This guest post is by Olga Ionel of ThemeFuse.
Bloggers are already aware of the power of social media to increase their readership.
A single link on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest can send over thousands of readers and instantly put a blogger and his writing on the map.
That’s why no Premium WordPress themes today is complete without a row of social media sharing buttons which allow readers to quickly and easily port content from a blog over to their various social media networks.
But just because you have included those buttons on your blog doesn’t mean readers will actually click them.
To make them do that, you’ll have to include content that catches their eye and makes them want to share.
How do you do that? Read on for three critical tips.
1. Think about your image
Or about your images. As often as not, it’s the images within a post, and not only the post itself, that gets readers to share it on their social network.
Pinterest, in particular, is well suited to image sharing, and sometimes readers will share a photo from your blog even if they’re not especially interested in what you wrote.
That may not sound so great, but it has a hidden benefit: When other users of the social network click on the image, they’ll be taken to your blog to see the larger version of it.
Images that are eye-catching alone are great, but if social media users see a hilarious cat photo, then click through to your blog and find an article about personal accounting, they won’t stay to read the article.
On the other hand, if your personal accounting article includes a hilarious comic about a tax reform that readers share, the traffic clicking through to your blog will be much better targeted, and more likely to stay and read.
So think of shared images as external billboards for your site, and make them as engaging and relevant as possible.
2. Link to cool content
Find interesting content on other sites, then repackage and use it on your own blog. Don’t plagiarize, of course.
Instead, add your own commentary, so that your post has even more information than the original. That way, people who read your post will see it as more valuable than the original.
Not only does it include a synopsis of (and link to) the original, it also has a new perspective that helps explain the information found in the first article.
That way, people who see your post will share your post, and not the original. You position yourself as a middleman who finds cool information and helps others interpret it.
This cuts down on the legwork needed to create new posts, while still delivering original and worthwhile content to your readership, who will be appreciative and want to share with their friends.
3. Write cool content
This, more than anything else, is the secret to getting your blog noticed.
Without a doubt, writing quality content will produce better results than any tip or trick or special traffic-generating technique you could try.
At the end of the day, the web is a content delivery platform, and the sites that get the most attention will be the ones that have the best content.
And the great thing about great content is that it is self-sustaining. It doesn’t have to be re-optimized every time Google updates its algorithm.
Good content will always draw interested readers, and interested readers are readers who re-share your content and send ever more readers your way.
Olga Ionel is an original writer at ThemeFuse.com – a leader in the premium WordPress themes industry. She is fond of sharing Online Marketing and Blogging ideas.