How to Boost Your Brand Exposure by Increasing Social Shares

One of the most effective ways to shine the spotlight on your brand is to get social shares on top networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest. While this is helpful for bringing in direct traffic, it”s also becoming increasingly connected with SEO.

Since search engines tend to give content that receives plenty of social shares a favorable ranking, getting others to share your brand can increase organic traffic as well. Here are some ways to get your audience to share your content.

Buttons

If you haven”t done so already, it”s important to install social share buttons to the most popular networks such as the ones cited above on your web pages. WordPress users can choose from a variety of plugins and set this up with a few clicks.

After installation, the buttons will accompany your content where visitors can quickly share it to the network of their choice. Although this is a simple step, it can have a profound impact on your brand and is perfect for getting your content in front of a broader audience.

Use images

Pictures are like eye candy to visitors and help to enhance content. According to HubSpot, Facebook posts that include images get likes, comments, and shares more often than those without images.

While the study only looked at activity on Facebook, there”s no doubt the phenomenon gets repeated across all other social media. That”s why it”s in your best interests to include at least one high-definition graphic on social media posts, blog posts, guest posts, etc.

Add a Pin It button to images in blog posts

This technique combines the previous two steps to help your brand capitalize on the popularity of Pinterest. By inserting a “Pin It” button next to an image, anyone with an account on Pinterest can quickly share the image and your post.

Visiting this link will take you to the Pinterest widget builder, where you can get this service set up. An added benefit of being active on this social network is that it has recently partnered with Bing, where relevant pins are now located on the sidebar of Bing image searches.

This means even more exposure with no extra work.

Calls to action

Another simple yet effective technique is to encourage visitors to share your content with others. At the end of a blog post, you might say “please share this with your friends or followers.”

If you do this, you may be surprised by how many people will go ahead and respond to your call to action. If you have a solid level of rapport built up within your niche”s online community, this can have a terrific impact.

Add social media links to emails

If your business has a substantial list of email subscribers, you can increase your exposure by inserting links to your social media profiles and/or individual posts. For example, an online kitchenware store could provide a link to its latest Facebook post at the end of a relevant newsletter and notify anyone who might be interested.

This takes only a second to do, but can be very beneficial in three ways. First, it will drive more direct traffic to your social media profiles, which means more followers. Second, some people who like the content of the post will share it with their friends or followers.

Finally, anyone who forwards your newsletters will automatically be sharing a link to your social media profile or post.