Covers with stopping power
Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2025 8:23 am
Sharing is not a goal. Or is it?
You don’t think of and create content with the aim of realising as many shares as possible. Not with content marketing. The aim is to provide your target group with attractive content to meet their information needs. This content offers a helping hand and is related to the purchase or use of your products or services. Content strategy and creation are therefore primarily about attractiveness and relevance. Sharing is – if you do it right – a consequence and a bonus. Proof that the content is valuable.
In content distribution and promotion, sharing is a (sub)goal. With every share, you reach connections or followers of the person who shared. Extra reach, and reach is what the distribution and promotion cork floats on.
4 Areas of Focus for a Social Sharing Strategy
For that reason and because you often have to make do with the content that is already there, I will concentrate in this article on the question of how you can promote sharing during distribution and promotion. In my opinion, this can be done by paying attention to the following aspects:
1. The springboard
You can place your article on a website with a few dozen visitors per day. That is the low springboard. You can also place your article on a platform with thousands of visitors per day. That is the high one. The higher the springboard you jump from, the more shares you will get. This involves a leverage effect: extra shares provide extra views, which in turn provide extra shares, which in turn provide more views. Sort of like compound interest.
Just as important as the reach is the sharing behavior of the visitors on the platform on which you publish. For example, I have noticed that the readers of Frankwatching share more than on other sites.
There is not only a quantitative, but also a qualitative aspect to the springboard. If someone shares something that is on AdAge, for example, that person says something about themselves. Namely: “Look, I stay informed about what is happening in my field.” I read AdAge. It has a certain status. So the adage The medium is the message applies here. The better the potential sharer can profile himself with the provider of the content (and the author), the greater the chance that he will share.
2. The packaging
What can you do around the content? How can you 'package' it in such a way that you get more shares? There are many possibilities for this, I will name a few:
A must: social sharing buttons. Don't hide them, put them prominently in view.
Offer something that is valuable to the reader. For example, in my previous blog I promised to write this article if I would get at least 300 shares. I managed to do that with 460 shares. It became my most read and most shared article on Frankwatching.
Turn quotes into tweetable links with e.g. Tweetable or Clicktotweet . Don't forget to include the link to the content in the tweet.
Provide social proof . The more views, shares, likes and comments a piece of content has received, the greater its appeal. You can use your promotion team (see tip 4) to get the counter moving in the right direction.
Engage the audience in your goal and explicitly ask for sharing. If possible, place a call-to-action with the content . Later in this article, I will enlist your help to reach 600 shares.
Ask for sharing after people sign up for your newsletter. If an article is a reason for someone to sign up for your newsletter, there is a good chance that they will want to share that article.
3. The poster
You can't separate the content from the expression with which you promote it. The announcement, the trailer, the reference, the signboard or simply: the promo. The promo is a neglected child in the content marketing world. Almost everyone gets away with it with a clichéd one-dollar stock photo and a few lines of text from the introduction. Is the piece about content strategy? Then we take a picture that says 'content'. Is it about social media? Then we show the logos of the social networks. And if it is about collaboration, then we take two hands shaking each other.
Then there are the publishers. They know that you have to seduce people. So they do everything they can to create covers that grab the audience by the throat. Covers that radiate authority and make it clear at a glance what is to be had. Publishers go for covers with stopping power . And they have to. The competition is cutthroat. The newsstands are overflowing and people are reading less and less. Magazines are their bread and butter.
That’s different with us. Our content only contributes indirectly and to a limited extent to our success. But haven’t country email list we been saying for some time now that brands have become publishers? And aren’t the timelines of our target groups also a kind of kiosk where the public lets its eye glide along the enormous range and only picks out what really seems worthwhile?
The opportunity for you!
Exactly! And precisely because most content marketers do not want to pay attention to promo, you should. At least if you want to distinguish yourself, attract more audience and not only make yourself more attractive as a brand, but also position yourself as a thought leader .
Give your promo an upgrade. Call it a poster from now on. And remember that this poster itself is also content. Make it an irresistible expression, snackable & shareable . Preferably multiple expressions, so that you can highlight a different aspect of your story each time and interest more people in your content. For example, make a stylish expression of a quote or a nice graphic of those impressive numbers.
Shared over 800 times. Have you read it yet?
The irresistible posters you are going to post will help your content get shares. Dozens, maybe even hundreds of shares. You can do something with that success. Do you know the stickers on books that say “Already 400,000 copies sold!”? You can do that too. If the number of shares is going well, mention that in or with the expressions.
You don’t think of and create content with the aim of realising as many shares as possible. Not with content marketing. The aim is to provide your target group with attractive content to meet their information needs. This content offers a helping hand and is related to the purchase or use of your products or services. Content strategy and creation are therefore primarily about attractiveness and relevance. Sharing is – if you do it right – a consequence and a bonus. Proof that the content is valuable.
In content distribution and promotion, sharing is a (sub)goal. With every share, you reach connections or followers of the person who shared. Extra reach, and reach is what the distribution and promotion cork floats on.
4 Areas of Focus for a Social Sharing Strategy
For that reason and because you often have to make do with the content that is already there, I will concentrate in this article on the question of how you can promote sharing during distribution and promotion. In my opinion, this can be done by paying attention to the following aspects:
1. The springboard
You can place your article on a website with a few dozen visitors per day. That is the low springboard. You can also place your article on a platform with thousands of visitors per day. That is the high one. The higher the springboard you jump from, the more shares you will get. This involves a leverage effect: extra shares provide extra views, which in turn provide extra shares, which in turn provide more views. Sort of like compound interest.
Just as important as the reach is the sharing behavior of the visitors on the platform on which you publish. For example, I have noticed that the readers of Frankwatching share more than on other sites.
There is not only a quantitative, but also a qualitative aspect to the springboard. If someone shares something that is on AdAge, for example, that person says something about themselves. Namely: “Look, I stay informed about what is happening in my field.” I read AdAge. It has a certain status. So the adage The medium is the message applies here. The better the potential sharer can profile himself with the provider of the content (and the author), the greater the chance that he will share.
2. The packaging
What can you do around the content? How can you 'package' it in such a way that you get more shares? There are many possibilities for this, I will name a few:
A must: social sharing buttons. Don't hide them, put them prominently in view.
Offer something that is valuable to the reader. For example, in my previous blog I promised to write this article if I would get at least 300 shares. I managed to do that with 460 shares. It became my most read and most shared article on Frankwatching.
Turn quotes into tweetable links with e.g. Tweetable or Clicktotweet . Don't forget to include the link to the content in the tweet.
Provide social proof . The more views, shares, likes and comments a piece of content has received, the greater its appeal. You can use your promotion team (see tip 4) to get the counter moving in the right direction.
Engage the audience in your goal and explicitly ask for sharing. If possible, place a call-to-action with the content . Later in this article, I will enlist your help to reach 600 shares.
Ask for sharing after people sign up for your newsletter. If an article is a reason for someone to sign up for your newsletter, there is a good chance that they will want to share that article.
3. The poster
You can't separate the content from the expression with which you promote it. The announcement, the trailer, the reference, the signboard or simply: the promo. The promo is a neglected child in the content marketing world. Almost everyone gets away with it with a clichéd one-dollar stock photo and a few lines of text from the introduction. Is the piece about content strategy? Then we take a picture that says 'content'. Is it about social media? Then we show the logos of the social networks. And if it is about collaboration, then we take two hands shaking each other.
Then there are the publishers. They know that you have to seduce people. So they do everything they can to create covers that grab the audience by the throat. Covers that radiate authority and make it clear at a glance what is to be had. Publishers go for covers with stopping power . And they have to. The competition is cutthroat. The newsstands are overflowing and people are reading less and less. Magazines are their bread and butter.
That’s different with us. Our content only contributes indirectly and to a limited extent to our success. But haven’t country email list we been saying for some time now that brands have become publishers? And aren’t the timelines of our target groups also a kind of kiosk where the public lets its eye glide along the enormous range and only picks out what really seems worthwhile?
The opportunity for you!
Exactly! And precisely because most content marketers do not want to pay attention to promo, you should. At least if you want to distinguish yourself, attract more audience and not only make yourself more attractive as a brand, but also position yourself as a thought leader .
Give your promo an upgrade. Call it a poster from now on. And remember that this poster itself is also content. Make it an irresistible expression, snackable & shareable . Preferably multiple expressions, so that you can highlight a different aspect of your story each time and interest more people in your content. For example, make a stylish expression of a quote or a nice graphic of those impressive numbers.
Shared over 800 times. Have you read it yet?
The irresistible posters you are going to post will help your content get shares. Dozens, maybe even hundreds of shares. You can do something with that success. Do you know the stickers on books that say “Already 400,000 copies sold!”? You can do that too. If the number of shares is going well, mention that in or with the expressions.