Facebook should NOT be ignored when it comes to your content strategy. Despite audiences shifting to other platforms like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, etc., Facebook is still the largest social media platform in the world, with approximately 2.5 billion monthly active users.
Bonus: How To Use Instagram To Grow Your Business
How do we know what makes shareable content on Facebook? Well, in 2014, we launched a publication that, within six months, went from zero website traffic to over 4 million monthly visitors. And since then, we’ve been able to help our clients consistently increase website visitors. Did I mention that most of this traffic came from Facebook and SEO? Pretty crazy, right?
This post serves as the definitive guide to creating shareable content on Facebook. We’ll get into the SEO portion of content strategy in another post.
Why do people share online?
People tend to share content that speaks to them in one way or another. They are most likely to share content that falls under one of the following:
- Validation of experience
- Validation of intelligence
- Validation of perspective
- Content that is Cool and generally interesting
They are also more likely to share things that are positive or framed in a positive way.
For example, only having one white rhino left on Earth is not positive. But framed in the right way, it can become positive:
Armed rangers fight to protect the last male northern white rhino left on Earth.
Not everything needs to be positive. As the internet evolves, so should your content strategy. Keep an eye on what’s working and what isn’t. A great way to keep an eye on this is using Google Analytics.
How to create viral content on Facebook
Creating viral content on Facebook, whether a photo, video, or blog post, can drive a ton of traffic to your website.
If you’re planning on creating content that will drive a lot of traffic to your website, you need to make sure your server can handle the traffic. Trust us; we’ve crashed more than a server or two learning this lesson! To learn more about How to prevent your website from crashing from large influxes of traffic, click the link we just shared!
Now that we’ve covered that, let’s get into what makes content go viral on Facebook.
Related: Facebook Ads Sizes
The first thing we need to look at is the Facebook algorithm.
The algorithm considers several factors when deciding if a piece of content is viral-worthy. This includes reactions, comments, shares, clicks, and view time, to name a few.
We have found that sharing is Facebook’s most valuable currency.
If someone shares a post, they find the content so good that they have to share it with their friends- which will automatically help that post reach more people. If many users share your post, of course, you’ll reach more people, but this also tells the algorithm that your content is worth pushing to even more people.
By creating content that is more likely to be shared, we’re creating the opportunity for our content to reach new audiences.
So what goes into creating “shareable content”? We’re going to look at how to “frame” your content.
Framing Your Content
Framing suggests that how something is presented to an audience influences the choices people make about how to process that information; and whether or not it’s worth sharing.
Remember that it doesn’t matter how good your content is; if it’s not compelling enough to click and share, no one will know it exists.
We’ve spent thousands of dollars sending writers to different corners of the world to cover important topics, only for those stories to fall flat due to improper framing.
Related: Facebook users in Canada
You should frame everything:
- The Headline
- The Image
- The Caption
- The Meta Description
Now that you know about framing, let’s talk about the “Curiosity Gap.”
Related: User Generated Content For SEO
What is a curiosity gap?
Think of a curiosity gap as a reason to click or watch. You’re essentially giving the user just enough information to create curiosity about your topic, at which point they’ll engage with your content to learn more.
Having a curiosity gap applies to not only social media, but also YouTube and email subject lines.
The Curiosity Gap explained:
Too vague, and I don’t want to click
Ex. Starting work too early is not ideal.
Too specific, and I don’t need to click.
Ex. Science says that if you start work after 10 AM, you will get more done, be happier and lead a better life.
Good example:
Ex. Starting work before 10 am isn’t just soul-crushing; this scientist says it’s equivalent to torture.
Creating a curiosity gap is not Clickbait!
You’re not a bad person for creating headlines that people will want to click on and share.
If making an engaging headline is the difference between 100 people seeing something important and 1,000,000 people seeing something important, which would you choose?
Related: Facebook Photo Sizes & Dimensions: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet
Headlining & Framing Process
This process is taken directly from a guide we’ve developed over the years. We not only use this process internally, but externally to train creative teams for clients.
- You HAVE to come up with 20 headlines for every piece of content.
- You WILL write some pretty terrible headlines.
- Once you start getting desperate, you start thinking outside the box.
- So you HAVE TO write 20 headlines.
- #19 might suck, but #20 will be a gift from the gods.
- Accept that not every headline will be perfect.
- Then write 20 headlines.
- You’ll be writing 20 headlines in 15 minutes with practice.
So please write 20 headlines or every piece of content!
Related: How to write compelling headlines
Rules for writing great headlines:
- Don’t give it all away in the headline.
- Also, don’t give it all away in the caption, image, or meta description. Don’t form an opinion for the end-user. Let the end-user do that.
- Don’t bum people out.
- Don’t sexualize your headlines in a way your mom would disapprove of.
- Don’t overthink it. Some of your headlines will suck. Accept it and keep writing.
- Be clever, but not too clever.
If you follow this guide, learn from your experiments, and continue to improve your framing strategy, you’ll likely see an increase in engagement and website traffic.
Originally published . Last updated .
Categories:
Explore More