Reaching people on the social web can be very difficult if you’re just shooting blind. When you’re operating based upon intuition, instead of hard data it can be very easy to feel like your efforts aren’t amounting to much.
When you’re trying to reach as many people as possible it’s important that you take some time to understand what actually works. Is Twitter the best place to share video? How do people actually react to my LinkedIn posts? When is the best time of day to share on Instagram?
There are hundreds of questions you’ll probably have regarding social sharing best practices. Below we illuminate what’s currently working this year, so you can create a better, more efficient, social media strategy.
Let’s jump in!
Why Social Sharing Is Important
If you haven’t been putting much effort into cultivating social shares, then hopefully we can convince you otherwise.
First, social sharing is like getting free brand awareness, you’re having other people tell their fans and followers about your work without any additional efforts on your part.
Second, it gives you more authority, as a high number of social shares leads people to believe your content is valuable.
Third, it brings in more traffic. And who doesn’t want more traffic?
When Is the Best Time to Share?
There’s no point in sharing your content if you’re only going to reach half your audience. According to this recent analysis from SumoMe, the worst times to share are during the weekends. While, the best times to share are towards the beginning of the week.
One of the best times to share your content is Sunday night, so then you’ll be ready for to promote your content come Monday morning.
Now that you know the best time to share it’s important to look at which platforms people are actually sharing content on.
What Platforms are People Sharing the Most?
Facebook still reigns supreme. No other platform even comes close when talking about social sharing power. However, other platforms that still result in some level of social shares include, Twitter, Email, Pinterest, and even WhatsApp.
Still, those platforms don’t even come close to the dominance of Facebook in the social share market. However, if you have a primarily female-centric market, then Pinterest will be a great point of focus for your business.
What Should I Be Doing?
Now that you have a little better understanding of why and where you should be posting, we’re going to offer a few tips you can apply to your own social media strategy to get the most mileage from your posts.
1. Control Where Your Content Is Shared
It doesn’t make any sense to share your content to places where users won’t be receptive of it.
When it comes to mobile Facebook, Whatsapp, and Email perform the best.
However, on desktop Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter have the highest levels of engagement.
2. Publish On Sunday
We mentioned this above, but it’s worth repeating. The most shares occur during the first half of the week, Monday through Wednesday. Take advantage of this trend by publishing your content on Sunday night, then promoting it hard for the first half of the week.
3. Incorporate Images
Images will help your content stand out in a sea of noise. Pinterest is a highly image-centric platform, and posts with images tend to perform better on both Facebook and Twitter. However, make sure your images are high quality and represent your brand in a good light.
Getting social media love should be an important aspect of growing both your online authority and traffic. Hopefully, the tips above will get you moving in the right direction.
Now over to you. What are your favorite social sharing tricks and tips? Please share in the comments below.
Written By Kevin Wood
