One secret to driving traffic from your social media profiles to your website, or to any link for that matter, is to have people share your content with their followers.  In this case, content includes; Images, Video, Interesting Facts,and Quotes. The best content for social media platforms is short, succinct, colorful, and invokes an emotional response from the viewer.

Creating Share-Worthy Content

In order to get people to share your content, it needs to be truly worthy of sharing. Most people won’t inundate their friends and family with useless content or information.

No one likes to think of their content as useless, but unless it’s really interesting, unique, or in some other way valuable, that is how most people will perceive it.

It’s not that difficult to create content that is share-worthy, but it does take a little bit of extra thought and effort. Here are 3 tips that will help you create share-worthy content right now:

Tip 1: People Share Positive Content

Don’t look at the news. Most of the time all you see is sadness, pain, death, destruction and other negative things. Our brains are absolutely slammed with horror day after day. For some reason people expect that from news sources, because that’s what gets ratings.

You may think these shocking and horrific stories are the ones that get shared most often, but you’d be wrong. The fact is, on social media, people are much more likely to share positive content than they are the bad stuff. It’s a way to balance out the bad stuff we’re inundated with.

If you pay attention to the kind of content people share, it’s almost always positive, upbeat, heartwarming stories that make people feel good. This is the kind of content people want to share with their friends.

Unless you’re running a news site, it’s best to stick with upbeat content that is useful or can help get people through troubling times.

Tip 2: People Share Emotional Content

Emotion is the most powerful motivator imaginable. Any type of emotion makes a difference. Positive emotions, as we saw in Tip 1, are more powerful than negative, but all emotions can inspire sharing.

Keep these emotions in mind as you create your content:

  • Laughter – Comedy is a powerful thing for viral content!
  • Shock – Shocking content is typically very share-worthy!
  • Embarrassment – Yes, people will share embarrassing content, but especially so if it’s embarrassing to other people!
  • Hope – Hope is something everyone needs more of, and they will gladly share content that makes them feel hopeful!
  • Warmth – Heartwarming content is definitely share-worthy. Stories that warm the heart are shared amazingly often!
  • Anger – Anger can definitely inspire people to share. If you can outrage someone, they are quite likely to share.

Tip 3: People Share Useful Content

Useful content is easy to find, but ‘unique’ useful content is not. You can find a thousand different recipes for a particular dish, perhaps ten thousand or a hundred thousand or more. But finding that same recipe made with leftovers, or made with super cheap ingredients, or made on a grill instead of in an oven, or with any other unique and useful spin… well, that makes it share-worthy.

Create content that helps people solve a problem, preferably in a unique way. Think of the biggest problem your target market faces, and then create viral content that helps them solve it.