One of the best ways of generating traffic and increasing interest in your business online is through the creation of valuable content.
Whether this is a blog or a free offer (e.g. an ebook, demo trial, webinar), content of these types allows your business to really demonstrate its worth to consumers without having to make the often dreaded hard sell.
While such content is undeniably imperative to maintaining a strong digital presence, it is also important to do whatever you can to give this content as much exposure as possible. Social media sharing offers a fantastic opportunity to achieve this very goal.
Why social media sharing matters
Imagine you've just written a fantastic blog entry on your company website. You believe it's one of the best pieces you've writen and, from an objective standpoint, this is also true. The blog is simple to follow, contains a host of valuable tips and facts for the reader, and it ultimately offers them information that they can take with them into their day-to-day life. It's not about being a revolutionary piece of work, it's simply about being a solid piece of content that reflects the principles of your business.
Naturally, because of the quality of this blog, you want it to reach as many people as possible. While search engine optimisation (SEO) can help your blog rank better in search results, it is otherwise relatively self-contained. Unfortunately, you're not getting the amount of traffic you want and your high-quality blog is going to waste. This is the type of reality many blogs or other content can face without the right promotion.
When social media sharing is thrown into the mix, it can help change this pattern. Whether you're including social sharing buttons on your blog page or promoting the blog on your business's own social media accounts, the very act of social sharing helps give your content more exposure than what it would otherwise get.
With the example of your blog, if you failed to include social sharing buttons, you would be denying your readers an easy way to share your blog with their friends and colleagues on the social networks they belong to. Imagine capturing the interest of a reader who has hundreds of Facebook friends or thousands of Twitter followers.
What happens if they were inspired to share your blog but lack of social sharing buttons prevented them from doing so? You've effectively removed the potential of your blog to suddenly reach hundreds of other Facebook users and thousands of Twitter users. In one fell swoop, you've denied your content from sitting in front of the eyes of thousands. Granted, the reader could copy and paste the blog's URL, but you'd be surprised by how many people will be turned off by the idea of having to do that instead of easily clicking on a social share button.
The benefits of social sharing
As you likely gathered from the prior section, the advantage that comes with social sharing is the ability for your content, offers and posts to reach a wider audience. So instead of being self-contained, your humble blog post could then be seen by thousands. And even if only a small percentage of those thousands then click through and view your blog, offer or post, you've still successfully generated more qualified traffic and gained more exposure for your brand. If these individuals like what they've read, they may go onto read more blogs, convert for offers, etc.
In many ways, social sharing is very much akin to word-of-mouth advertising. When someone shares your content, they're acting as a type of brand evangelist. While it's not guaranteed that they're a loyal customer to your brand, they are someone who loves your content so much that they will happily promote it on your behalf for free. It's these types of organic referrals that often drive the right traffic to your site. And when you have the right traffic coming in, you're also dealing with an audience of new readers who have a higher likelihood of returning, converting and becoming customers.
Social sharing goes far beyond just exposure. It can also inspire lead growth and help with the overall success of your business. So if you you're not sharing your content on social media and/or aren't providing your readers with an easy means to share your content with their friends, family and colleagues, then you need to start doing so.