4 Factors Affecting Your Social Shares

Are your blogs share-worthy? Getting people to read your blog is one thing, but getting people to click the “share” button is a whole different game. When writing buzz-creating content it helps to know what people like to share. Recent research revealed just what drives those readers to click the almighty share button, and we’d like to pass some of that information on to you here.

At Black Tie Digital Marketing we track everything, including which posts generate the most engagement. If it’s measurable, we measure it. As the late Karl Pearson said, “That which is measured improves.” According to a recent Social Media Examiner article, the following factors greatly impact a person’s decision to share or not to share:

• Mobile is a must. The amount of content shared over the course of 2014 approximately doubled since 2013. If your strategy does not encompass a mobile-focus, you’re automatically missing a major market opportunity.
• Facebook is boss. Although the researchers did not include Instagram in their study, Facebook dominated the other prominent social media platforms when it comes to sharing. 81% of shares in 2014 took place on Facebook, while the next highest number of shares was generated on Pinterest at only 7%. It’s important to note that overall engagement is actually on the decline. So if you’re not seeing the same interaction you used to seeing, you’re not alone.
• “List” posts are favored. We’ve all seen them and we’ve all shared them; “10 Reasons…” or “7 Ways…” On the other end of the spectrum, how-to links are the least popular among shared posts.
• Early afternoon is best. Thursday and Friday are the best days to post on Facebook, with peak sharing at 1:00 p.m.

While these four factors will certainly help you optimize your content marketing and social media strategies, remember that measurement and your own engagement are the keys to share-worthiness.