How to Optimise Content for Social Media Distribution

The Best Techniques for Optimising Content for Social Media Distribution

1. Get serious about your headlines.

2. Think about graphics.

3. Get your employees to share.

If you want to see the greatest amount of interaction and engagement on your posts through social media, you need to be sure you optimise content for distribution on those networks.

You can have written the most meticulously researched, expertly analysed article imaginable that is destined to change perceptions within your industry – but if you haven’t spent a good amount of time (more time than spent writing, even) on distributing and promoting it, then don’t expect a huge ROI any time soon, or ever.

The most successful content marketers aren’t always the best writers; they are the ones who understand the social media landscape. There are many reasons social networks are the ultimate content distribution platform. To start with, they offer the ability to easily integrate and share content. They also have the power to target a specific sub-section of users. This all maximises the possibility for widespread engagement, resulting in an insurmountable reach.

Why you need to optimise content for distribution

While the vast majority of marketers have a good grasp of the positives, not all of them are using social media to its full potential because they do not know how to optimise content properly for distribution.

For example, you may have pinpointed the correct network and the exact time of the day to post for the highest rate of clicks, but if you haven’t properly optimised your headline, image or message to provoke a response from the widest variety of users, you can’t realistically expect those clicks. However, below is some of our best advice for optimising your content for social media distribution.

Get serious about your headlines

Writing a better title or headline for your content will not only work wonders for content distribution, it could also have a far better long-game impact on your SEO. Great content writers can spend hours meditating on the best headline structure as it is just as, if not more, important than the article itself.

No serious marketer ever wants to advocate clickbait, but it’s undeniable just how well a title that develops intrigue and hype at first glance can fare on the internet. If headlines aren’t your strong point or you’re looking for something to help direct you, we recommend CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer tool.

Remember, there is absolutely nothing stopping you from tailoring your original headline for each particular network. Distribution should be ongoing – it’s not a one post thing – so you can afford to A/B test different headlines and get a better feel for what sentiments, structures and power words get the best reaction with each audience.

Put more thought into your graphics

There’s little point in explaining the importance of visual content on social media; anybody who uses it will already understand. Content writers are also fully aware of how it can be useful to utilise graphics and other types of content (embedded posts, videos, etc.,) within the body of an article to reduce bounce rate. However, crafting posts that get the most engagement goes beyond adding a generic blog title graphic and will help you to optimise content.

Consider how you can merge your headline and your graphic to instil the most amount of intrigue and encourage the biggest response. In order to utilise networks such as Instagram, you can also create bespoke graphics making use of figures and specific specks of information from your article, and include the URL in your page header. Make sure to include the keyword you are focusing on as your ALT-TEXT caption too.

Data from Optinmonster.

Get your colleagues involved in distribution

Humans trust other humans’ judgement more than they do that of a brand. Content distribution isn’t just about what you post as your business or organisation, it’s also about getting your colleagues and advocates involved too.

This is particularly important on professional networks such as LinkedIn. To make this a more attractive thing, figure out ways to integrate the comments and expert opinions of employees within your content. This will give them a sense of ownership and encourage their advocacy, while also having the positive effect of adding a heightened professionalism to your article.

For more information on the benefits of content marketing or SEO, please get in contact with us today.