What makes a blog post worth sharing? Is it the language used, or the cute puppy images shrewdly embedded? The steps to a successful blog post are no mystery. There are certain components a post should include to make it shareable. The more of these components your post has, the better the likelihood it will be well-received by your online community.
And by this we mean the mood and tone you set with your post. Do you come across as an annoying know-it-all? Does your writing reveal any bias you might hold? Is your writing flowing with clear ideas? Do your phrases shows respect to your reader?
Pay attention to language use and style. Establish early on a style that suits your personality and niche and be consistent with it. People will judge you through your style, so it’s essential that your language communicates positive attributes and virtues, including respect and authority.
Online content needs to be skim and scan friendly. In other words, you need to always keep in mind that your readers are busy, and your job is to help make their lives easier.
Write short paragraphs, and create summaries or take-aways for readers in a hurry. Use bullet points and numbered lists. Not only will using these formatting practices make your blog posts more reader-friendly, but they’ll also boost their shareability, because people are more likely to read them!
You might be using links for SEO purposes, but that’s a different story. Links also help make your readers’ lives a bit easier.
If a blog post touches upon a previously analyzed post, don’t repeat yourself; create a link at the appropriate content and refer your reader to where you’ve fully explained the concept you’re mentioning briefly in the current post.
If a reader enjoys your article, they will share (or comment, or read more, or buy your product) without your explicit direction to do so.
However, a call to action won’t hurt. It’s a direct pledge to your reader to respond if they have found something you’ve given them enjoyable, insightful, or useful.
A call to action at the end of your post in the form of question is highly likely to elicit some comments and shares, and it will serve its purpose, which is to create a discourse around your ideas.
Online readers are often regarded as these easily distracted individuals who cannot stay on the page unless there are cute puppies or the latest high-profile celebrity to look at. The truth is not even close to this.
That being said, images can help bring a point across. Whether a literal or symbolic image, visuals strengthen your post’s main argument and elicit the right emotions and actions in your readers.
If a reader stumbles upon typos, misspellings, and grammar mistakes in every sentence, they will soon be annoyed and give up reading altogether. No matter how rock-solid your expertise and authority is on what you do, if your writing is laden with typos and other errors you are driving readers away.
For starters, make it a priority to improve your typing skills. This will ensure you make fewer typing mistakes because you will have improved your typing accuracy, which will also save you editing time. Typing your blog post faster will let you blog more often, too!
A reader will often only read your headline. If a post is shared and shows up in a person’s Facebook timeline or their RSS feed, then they will only get to read the headline and perhaps the summary or the first two sentences of the text. That’s why headlines need to be extra carefully crafted so as to capture the reader’s attention through curiosity, awe, shock, humor or even disagreement.
Incorporating these components will ensure your blog post will be read and shared! Good luck!
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