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10 Reasons Why You’re Not Getting Social Shares On Your Blog

10 Reasons Why You’re Not Getting Social Shares On Your Blog

get social shares

Being a top blogger is no easy task. After all, thought leaders and tastemakers aren’t born overnight; it takes time, persistence, and a heavy dosage of motivation in order to achieve that status and following. While we might think of getting more shares on our blog like a scientific process, there’s a lot of common mistakes people overlook in building their audience.

Remember, this isn’t necessarily just to build more traction, but to grow a community. And while that might take quite a bit of work, here are a few tips that can help get you get social shares.

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Your Blog Doesn’t Have Any Variety

Perhaps one of the biggest things that bloggers miss out on is including enough variety in their posts. While we’d all love our posts to be the most profound and groundbreaking insights into our industry, that simply can’t be the case all of the time. Plus, posts that are too long or don’t provide content into an easily digestible form lack shareability due to a loss of retention as well as understanding.

get social shares

The key to varying up your blog content is scheduling out your features and posts ahead of time. Depending on your capacity for volume, try to divvy up the types of content you’re going to write as a mixed bag. For example, let’s say your goal for a week is to have ten posts up with three features, a few news articles, and a couple helpful tips/lists. Obviously, you’d want to share and promote your features at peak times, with your lists and news fulfilling the other times. Doing this will help your blog expand its audience in no time.

You Lack Authenticity

It may sound silly, but a lot of blogs lack a sense of authenticity; instead of opting to produce original pieces, many simply regurgitate the same kinds of content or echo the voice of other brands. I understand the desire to sound professional or try to keep up with what others are doing, but this is only hurting your brand more than it’s helping.

Related: The Art and Science of Storytelling on the Web

Your blog is an extension of, not just your social media, but your entire messaging and branding, altogether. However, it’s important to note that the goal here isn’t to write from the perspective of a brand, but rather what this brand would sound like as a person. This might be uncomfortable or challenging at first, but the exchange will provide a consistent voice for the life of your blog.

You’re Not Implementing a Content Strategy

Similar to our mention of varying up your posts above, implementing a content strategy will help increase your blog’s traffic tremendously. As the link above notes, the biggest difference between your strategy and marketing is that strategy is the basic guideline and goals, while marketing is the calendar, promotion, and curation of your posts. It’s imperative that you know the difference between the two if you want to be successful as many people get these confused.

You’re Not Publishing In Other Places

If you’re just starting out as a blogger (or even just trying to increase your reach),  it’s not a bad idea to post and link your content to other sources, such as LinkedIn. Not only do platforms like this increase your overall potential audience, but these links are additionally much easier to share. Plus, looking at what other writers are publishing and getting shared on here will give you a good gauge on how to structure and organize your posts.

Your Posts Don’t Have Backlinks

Backlinks are a core component to your content efforts and should always be noted as something to include. If you’re not familiar with the term or practice, then it’s a good thing to read up on. Basically, backlinks are links to other pages that will increase your SEO. This will put you at the top of search engines, giving your page more shares and views.

You’re Focusing on The Wrong Platforms

get social shares

One of the easiest mistakes that new bloggers make is by concentrating their promotional efforts to the wrong social media platforms. Even if you think that attacking every single platform might cover your bases, it’s actually more advantageous to focus on the one’s that have been most popular for your brand, as well as where your industry peers are hosting conversations.

You Don’t Have Analytics Set Up

Even if you’re thinking “I’m a writer, I’ll let someone else handle that whole science part,” analytics isn’t nearly as complicated as you might think. Not only will analytics give you insights into how many people are visiting your page, but additionally from what platforms and locations. Take some time to assess and track your goals for your content and the rewards will be plentiful.

See Also
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Your Content Isn’t Current

This one may seem obvious, but I’ve seen far too many blogs that have outdated content or missed the mark on a current event. Remember to keep up with what’s going on your industry, as well as writing an up-to-date perspective on it. With think pieces/reactions, the content doesn’t have to be perfect, but rather just an honest reflection.

Your Social Accounts Don’t Follow Enough People

I know everyone wants to be one of the lucky bloggers whose post goes viral and suddenly gets thousands of followers without trying, but that most likely will never be the case. Start following those in your industry, peer group, who you admire, as well as prospective and current fans. While it’s a lot of work to build up, this isn’t about just a following but building a community too.

Your Blog is Poorly Designed

No one wants to visit a blog they can’t read or has too many distracting elements to it. More, bad design doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s just ugly, but rather lacks function too. Take some time to get an outside opinion on how it looks and if anything could be improved. It also might be advantageous to potentially let another platform do the dirty work, such as Medium.

Author bio: 

David Wither is a professionally accredited leadership and marketing coach who works with young founders and early stage teams to help them navigate through emerging marketing opportunities with a current focus on artificial intelligence and virtual reality.

David is also a weekly contributor to The Huffington Post, Entrepreneur Magazine, Business.com, and Tech Cocktail. He graduated with a degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern California.

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  • Also, repurposing content wisely can help a lot – maybe a part of your audience don’t like reading a 2,000 words post, but they would gladly look at an infographic with the same info, for example :)

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