Is Your Content Shareable?
These days to really give your landing page, blog, or video a chance in the digital world it has to be shareable. You could be the next Shakespeare, and but if your content is sitting on a page full of junk no one would know, and more so, no one would care. So what are some steps you can take to optimize our content to make it socially shareable? Here are some tips I have for you.
Where does the story start? If your landing page has a bunch of filler content at the top of the page, or a bunch of fluff to lead into your blog, no one is going to care. At best, they will skim right pass it, at worst, they will surf away. So stuff the fluff and get to the point. In the world of ever increasing noise, no one cares about your long winded intro.
Are there any images in your blog?
In order to keep your content engaging throwing in an image related to your post is key. You may be thinking to yourself “my blog is for an educated audience, do I really need to make a picture book for them”. To which I respond, “yes”. Certain studies show that our attention spans are at an all time low, adding in something “pretty” or engaging can draw your audience back to what their reading.
How many clicks does it take to get to the center… or the end?
A lot of websites still do slideshow style content, and where this is totally fine, I don’t want to wait for each individual page to load. I want to view everything on as few pages as possible with little, or no, load time. I don’t have time to wait for your next landing page to load. More than 3 seconds, and there is a 90% chance I’m gone.
The next topic is a touchy one, and actually something dear to my heart; Advertisements.
I love advertising, I went to school for advertising, the only thing I miss about not having cable is the occasional ad. I do, indeed, mean occasional. I love cookies tracking me and telling me what to buy… I just wish they were a little bit better at this process by now. That’s another blog all together.
When it comes to making your content shareable you have to be careful where you put your ads and what they look like. You may be saying, “…But Becki, the ads on my page pay my bills!” or “Ad blockers are at an all time high, I’m just doing what I can to fight that.” That’s more than understandable, but there are tasteful ways to put your ads on your site, because nothing turns off a consumer like a bad ad, or bad placement.
An ad should never be the first thing your reader sees, this is so spammy! Also, it should never start making noise before I’m ready. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had 40 tabs open and suddenly an ad starts shouting at me. Then I start shouting, yes, outloud, “Where is it coming from!?”and everyone around me knows an ad has appeared out of no where.
So what’s the solution to the ad issue? Again, I could write a whole blog about this topic alone, so I’m just gonna leave with these “don’ts” and hope you Google some “Do’s”.
Are your topics broken out?
It’s as simple as making different sections bold, numbering, adding bullets, adding an image in-between each section. Seriously, that’s it. Just find a way to break up the piece.
Where’s the share?
Working in social media this is my biggest pet peeve. When I read an awesome, kick-ass, well formatted article, all I want to do it share it. Share it everywhere! But where the hell is the SHARE BUTTON. Is it labeled? Can I control F to find it? Just show me the bird… not that bird, the Twitter bird! I hate lump “+” sign share buttons unless they are AFTER the main channels. By that I mean, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. I want your share button to do one of two things. I want it either follow me across the page, or be prominent at both the top and bottom of the page. That’s it.
Finally… My broken rule
Length, don’t write a novel, write a blog or a landing page, that’s it. I am really passionate about what I’ve shared here so I broke this rule. No one wants to scroll forever.
Since I’ve already written too much I’m going to end this blog the classic, fairy-tale way.
THE END