Want to know how to get more blog post shares? This post will outline exactly what I did to get over 3K blog post shares for multiple posts.
Blogging is hard work. It takes a lot of time and effort and requires an unwavering dedication to push through when all you feel like doing is throwing in the towel.
You work hard to create high-quality content that your audience will love. You dream about readers sharing your content and receiving hundreds of comments from appreciative visitors.
You’ve spent hours working on an article. You finally work up the courage to send it out into the online world. And then, you discover that no one is actually reading what you’ve written. It’s deflating. This alone has the potential to send you into a downward spiral.
You start questioning whether you’re on the right track, whether you should continue with your blog.
Maybe I’m just not made for this? Maybe I should just give up now before too much more time passes?
Is all this effort even worth it?
You’re not alone. I’ve felt like this many times before too.
So, how do you get people to share your content?
There are a few simple changes you can make to increase your blog post shares. If you search ‘how to get social shares’, ‘how to get your blog noticed’ or something else along those lines on Google, most articles will tell you to add pictures to your posts, share your posts in Facebook groups, ask for blog post shares…
I’m not going to tell you to do this. Using images, sharing on social media and providing calls to action are all well and good. But, they’re not going to make any difference unless you’ve included a few other key components. I’ll get to that in a minute.
Firstly, let’s look at why you want people to share your content.
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More eyes on your content
Pretty obvious, right? The more times your content is shared, the more potential readers you have on your site. When you’re providing high-quality content, you’re able to share your knowledge and expertise with a large audience.
That is what is so great about blogging and online business. It provides a connection to a global audience. In other industries, you would be paying mega bucks to get your content seen on a global scale. The rise of blogging and social media has meant that with a few clicks of the mouse, we can share our content with someone on the other side of the world. Pretty amazing, right?
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Form of Social Proof
Sharing Tools, such as Social Warfare, have made the process of post sharing easy. These tools also allow bloggers to promote their “share counts” as a form of social proof.
For example, say you come across two blog posts on exactly the same topic. You see that one post has been shared 5 times. The other one however, has been shared over 1.2K times. Which one are you likely to read? The one that has been shared over a thousand times! Why is that? Because social proof allows you to establish trust with your audience.
People are more likely to read and share a post when they can see that others have confidence in the content as well. Which leads me to my next point…
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Helps to Establish Yourself as a Leader in Your Field
Sharing increases social proof which increases trust and confidence in your brand. For instance, say I am a new visitor to your site. I’ve never heard of you before or read any of your content. I land on one of your blog posts and see that is has been shared thousands of times before.
Immediately, the level of confidence I feel in relation to your content increases. I can instantly determine that other people have found your content helpful, so there is a pretty good chance that I will too.
As your share count increases, so does your readers’ level of confidence and trust in your brand. When people trust what you are putting out into the world, this, in turn, helps to establish you as a leader in your specific field.
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Identifies the Main Interests of Your Audience
When people share your blog posts, it generally means that they have enjoyed reading your content. As your share count increases, it becomes easier to see a pattern in terms of what your audience favours.
Eventually, you might have some posts that have received thousands of shares compared to others that have only received a hundred or so. This is a good sign to write more content based on the topics of popular posts.
So now that you know why sharing your content is important, let’s look at how to make it happen. At the time of writing, 3 of my blog posts have been shared over 3,000 times.
I first started blogging in December 2017. In saying that, I would write a post every blue moon and wasn’t really too serious about promoting it anywhere but on my website itself. It is only within the last few months that I have become more serious about the potential of blogging and have really started to “up my game”.
**To ensure complete transparency, I feel it is worth noting that one of these posts was written in September 2018. The other two, however, were written early 2018. This post was originally published in March 2019. Given that one is only a few months old, I don’t believe the time is a major factor in relation to the share counts.
Here are the posts that have been shared over 3K times:
Source: SharedCount
*Note: Style Maker Studio used to be under the URL stylemakerstudio.com prior to 2020.
Here’s what you need to do to increase the chances of people sharing your content:
1. Solve a Problem
First and foremost, every single blog post you create needs to solve a problem. When someone lands on your site, they are generally only interested in one thing – ‘what’s in it for me?’. They are looking for a solution to take them from their current situation (problem) to their desired situation (solution).
If you look at each of the posts above, you’ll see that they are solving a problem. Regardless of the topic, each post presents the problem and then offers a solution so the reader can move forward.
2. Create a Catchy Title
After doing a bit of research, I’ve come to the conclusion that a catchy title generally conveys one of more of the following traits: curiosity, benefit-driven, fear of missing out, urgency.
Let’s look at the 3 posts again.
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‘How to Stop Competing on Price’ (benefit-driven)
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‘Design Secrets to Brand Success’ (fear of missing out, the word “secrets” also creates an element of curiosity)
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‘6 Questions You Need to Be Able to Answer Before Creating a Brand’ (Urgency)
The title is often the first thing people will notice. Therefore, it is important to ensure that the title piques your reader’s interest and encourages them to read on.
Remember, the goal is to get them to take action and click on the post. With that said, you also want to be providing high-quality content to support the title.
3. Use LSI Graph to Find Keywords
LSI Graph is one of my favourite keyword finders. I don’t know a lot about SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), but I believe that using LSI Graph has had a significant impact on my website traffic and my share count.
LSI Graph makes it easy to find keywords that are related to the main keyword. Without confusing you too much, when these related keywords are added throughout blog posts, this helps search engines, like Google, understand our content better.
Every time I write a blog post, I use LSI Graph to find keywords. I add these keywords throughout my blog posts and as tags. I also use LSI Graph to create different titles for my posts, which I talk more about in the next point. As an added bonus, LSI Graph offers 30 free searches a month.
4. Create Alternate Titles for Each Post
For every blog post I write, I create a total of four title variations. To give you an idea of what I mean, I’ve created a list below:
- How to Stop Competing on Price
- How to Communicate Value to Your Audience
- How to Attract Clients Who Don’t Question Your Value
- Sick of Competing on Price? Do This Instead.
It is important to remember to keep the title relevant to the post content. There is no point in using a title that doesn’t relate to the article itself. This will only create confusion and distrust with your audience.
Again, I would recommend using LSI Graph to help you come up with different titles. Don’t forget to add new keywords throughout your post to make Google happy!
5. Create Multiple Pins for One Post
So, now that you’ve created all of these titles, what do you do with them? You can only add one title when you write a post, right?
Well, that’s where the power of Pinterest comes into it. If you’re not using Pinterest as a blogger or online business owner, you are missing out on a ton of free website traffic. With over 250 million users, this incredible visual search engine is your ‘not so secret weapon’.
For each title, create a brand new pin image and add your blog post link. Update the description with a brief summary of your post. Don’t forget to focus on the problem that you are solving for your audience when writing out your description. Using keywords here will also help to get more eyes on your content.
6. Use Tailwind to Promote Your Posts
Once you have created pin images for each title variation and added them to Pinterest, use Tailwind to further promote your blog posts.
Tailwind is a Pinterest scheduling tool that allows you to save tons of time when it comes to maintaining your presence on Pinterest. You can schedule hundreds of pins within a short amount of time and loop your most popular content with a few clicks of a button.
Want to try Tailwind for yourself? Sign up here for a free trial.
7. Continue Using Manual Pinning Strategies
Last year, I purchased ‘Pinteresting Strategies’ by Carly from Mommy On Purpose. Although I initially bought it as an ebook, Carly has recently updated it as an online course. She shares a wealth of information on how to generate more website traffic primarily using manual pinning methods.
The best thing about this course is that already I have been through it several times. Yet, each time I go over the information, I learn something new! Combining scheduling tools with manual pinning methods means you keep Pinterest happy, whilst skyrocketing your website traffic at the same time. Win-win!
I make sure I am pinning manually at least several times a week. Pinterest is one of my favourite platforms too, which helps! Often, I try not to make it feel like a chore, but more of a relaxation exercise.
So, there you have it – the exact steps I took to generate over 3,000 blog post shares (for multiple posts).
If you think it seems like a lot of work, you would be right. Blogging involves a lot of effort, dedication, trial and error. Personally, I have reached a point where I can’t give up. That’s not to say that I don’t feel like giving up multiple times throughout a single week, but I force myself to keep going – “just keep swimming”.
For me, I am trying to break my blogging journey down into small stages and focus on one thing at a time. As a new blogger, there are lots of things I could be doing. There are lots of things I need to be doing. However, it often feels too overwhelming to look at the big picture. With so many tasks to complete, I find it hard to know where to start. And I get caught in “analysis paralysis”, unable to move forward with anything.
There’s no secret though. There’s no quick fix. Just hard work and dedication. I hope this post helps you to get your work out there. Remember, just one small step at a time.
Post Author:
Tessa
