Don’t fret.<\/p>\n
In this article you’re going to learn 10 data driven ways to improve your social media strategy strategy<\/strong>, right now, and get more from every update.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A lot of people only<\/em> use their mobile phones to access social media.<\/p>\n In fact, active mobile accounts are up 23% (or 313 million people)<\/strong><\/a> in the last year. And 66% of tweets that mention brands come from mobile phones<\/a>.<\/p>\n Which means that now<\/em> is the time to get on board with the mobile revolution. Especially when iPhone users alone are spending upwards of 21 hours a week<\/a> online on their mobiles.<\/p>\n That means it\u2019s time to get a responsive theme for your site \u2013 whether that\u2019s a blog, landing page, coaching page or anything in-between \u2013 that looks lovely across mobile phones.<\/p>\n Like how Copyblogger’s homepage goes from this:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n To this:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now making your sites responsive is a little<\/em> beyond the scope of this article. And I\u2019m a writer, not a developer.<\/p>\n So I\u2019m going to hand you over to this lovely article from Social Media Examiner<\/a> that shows you simple ways to do that.<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ve written a lot about the importance of getting to know your audience, and why<\/em> they do what they do (link).<\/strong><\/p>\n And there is one truth about all<\/em> audiences that every marketer should accept:<\/p>\n People share to boost their social image.<\/a><\/p>\n They want to look funny, or smart, or helpful to everyone who follows them.<\/p>\n That means that people are sharing the content you share because it adds some sort of value to them, and their audience. And it\u2019s the exact same reason you share content too.<\/p>\n So it pays to take the time to find out what image your audience is looking to share.<\/strong><\/p>\n For example, Red Bull has built an entire social media image<\/a> around extreme sports, and not their product.<\/p>\n Why?<\/p>\n Because they know their users would rather share a picture of a guy setting himself on fire and going surfing, than anything to do with their energy drink:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n And that\u2019s a big part of why they\u2019re so successful, and so many people drink their drink. They understand what their audience wants to read about \u2013 and share \u2013 then they give it to them in a big way.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n From time to time, no matter how dirty it might feel, it\u2019s good to jump on the bandwagon and ride the viral wave for a little while.<\/p>\n It gives you a short-term boost that can put you in front of lots of new people in almost no time at all.<\/p>\n It\u2019s something UpWorthy<\/a> used to get off the ground, by sharing lots of viral, emotional content from all over the Internet. Which was rarely created by them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n You could:<\/p>\n Whichever it is, make sure it\u2019s something that\u2019s truly relevant to your audience, so it doesn\u2019t look like you\u2019re cashing in at first glance.<\/p>\n Businesses who use Infographics in their social media marketing get 12% more site traffic<\/a> than those who don\u2019t.<\/p>\n That means if you\u2019re not using them right now, it\u2019s time to start.<\/p>\n And, the best news about Infographics?<\/p>\n You don\u2019t even have to create them if you don\u2019t want. You can easily use an Infographic that someone else has created, share it with your audience, and then tell the people who did<\/em> make the Infographic that you\u2019ve done it.<\/p>\n Not only can you improve your social shares, but you can build relationships with other people in your niche, too.<\/p>\n You could \u2013 as I mentioned earlier \u2013 create a blog post around an Infographic.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Or, you could create (or use) small, tweet-sized Infographics for your general updates, like this:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n QuickSprout<\/a> did some great research into what gets shared most on Twitter. And they tested a lot<\/em> of different types of content.<\/p>\n And what they found is that, on average, list posts get three times more Retweets<\/a> <\/strong>than any other type of content.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n While this isn\u2019t startling news \u2013 copywriters have been using lists for decades to generate hype \u2013 it does go to show that, if you\u2019re in a growth stage, list headlines are the best way to get your content seen.<\/p>\n But, what do you do if your content isn\u2019t<\/em> in a list post format?<\/p>\n Well that takes a little bit of creativity, but it\u2019s not too hard.<\/p>\n For example, if you\u2019re sharing a piece of content about, \u201cHow To Improve Your Diet This Summer\u201d, you could add up all the foods you recommend in the article and turn it in to, \u201c36 Foods To Eat For A Better Diet This Summer\u201d.<\/p>\n There are numbers to be found in every post, you just need to look for them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You might have noticed that those scrolling social media bars at the side of posts are getting ridiculous in length:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Because it\u2019s all about giving yourself the most opportunities to get shared, right?<\/p>\n Well there\u2019s research to suggest otherwise. Neil Patel played around with the sharing buttons on his site, and found out some interesting data.<\/p>\n When he reduced his sharing buttons to just three options<\/strong> his share rates went up 11%<\/a>.<\/p>\n That\u2019s because people only tend to share on one<\/strong> site.<\/p>\n Like, for my own personal work, I use Facebook more than anything else. I can go weeks without logging in to Twitter.<\/p>\n So if you have a relatively low<\/em> rate of shares, identify which sites your audience spend most time on, and focus solely on those three. And, when you start getting up to over six-figure traffic, think of adding an extra button<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Did you know there is more than just one type of card you can share with on Twitter?<\/p>\n No?<\/p>\n It\u2019s okay, neither did I until recently.<\/p>\n But it turns out that when you start to use these different cards, you can increase the engagement on your feed massively. Because they stand out in a boring news feed.<\/strong><\/p>\n Research from BuzzSumo<\/a> found that large Twitter cards could give you up to 300% more engagement than using any other type.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a card that looks like this:<\/p>\n Now you can\u2019t just do this through an option on Twitter, it has to be done on your site, with a little coding. But if I can do it, I\u2019m pretty sure anyone in the world can do it.<\/p>\n You can find out how to create these cards, simply, from Twitter themselves right here<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The benefits of visual content are endless<\/a>. In fact, it\u2019s fast becoming the most important content you can use across social media.<\/p>\n For example, take a quick scroll down your Facebook or Twitter feed. I\u2019d wager a bet \u2013 for any amount of money \u2013 that it\u2019s at least<\/em> 60% videos and images.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a reason some of Twitter\u2019s most subscribed content feeds now look like this:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Just visual after visual after visual.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s with good reason. Facebook posts with images get 2.3x more engagement<\/a>, and Tweets are 150% more likely to be retweeted.<\/p>\n So, if you\u2019re not doing this, where do you start?<\/p>\n Well there\u2019s two options for this:<\/p>\n Firstly, you could read this article I wrote for Buffer<\/a> on what makes a great social media image.<\/p>\n Or, you could sign up to Weekly Snaps<\/a>, which will send you 20 high quality, royalty free images every single week. For free. <\/strong>That way you always have fresh images you can use for your updates, with no time or effort.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sometimes, when sharing is the goal, you go so far out of your way to create content that gets shared<\/strong>. Be that questions, quotes, article, images \u2013 you name it.<\/p>\n But often, we forget to do one fundamental thing:<\/p>\n Asking for the shares.<\/em><\/p>\n By simply asking for a Retweet (and spelling it as retweet) you\u2019re 23x more likely to get retweeted<\/a> than if you don\u2019t. Even if you just spell it RT, you\u2019re still 10x more likely.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n So, when you have a tweet the really<\/em> needs to be seen, instead of passively trying to get it shared, take it by the scruff of the neck and just ask people to do it.<\/p>\n You\u2019d be surprised at the results.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Okay, so you just read about how powerful list headlines are on Twitter. But, what about the rest of social media? What works well across those other important platforms?<\/p>\n The honest truth is, it depends.<\/p>\n On who your audience are. The niche you\u2019re in. The topic you\u2019re writing about. And a couple of hundred other variables that you could dwell on.<\/p>\n Which is why it\u2019s important to test<\/em> lots of different types of headlines, to see what works.<\/p>\n Take a look at this post from Canva:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It went super, mega, insanely viral for a design blog. It has 81,000+ shares<\/a> (and counting).<\/p>\n#1: Get Responsive<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Screen](\"https:\/\/getstencil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Screen-Shot-2015-07-29-at-20.55.15-1024x571.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Screenshot_2015-07-29-20-54-33](\"https:\/\/getstencil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Screenshot_2015-07-29-20-54-33-1.png\")
<\/p>\n#2: Understand Why Your Users Share<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Screen](\"https:\/\/getstencil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Screen-Shot-2015-07-28-at-15.01.03.png\")
<\/p>\n#3: Cash In On Hot Topics<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Screen](\"https:\/\/getstencil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Screen-Shot-2015-07-29-at-14.08.39.png\")
<\/p>\n\n
#4: Use Infographics<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Screen](\"https:\/\/getstencil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Screen-Shot-2015-07-29-at-14.09.51.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Screen](\"https:\/\/getstencil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Screen-Shot-2015-07-29-at-14.02.18.png\")
<\/p>\n#5: Focus On List Posts<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Screen](\"https:\/\/getstencil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Screen-Shot-2015-07-29-at-14.11.33.png\")
<\/p>\n#6: Reduce Your Social Media Buttons<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Screen](\"https:\/\/getstencil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Screen-Shot-2015-07-29-at-14.04.30.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Screen](\"https:\/\/getstencil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Screen-Shot-2015-07-29-at-14.03.24.png\")
<\/p>\n#7: Use Large Twitter Cards For 300% More Engagement<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Screen](\"https:\/\/getstencil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Screen-Shot-2015-07-29-at-14.00.28.png\")
<\/p>\n#8: Add Images To Every Update<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Screen](\"https:\/\/getstencil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Screen-Shot-2015-07-29-at-12.48.55.png\")
<\/p>\n#9: Ask People To Share<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Screen](\"https:\/\/getstencil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Screen-Shot-2015-07-29-at-14.03.02.png\")
<\/p>\n#10: Test Out Multiple Headlines<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Screen](\"https:\/\/getstencil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Screen-Shot-2015-07-29-at-13.57.18.png\")
<\/p>\n