At a basic level, there are a few things that every blog post should have to make it shareable. Whether it actually gets shared depends on the quality of the content – remember, there is no ‘viral’ button to push. However, making it easy for your blog to be shared will significantly increase the chance of your content spreading across the web.
Pictures
Every blog post should have a picture. Not only do pictures make the post more attractive, but they make it easy to share on social media channels. When you post a blog to a social media channel like Facebook or LinkedIn, the picture on your blog will show up in a link preview. If there is no picture, the person sharing the blog is left to find a picture on his or her own. More likely, they will pass on sharing it since it doesn’t look good to have a link with no image.
Short Headlines
I suggest keeping the headline to about five or six words, maximum. This will help in a variety of ways. Short headlines are more to the point, they are more engaging, and, in most cases, they are more descriptive. Additionally, the complete headline will show up on any social media channel in a link preview, tweet or description. You don’t want your blog title to be cut off in the middle of a word.
Most blog URLs match the title. For example, the url of this post is katiewagnersocialmedia.com/4-ways-to-make-your-blog-shareable. The longer your title, the longer your URL. This is important because, in general, shorter URLs are better for SEO.
Social Sharing Buttons
If you want your content to be shared, you need to make it easy for people to share it. Installing social sharing buttons on your blog does that. With a click of a button, an automatically generated post will be sent to social media.
Quotables
Highlighting sentences that convey a powerful thought will make your content more shareable. Every blog post is going to have a few sentences that are a complete thought or idea in a single sentence. These are like gold for sharing. Whenever people share a blog post, they usually look for something other than the title to write. If you highlight or bold a sentence or two that is compelling, they will be more likely to share your content. For example, if you wanted to share this post, you could use the sentence at the beginning of this paragraph. (See what I did there…)
Although there is no way to guarantee that your blog post will be shared, taking these easy steps will make it easier for your readers to share it if they are so inclined.
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