Sharing is Caring How to Get Your Content Moving!

If you worry that your content is not getting enough shares across your social media channels, you’re not alone. Many business owners and marketers struggle to engage their audience and get their content moving online. If you want to improve your chances of having your content shared, you need to be strategic about the types of content you produce as well as how and when you publish it. While they can’t provide you with all the answers for your unique business, there are various studies that can help you understand what makes content more shareable. So, let’s shine a light on the most recent findings. Most Popular Forms of Content According to a recent study by Fractl and BuzzStream, there were a few trends that stood out regarding content marketing. In particular, there were five forms of content worth paying attention to: How-to posts: Solutions to problems in various steps. List posts: A numbered list addressing a topic followed by a conclusion. Why posts: These supported a specific reader-objective and overall conclusion. What posts: Extra information on a specific topic, often comparing two or more things or ideas. Videos: Giving viewers a visual illustration, demonstration or discussion centered around a topic. The study found that the content most likely to be shared were â€Å"list† and â€Å"why† posts. Videos and how-to articles received less shares overall and â€Å"what† posts were less predictable, but usually had less social success. This demonstrates why businesses who are serious about producing a steady flow of original content will benefit from hiring a content writer or team of writers who are experienced in producing content that covers each of these formats. Your content strategy can then be modified over time to address the needs of your specific audience. Optimizing Your Content A study from Buffer and SumAll also shone a light on how to optimize content for social sharing: Opening paragraphs with shorter sentences are more readable, scannable and shareable Strong, concise blog titles were more clickable and shareable 74 percent of blog posts that are read are under three minutes long and 94 percent are under six Again, this highlights the need for clear, concise writing. People love to share funny cat pictures, but they also want to share good in-depth content. Takeaways: Try publishing more listicles and why-posts and make sure your articles and titles are clear and concise. Where Do You Publish Fresh Content? You can publish the best content in the world, but if the majority of your audience don’t get to see it, it’s a wasted opportunity. Use social media tools like HootSuite and Social Mention to discover who is talking about your business, products or industry, and find out which social channels your target market frequents most. Social analytics company ShareThis found that Facebook was the dominant channel for friends discussing a wide range of topics. Pinterest, on the other hand, provided a platform for more lively discussions around food and drink, beauty, fitness, and shopping. In 2014, the dominant Twitter conversations revolved around news, finance and sports. Takeaways: As an example, if you specialize in beauty products, try publishing more content on channels like Pinterest. If you’re in finance, focus your content marketing efforts on Twitter. Delivering content to the right channels – where your target audience spends most of their time – is key to boosting social media shares. When Do People Share More Content? In the Fractl and BuzzStream survey, the most social interaction occurred in September, October and November, with video content also peaking in popularity in the last quarter. When it comes to the best times of day to publish content according to data from the QuickSprout blog, you’ll get more shares if you publish at the following times: Twitter: 5:00 p.m. Facebook: 1:00 p.m weekdays Google Plus: 9:00 a.m. on a Wednesday LinkedIn: 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. on a Tuesday Pinterest: 9:00 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays Instagram: in the evening Takeaways: Experiment with different publication times and check your analytics to see what works best for you. Following these guidelines is a good place to start to boost shares and website traffic. What Inspires Content Sharing? You should also take into account the tone of your content. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania discovered that people are far more likely to share â€Å"positive† content. Useful, practical content was also more popular. To encourage more content sharing, also keep this in mind: Include a clearly visible share button at the end of each post Ask people to share your content with a clear call-to-action Publish more visual content. According to research, the most shared posts on Facebook are images and Tweets that include images are more likely to be retweeted Write strong headlines. Grab your readers’ attention with funny, surprising or intriguing headlines Many businesses in today’s content-rich digital landscape are finding it increasingly necessary to hire a content writer to meet the high standards expected from information-hungry, savvy consumers. It makes good business sense to have experienced writers who can write concisely and get the tone right for specific target markets. The Bottom Line Tailoring your content strategy using these guidelines should help increase shares and boost awareness of your brand. But it takes time and commitment. If you don’t have the time or resources to produce regular, fresh content, follow the example of other successful companies and hire a outsourced content writer. This way, you can ensure you deliver quality content for your readers that they’ll want to share with others. Do you have any tips to encourage content sharing? Add your comments below or give us a shout on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn!

Punctuation of Appositives

Punctuation of Appositives Punctuation of Appositives Punctuation of Appositives By Mark Nichol Consider the sentence â€Å"The site’s editor Mary Smith wrote an opinion on the topic.† The lack of supporting punctuation in the identification of the writer of the opinion is an error. This mistake is common when appositives are involved. An appositive is a word or phrase that is equivalent in meaning to another; in this case, â€Å"the site’s editor† and â€Å"Mary Smith† are different ways of referring to the same person, so they are appositives. (Similarly, in â€Å"The car, a brand-new Tesla, attracted much attention,† â€Å"the car† and â€Å"a brand-new Tesla† are appositives.) â€Å"The site’s editor, Mary Smith, wrote an opinion on the topic† and â€Å"Mary Smith, the site’s editor, wrote an opinion on the topic† both present additional information that is not essential to the sentence (and therefore is set off parenthetically by a pair of commas). Each one also unequivocally identifies Mary Smith as the sole editor of the site. (However, whether that means she is the only person who edits content on the site or she holds the specific position of editor and supervises one or more assistant editors is not certain; it would be better, if the latter is true, for her to hold a more distinctive title, such as â€Å"editor in chief.†) By contrast, the original wording is flawed, in that the appositives, or equivalent phrases, â€Å"the site’s editor† and â€Å"Mary Smith,† butt up against each other without intervening punctuation. (In the preceding sentence, appositives and â€Å"equivalent phrases† are themselves appositives.) The similar-looking but distinct construction in â€Å"Site editor Mary Smith wrote an opinion on the topic,† however, is correct, in that â€Å"site editor† is a job description that is essential to understanding Smith’s role in writing the opinion, rather than a parenthetical explanation that can be omitted. This version, though, also makes it unclear whether Smith is the only editor; is she the editor, or an editor? To indicate the latter, â€Å"Mary Smith, one of the site’s editors, wrote an opinion on the topic† or â€Å"Mary Smith, a site editor, wrote an opinion on the topic† is better. The original problem is related to that inherent in a sentence such as â€Å"John’s sister Jane is getting married.† The sentence may not accurately reflect how many sisters John has. As it is written, Jane is only one of two or more sisters; the lack of a comma between sister and Jane indicates that her name is essential information: The sister of John who is named Jane is getting married. â€Å"John’s sister, Jane, is getting married,† on the other hand, includes an optional parenthesis: John’s sister, whose name is Jane, is getting married. Depending on context, appositives may or may not be set off from each other by commas or other punctuation. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Punctuation category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:How to Structure A Story: The Eight-Point Arc80 Idioms with the Word TimeHow to Send Tactful Emails from a Technical Support Desk