Friend, you probably already work hard at coming up with things to say to your audience in your:
social media captions
blog posts
emails
… and you cross your fingers when you hit “publish” and just hope that it lands … am I right?
What if your content didn’t just resonate with your audience, but they liked what you had to say so much that they couldn’t wait to share it with their networks?
Not only would you make an impression on the people who already follow your business, but you’d get in front of their friends and followers, too!
What is shareable content?
Shareable content doesn’t just provide education or inspiration for your small business audience.
Shareable content makes it easy for your ideal customers or clients to “shout” something “from the rooftops” that they feel strongly about.
So, it’s not just something that is important to you and to your ideal audience; it’s a message that they feel represents them so well that they want to share it publicly.
Just like with word-of-mouth or referral marketing, your current followers, customers, and clients are the best possible advertisement for your business. All you have to do is share a message that they’ll want to share, too, and you’ll be able to reach your audience and theirs.
Like you can see from the image above, posts that go beyond valuable and become shareable help you impact an exponentially larger number of ideal customers or clients.
70% of the people who saw my Instagram post were not following me yet, but because I reached them through our mutual connections, there is a good chance that they are also my ideal audience (birds of a feather flock together!).
How to create shareable content
Nail down your ideal customer or client
To know what will be shareable you have to know what will make your ideal customer or client feel seen and heard and what they’ll think is so useful that they want to share it, too.
What are your ideal customers’:
desires?
hopes?
curiosities?
frustrations?
soap-box issues?
If you don’t feel crystal-clear about your ideal customer or client right now, start with this post
Consider what they’ll find inspiring or useful
The most shareable content is something that might make your ideal customer or client think, “Get outta my head!” or, “I’m so glad you said that!”
For example, as of right now, here are the topics of 5 of my most-shared Instagram posts in the last year:
9 Reasons to Shop Small this Holiday Season
1 Shocking True Story You Should Know About Women’s History Month
White Women, We Should Know About Juneteenth
3 Black Women in U.S. History We Should Know About
5 Things Working Moms Want You to Know
These posts are about complex issues that I simplified and made easy for my audience to relate to and share so they feel seen, heard, and helpful.
Can you articulate something that you know your ideal customers are feeling right now and wanna share with the world?
Give them a call-to-action
Even if you create a super-relatable piece of content, you can’t just assume that your audience will start sharing it right away.
Give them specific instructions to share the content if resonates. People need a reminder to take action! Include a call-to-action in your content like this:
Share this with your audience if you can relate
Hit “share” to spread awareness
Share if you feel the same way
The whole point of your content is to get your business in front of right eyeballs. Shareable content will help you connect with an ideal audience and access their networks.