Shareable Posts?

Now that you know what a shareable post really is, let's move on to understanding how to create posts that can be categorized as 'shareable'.

→ Keep It Short and Simple
It's a well-known fact that the average attention span of an average human is around 8 seconds; most of the time, people are simply scrolling through social media rather than actively engaging with the content. So an obvious rule of thumb is to keep your content short enough to cater to this shorter-than-a-goldfish's attention span.

People are simply scrolling through social media rather than actively engaging with the content.

Unless absolutely necessary, keep your content as short as you can.
You can make an exception when you're sharing a story, or a scientific study, or serious, important information like a social movement. Even in such cases you need a really compelling headline (or first line, where you don't have the option for adding headlines) to pull people in and keep the content as to-the-point as you can.

→ Take Advantage of Visual Content
Another way to catch the attention of people just scrolling by on their social media is to use visual content; images, videos, gifs, memes, the works.

For a person scrolling through their feed, a simple text post is most likely just going to be a blur and blend in with the other text posts, no matter how interesting it is. But if the text is coupled with visual content, they will at least stop for a second to see what that image is, and if your text content catches their interest in that second, you have higher chances of gaining a viewer.

→ Surf Through Trends
Trends trend for a reason — they're shareable. So, even if your niche has nothing to do with a particular trend, you should always be in the loop and go through the topics, if only to pick up tricks and techniques. For all you know, you could find a way to tie in your content with a trend.

On Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and most other social media sites, you can find the trending topics through tags and hashtags. Some platforms even have 'Explore' pages that make searching for trends easier.

→ Use the Right Platform
The digital world is filled to the brim with social media sites, with new ones being launched regularly. In this scenario, it is vital that you choose the right platform to showcase your content. For example, you wouldn't want to post a meme on LinkedIn or a B2B related article on Instagram.

But sometimes it isn't as simple as that; you really need to study the platforms and its users in relation to your content. If you want to post an aesthetic picture, you'll have to figure out if it'll work better on Instagram or Pinterest; since both are visual-based social media platforms you'll have to factor in more factors than in the LinkedIn vs. Instagram situation.

→ Have High Standards in Quality
In the end, quality sells. It doesn't matter what tricks you use to get the user to read your content, if it is not good quality content, they will not share it. Whether through life hacks, happiness, a sense of community, or even interesting facts, adding value to the viewers' lives should be a priority when you're creating content.

→ Use Your Brand Voice
Knowing your brand archetype and brand voice helps massively in making your posts shareable. If your audience sees a definitive personality in your brand, through your posts, and if it resonates with them, the chances of them sharing your posts will increase immensely.

→ Engage With Your Audience
Interacting with your community is a highly underrated, but essential, part of what makes a post shareable. You can engage with them through the comments; 'engage' meaning holding an actual conversation with them, a conversation that reflects your brand personality, lets them know that they're talking to humans.

Don't give them a bland reply and leave them hanging — that's an easy way to lose customers.

→ Carefully, Include Pop Culture
This partially falls under the "Surf Through Trends" point, but needs a little more elaboration. Regardless of your opinions of it, pop culture is, well, popular. So including references, sometimes subtly, sometimes blatantly, will help boost the Shareability of your posts.

Pop Culture References will help boost the Shareability of your posts.

But you have to do it carefully and sparingly, only where it makes sense, or else it will lose its charm. Think of it as your mother's precious china, the ones that she only ever gets out for *special* guests. Now, it's only special because you use it sparingly; if you started using it every day, it loses its special status and you'll eventually start treating it like any other utensil.

So use pop culture, but carefully.

→ Practice Content Curation
Creating original content on a regular basis is really hard as it is, but if you want to make it shareable as well, the task is near impossible. In such cases, you can make use of content curation. Now, some argue against this, saying that it kills originality or is stealing, but none of it is true. As a writer, if you don't give yourself a break from time to time, the stress that comes with it is what kills originality.

So on the days when you feel that you just can't squeeze out original content, it is okay to lean back on curated content.

→ Link Your Social Accounts
If you have multiple accounts (which you should have), it is recommended that you link all of them to each other. So if you post something on one platform, say Instagram, you can choose to post it on other platforms like Facebook and Twitter as well. This gives your content more exposure and it can help you get your Twitter followers to follow you one Facebook and vice versa.

What Not to Stress About

Creating sharable content is not as hard as it seems; people only feel that because they expect all of their posts to go viral. What you need to realize is that all you content is not going to turn out to be shareable, and that's okay. If you stress yourself out over a few of your posts not being shared, it'll affect the next content you give out and soon none of your post will be sharable.

It can be really hard to pick out sharable topics every day, so make a monthly calendar and schedule out the topics for that month.

Unless you are a big company with a reputation on social media, you're not going to get hundreds of likes and shares in the first 2 days after posting. So you need to give it time before deeming the post a fail. You might also have to repost it again to accommodate different time zones (and not just of the world).

For example, if your post targets people with jobs, you'll have to post your content in the morning, when they have breakfast, and repost it twice more; once in the afternoon, at their lunch time and once at night, when they've come home and are relaxing.

Don't stress about the topics that you pick out. It can be really hard to pick out sharable topics every day, so make a monthly calendar and schedule out the topics for that month. Sure, it may take an hour or two out of one day, but once you're done, you'll be set for the next whole month.

If you can't find a way to add 'shareable elements' into your content, stressing about it won't get you anywhere. Find a viral post (it doesn't have to relate to your topic, but if it is, it'll only help) and pick it apart. Deconstruct the post into different elements like visual, text, link, etc. Then study each element; What visuals were used? How was the text structured? What kind of language was used? Answer such questions about the post to understand what made that post so shareable.

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Creating shareable content might seem daunting but once you've broken it down into techniques, tricks, methods, into a science, it's not hard. You need to know how to target, what platforms to use, how to structure your words, what and when to share to stand out among the many others trying to get your audiences' attention.

People think having your content deemed 'shareable' or 'viral' is all about luck, but there is nothing lucky about it. Content goes viral because it's either entertaining, or informative, or unusual, or it elicits a strong emotion in the viewer.

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