Your customers follow you because they like you and what you have to offer. That doesn’t mean they want to hear about your promotions and offers around the clock.
We aren’t usually on social media to buy stuff. Social marketing is all about being social and building relationships. If all you do is pitch and sell, people will lose interest in following you.
Move away from the one-way sales pitch and start sharing posts that ignite conversations!
That being said, you might find yourself at a loss on what to share from time to time. It’s OK to share other people’s articles!
Sharing an Article is Acceptable
If you’ve run out of original content to post, find relevant articles to share. It’s acceptable and encouraged to share articles of interest, even if you did not write them.
Make sure you read the article before sharing. Don’t just share an article because it has a great headline. The article might be poorly written with terrible grammar and spelling, or the content does not make sense.
If someone were to read a really awful article that you share, they will wonder what you were thinking when sharing it and they will question your reliability going forward.
Link Preview + Your Post Text
When you paste a link to the article in your post window, you will see a preview of the article load. The preview includes an image, the article title and a description.
In the text area of your post window, be sure to include why you’re sharing the article with your followers. Don’t just post the title of the article again. The title is already in your link preview.
See below – the left is redundant, the right makes more sense!
Find Fresh Content
Your fans have other interests, so find content from other sources that focus on those interests. A nice variety of fresh content from other sources can help keep your engagement up.
Ideas for Content to Share
Relevant Industry Articles: Use a reader like Feedly or Flipboard to search for articles in your industry. Be sure to read the article before sharing so you know you’re sharing quality, trustworthy content.
Videos: Search YouTube or Facebook for funny, educational, or instructional videos. People love to watch and share videos so the more engaging the video, the better!
Emotional: Stories that tug at people’s heart strings will always generate some kind of engagement. Find stories that are suited for your industry and are trustworthy.
Current Events and News: Be careful here. There’s lots of false news out there so share articles from trusted news sources. Do your research before sharing – you don’t want to lose credibility with your followers.
Relevant Images: You can share photos taken by someone else, as long as you ask permission, give them credit, and share directly from the source (their Facebook page or Instagram account). Do not take their photos and share them as your own – that is copyright infringement and will hurt your page credibility.
By sharing quality content, it tells your customers that you value them enough to find great articles just for them.
