Chapter 5: Bonus Methods For Increasing Your Social Shares

Bonus Material: 45 Ways To Attract Massive Social Shares

Intro | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Free PDF

We’ve already given you tons of ways to increase your social shares from your content, website, email list, and social media profiles.

But, there were a few strategies we had to list that just didn’t fit into any of those categories. And they definitely deserve a mention.

Plus, who doesn’t love bonuses?

So here are a few more ways you can increase your social shares.

You got to the end of the guide! But have you actually taken action on the strategies? Download the entire guide in ebook form for FREE and action it at your leisure.

Click here to download this entire guide for free.

Reach Out to Influencers

Last year, one of my clients went viral using the challenge method I referenced in Chapter 2.

She wrote a case study on my blog about it, and it was such a strong case study that I wanted it to have maximum reach.

So, following the advice of people much smarter than me, I dug through BuzzSumo to find bloggers who had also written about the topic of going viral:

It turned out that there were a few bloggers in the list who I was familiar with, as I’d been reading their blogs for some time. So, I reached out to them with a link to my client’s case study:

And a good number of them shared the article, like Brian Dean from the popular SEO blog Backlinko did on Twitter.

If I were to re-do this, I’d cut that email in half. That’s a looong email.

When an influencer shares your content, their audience takes notice - and is likely to share it as well, increasing your overall social shares (not to mention your social proof!).

Protip: I was entirely comfortable doing this because I knew that the case study was amazing content. Don’t bother influencers with anything less. At best, they’ll ignore you. At worst, you’ll piss them off.

Tools: Use BuzzSumo (no affiliation with Sumo or AppSumo!) to find bloggers and writers who are creating content around the same topics as you. Not only will their audiences be relevant to your content, but they’ll also be more likely to share yours (if it’s good, at least).

Submit Your Content to Newsletters

Part of getting more social shares is getting more traffic to your content.

Think about it: if only 10 people see your content, and 10% of your visitors share your content, only one person will share that content.

That, folks, is what I’d describe as “bleak”.

One of the highest, and most engaged sources of traffic we’ve seen to our stories is traffic from newsletters.

In every niche there are newsletters that curate content - and the idea here is to get your content in them.

After you create amazing content relevant to the newsletters in your niche, reach out to the owners of the newsletter and ask to be included.

This gets your content in front of their audience, and in front of a whole new group of people who are itching to share it.

Protip: Don’t be a generic Gerald. When you’re doing any sort of outreach, be personal and don’t reach out to people you know nothing about. That’s a recipe for disaster.

Reach Out to Your Network

If there’s one tool we all have in our arsenal, it’s a network.

And yet, it’s the one tool we use the least often. And look, I get it. It’s a bit uncomfortable to ask your friends, family members, and acquaintances for help.

But if you’re unwilling to do so, you’re missing out. Because the people who already know and like you want to lend a hand. And they’re probably proud of what you’re doing.

Plus, they’re the most likely people to follow through on your requests.

Reach out to your network and ask them to share your content or products on social media. Don’t do this for everything you publish, but there’s no harm in asking for a little help here and there from your people.

Protip: Instead of reaching out in a group message or a generic email where you CC your network, reach out individually. This might take a lot longer and be more work, but it’s worth it. You’ll maintain your integrity with your family and friends, and they’ll be far more likely to follow through.

Update Your Email Signature

Have you ever considered how many pieces of online real estate you own?

It’s actually pretty cool to think about. Your website, blog, social media profiles, email list, email addresses…

Even your email signature is a prime piece of real estate. After all, think about how many people you email on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis! I bet you send at least a couple dozen emails per month.

Use all of your online real estate wisely. Update your email signature with a call to action to share your latest piece of content.

Hire a Promotion Service

Okay, so say you read this guide and are thinking:

“But Sarah, this is a lot of work. Can’t I just wave a magic wand and have it done for me?”

And the answer is yes.

Money talks. And if you don’t have the time or capacity to put toward promoting your website or digging into these methods to increase your social shares, you can hire a promotion service to get more shares.

This is not something we’ve done, so I can’t comment on how effective it is, but if you choose a reliable, reputable service (ask around in entrepreneur Facebook groups and communities), you should be able to increase your shares.

Protip: Some promotion services will automate your promotion so it spams social channels with bots. Be careful of who you hire to do this.

Tools: We’ve never used them, but Blogpros is one example of a promotion service for your content.

Ask for the Share in Your Podcast Intro

If you have a podcast, your call to action is probably to get that review on iTunes, right?

All you podcasters are the same.

But if you really want to drive up your social shares, it might be time to replace that review call to action with a request for social shares.

In your show intro and outro, request that your listeners share the episode. Be specific with your ask. If you value Faceook shares the most, then request that they share it on Facebook. Don’t just say “social media” - that’s a recipe for getting no shares.

Give Away a Discount for Social Shares

Don’t you love getting a deal on something?

I know I do. There’s nothing better than saving a few bucks on something you wanted to buy anyway.

Your customers probably feel the same way, and you can take advantage of that to increase your social shares by giving away a discount in exchange for the sharing of your product.

This is uber-effective for physical products on visual platforms like Pinterest, because when your customer Pins your products for the discount, the image of your product is getting in front of their followers, increasing traffic and sales:

Tools: You can use the Viral Coupon WordPress Plugin to help you do this on your WordPress website, or if you use Shopify, there’s an app for that.

Chapter Checklist

These bonus methods have the potential to bring in a ton of social shares, and strengthen your relationships in the process.

  • Have you reached out to influencers who would appreciate your content to ask them to share it?
  • Have you submitted your content to industry newsletters?
  • Have you reached out to your friends, family, and colleagues to ask them to share your content?
  • Have you given away a discount for more social shares?
  • Have you updated your email signature with a call to action to share your latest content?
  • Have you considered hiring a promotion service?
  • Have you asked for the social share in your podcast intro or outro?

After you’ve used some of these bonus methods (I recommend putting a heavy emphasis on the first and third options), you’ve officially graduated from social sharing bootcamp.

Congratulations.

Want the book to prove it? Click the button below to download this entire guide for free.

Click here to download a FREE eBook with every single method of increasing your social shares.

Start Getting 30% More Traffic to Your Website

As of 2015, 28% of the time we spend online is spent on social media sites.

Think about that in terms of all the other things you spend time online doing.

Surely you spend some of your online hours working, reading articles, receiving and responding to emails, and Googling how to correctly say the word “niche” (answer: neesh. Not “nitch”).

So to spend almost a third of your online hours sifting through Facebook posts and Repinning recipes is impressive.

It’s not just you, either. Your target audience is spending just as much time on social media.

And if you’re not getting your content, product, or website in front of them by increasing your social shares, you’re giving up 30% of the traffic you deserve.

Throughout this guide, I threw a lot of information your way. 45 strategies to increase your social shares in fact (and counting).

So if you’re getting a little lost in the weeds, here’s how to use it:

  • Step 1: Go through your website and implement the strategies in Chapter 1. This is the lowest hanging fruit and if you don’t have these tactics in place, you won’t be able to maximize the traffic you’re getting from the social sharing that already is happening.
  • Step 2: Choose one (maximum two) social network to focus on (remember: have a singular priority) for implementing the rest of the strategies.
  • Step 3: Choose your own adventure. Pick a chapter that resonates with you, and start tackling the strategies in that chapter one by one with the one or two social networks you chose in step 2.
  • Step 4: Once you start getting traction with the chapter you chose, rinse and repeat for the rest.
  • Step 5: Profit.

And don’t forget to download this guide so you can refer to it again and again:

Click here to download a FREE eBook with every single method of increasing your social shares.

Did we forget any methods of increasing your social shares? Let me know in the comments below.