If you want to know how to write a business blog that will grow your audience, you need to know the three key elements of share-worthy content. Keep reading…
Growing your online audience and social media accounts can be painfully slow when you first start out. It is so depressingly slow at times that most people give up before they get any traction at all.
One of the keys to growing your accounts and fanbase is not just having great content, but having great content that people want to SHARE. Because shares are the fast track to growth.
You probably don’t even realise the power of shared content because you see it so often in your day-to-day consumption of social media that you just take it for granted.
Think of all the articles, memes, and inspirational social media posts that you have shared, and the ones you have seen shared that you have then gone on to reshare. Suddenly, they seem to be everywhere. Their reach is enormous and their popularity snowballs.
It is this reaction to the content that grows the audiences of its creators, and below we will look at how you can achieve the same results with your content too.
I am going to be talking in the context of blogs. The same logic can be applied to YouTube videos, Instagram posts, LinkedIn content, podcasts, or any other types of content you create.
When your content is shared, not only does it help grow your audience, but it also helps to establish credibility in you as the author or creator. Independent parties are effectively vouching for you, which in turn, helps you get known, liked and trusted. Your website is being validated as a place people can turn to as a valuable source of information.
How to write a share-worthy business blog
There are three key elements to creating a blog that people will want to share:
- The Headline
- Content
- Social media integrations
Let’s consider them individually.
The Headline
It doesn’t matter how good your content piece is if it doesn’t have a killer headline. I guarantee you that without a great headline, you are probably stopping 90% of your potential audience from going ahead and wanting to read it.
The importance of the headline can be better appreciated when you realise that people often share articles or podcasts they haven’t even read or heard, just because the headline looks exciting. I bet you have done it yourself.
How to Write a Great Headline?
The headline or the title image is so compelling that you have found yourself wanting to share it.
A great headline can bring lots of shares and traffic for you, even if the actual article itself is average.
If you can get good at headline writing, it is such a valuable skill that will bring success to multiple areas of your business. It will help you write great subject lines for your email and great tweets or captions for your photos on social media.
Being a great headline writer is really about just being a better communicator or salesperson – something that will benefit you in all areas of your business and life.
Like anything, the best way to get better at headline writing is to do more of it. Not just in general, but for every individual headline you write.
What Tools Can Help With Headline Creation?
You should be writing at least five possible options, up to 10 if you can. As mentioned above, ChatGPT could give you some headline ideas too.
Obviously, some will be better than others, and there may have even been a standout favourite from the beginning.
But playing with different variations and options will not only make you better at headline writing in general but it will get you thinking more about your content and how best to communicate your message with your audience.
To get some extra practice in, go back to your old blogs and rework the headlines on those that can be improved. It’s not just a chance for you to get some practice but once you have developed the skill for headline writing, you will want to go back anyway and improve any of your old content that you can.
How to Find the Perfect Headline?
If you are struggling with headlines or ideas, then you need to be thinking about what makes you click on a link or an article when you are scrolling through social media.
What is it that draws you in and keeps you engaged when reading other people’s content?
Is it humour? Fear? A statement of the unbelievable? Curiosity?
There are some great sites and content writers out there that can help you find the perfect headline. Gossip magazines, websites, and content aggregators – who all know that in a busy world, they have to hook your attention in a few words or less. There are sites that you will see pop up time and time again because they are constantly writing great headlines that are always getting shared.
It is your job to become a great writer, and the best way to learn the skill is to learn from the content masters.
The Content
Whilst there are always best practices and ways to optimise, forget anything to do with hacks, cheats and shortcuts! Creating a great blog, something that people are going to love, that they will want to share, and that will rank highly on the search engines takes time, effort and planning.
As obvious as it sounds, the first thing you need to think about is your topic and its title. Why are you creating this content? Who are you writing it for? What are you hoping to achieve? What questions are you looking to answer or what problems are you looking to solve?
How Long Should a Blog Post Be?
Once you have your title and topic, the next thing you need to decide is how long the blog is actually going to be.
There are many different and often conflicting theories when it comes to word count for a blog post – particularly when writing from an SEO point of view.
Whilst it is true that people have a short and shorter attention span nowadays, people reading blogs tend to be expecting to commit more time to this activity – so a three-line article will be very unlikely to hit anyone’s satisfaction spot.
The SEO experts all tend to agree on a word count figure around the 1500 – 1600 mark. I personally find that I just like to keep writing until I have covered all the subject matter that I feel is necessary for the topic, and that all possible FAQs have been covered without getting too deep or boring.
But What EXACTLY Are You Going to Write For Your Blog?
Well, assuming you are not working to a specific word count and are just writing until you have covered all the necessary answers to people’s questions or info they require, then you will create your plan by listing out all the questions on your particular topic that people require answers to.
If you are struggling to know what they all are, then Google is always there to lend a hand and tell you what people are usually searching for.
This may sound over simple, but it is the perfect framework to ensure that you are covering everything that needs covering and writing a blog that hits deep enough.
You should also use ChatGPT, a chatbot that can be used for a wide range of purposes. You could ask it for a blog post or headline ideas, or for more information about a specific topic.
Everyone has their own writing style. Maybe it is formal or maybe it is fun. Maybe you like to use big words and long sentences, or maybe you write punchy phrases that can be understood by an 8-year-old.
What Emotions To Use When Writing?
There are no right and wrong answers here, as long as you are happy that the style you use will work for and resonate with your audience.
A good tip when writing with the view of growing your audience is to use topics and a style that will evoke, ideally strong, emotions from your reader. This is more likely to hook them in and keep them engaged, and then it is more likely they will share it – which, as we have discussed already, is the name of the game here.
Strong emotions include
- Awe
- Shock
- Love
- Motivation
- Laughter
- Fear
- Outrage
There are plenty more too and only you know what suits your style and audience better. You will know many content creators yourself, I am sure, who specialise in shock tactics. Study and learn from them after all, they are masterminds, just make sure that style is right for you.
Outrage is not going to be a suitable emotion to use for most people – but could be perfect if you are writing pieces for a charity about neglected animals or abused children. It is probably just what you need to convey to get the conversion you are looking for. But probably not a great emotion for people to read when they are reading your latest marketing secrets article.
Many people like humour but if you aren’t known as a ‘funny’ person and find yourself forcing it in your copy then it isn’t right for you.
The key here, like with all these points, is to study and learn as much as possible but only use what is right for you and your audience. Emulate, don’t copy.
Your posts need to be interesting and informative, that goes without saying. In today’s world, people love to share things that make them look helpful, useful or intelligent. So does your blog solve a problem that people a struggling with? And if your audience shares it, will that make them look good in front of their friends?
These are the things you must consider. You may not think like this at first as most people don’t like to admit how we really behave. But this is the truth about human behaviour and psychology so don’t deny or fight it, use it to your advantage.
How Can I Write to Make My Audience Share Content?
Help your audience be able to make themselves look useful and clever. Or funny and cutting edge. Or fashionable and well-connected. Whatever the traits are that your audience wants to be known for and associated with, play on that.
Whilst blogs are obviously focused on the written word, images and anything visual is just as important.
As the old saying goes, “a picture is worth 1,000 words”, and this certainly applies to thumbnail images and headline images.
Just like on my YouTube channel, where the quality of the thumbnail image is essential in getting people to click on a video, high-quality and ‘grabbing’ imagery is necessary to go with your blog headline to make it stand out in the sea of other literary competition.
As well as a carefully selected image for your blog’s headline or title, adding imagery in the article itself is also essential for the flow of the article and keeping readers engaged and making them want to share it on their own platforms.
The headline image is the bare minimum of the necessary image, depending on the length of the article itself you will need to select and curate multiple more for the article as a whole.
Sharing on Social Media
Now you have written your killer blog with great, detailed content, a catchy headline and multiple eye-catching images, it’s time to make it as easy as possible for your readers to share it.
You will notice yourself in articles that you read, there is usually a set of buttons at the top, bottom or down the side, that have multiple buttons that make it easy for you to share that article on your social platforms. Typically, these are for Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Twitter although it sometimes differs depending on the type of article that you are reading.
Having these buttons on your blog is essential. You need to do anything possible to remove friction in getting the outcome you want.
It’s not complicated though. Most blog platforms come with buttons already integrated, and there are plenty of extra plugins for the likes of WordPress if you want something more bespoke and customised.
As well as hoping that you get shares when people land on your blog, you also need a more proactive strategy to be specifically going out and achieving them.
One of the easiest ways to get the outcome you want for something is………. TO ASK FOR IT!
If you want people to share your content, then just go right out there and ask them. But you don’t want to be doing this in a spam or annoying way. This won’t get results and will ultimately work against you when people ignore you and unsubscribe from your lists.
There are some much more subtle ways to get people to actually want to share it anyway. People love to share things that are about them or show them off in some way. So how about you go and create a blog that especially references a person or company that you would like to have pushed you out to their audience?
Let’s say I want to get myself associated with some great entrepreneurs and influencers in my space. I could write a ‘Top 5 British Entrepreneurs To Watch In 2023’ article where I ensure that one or more of the entrepreneurs on the list are people I want to connect with. I would then email them a copy of the article to show them and ask if they would be kind enough to share this article with their audience.
This is a great way to get in through the back door. The entrepreneur is more likely than not going to be happy to share the article as it is showing them as someone of standing and influence, but the accidental by-product of that is that anyone reading the article gets notified of me and pushed to my website.
You can use the exact same strategy whatever your line of business or whatever theme of your blog. You just need to tweak the type of article or the style.
Another way to get your content seen and shared by people who could share you with their audience is by sending them an online shoutout and tagging them in the article.
But again, avoid anything that could be considered spam here and ensure that you only make personal shoutouts to people who would genuinely appreciate the content.
In Summary…
If you are writing content for your business or your blog then please go back a re-read this article because I guarantee that implementing what I talk about here is the difference between hundreds of shares and just hearing crickets! I hope the above tips are useful and you now feel confident that you know how to write a successful business blog.
But if you are time conscious or lazy (!) I have summarised it below for you:
- Pick a topic
and use Google and ChatGPT to see the most common questions relating to that topic
- Article length:
Aim for at least 1,500-1,600 words so readers are engaged and informed
- Consider your writing style:
There is no right or wrong answer, but you should be consistent in your tone
- Don’t underestimate the power of pictures!
Carefully-selected thumbnails and headline images can help your post get shared. Add images to the article to break up text and keep readers engaged
- Write a great headline:
Consider 5-10 options. Search online news publications and social media for ideas of what makes a headline that encourages readers to read the article
- Add ‘share’ buttons
so people can easily share your post or blog on social media
- Ask for people to share the article:
If you have quoted an individual or organisation, ask if they’ll share the post
Now you know how to write a great business blog that grows your audience. But if writing and content creation aren’t your thing, or you really don’t have the time to do it, then get in touch today to talk to my team and me about our ‘done for you’ content coaching service.
