As you repost your blog content to your social networks, one of your big concerns should be getting traffic to visit your site. One of the best ways to encourage the people in your social networks to click through or even share your content is to add interest. Spice it up a bit.
This isn’t to say that your original post isn’t interesting on it’s own. But I’ve been doing a few experiments and reading around on this subject lately and there are two distinct ways I have discovered for building interest and gaining clicks.
One I’ll call ‘The Introduction‘, and the other ‘The Tease‘.
Here’s the Audio:
Think about the last movie trailer you saw on TV or at the cinema while you were waiting for the feature to start. An interesting clip swaths the screen that frames the story and piques your interest, followed by an alluring sequence that stops short of the big payoff. The premise is interesting to you, and you are intrigued by the possible scenarios that might play out from what you just saw; Will they get their man? Is he a good guy or a bad guy? Will she find out the truth? By the time the roll is finished you lean to your date and whisper ‘We’ve gotta see that one!’
What you have just experienced is a well-crafted introduction, and a big fat tease all rolled into one tantalizing taste of what may come. Years of refinement and research have gone into the creation of the common movie trailer to make sure you are interested in the premise, and wanting some answers. If you could buy tickets right now you probably would.
Enter the re-post: Reposting is when you transfer content from your blog to your social network, for instance Facebook or Twitter. Your intention is to share an excerpt from the article and get people to click back to your blog to read the rest of the story.
For the untrained reposter, it is simply enough to restate the title of the post and to include a picture. But you’ll need an edge to get past the onslaught of posts and tweets that face our social associates. Use the movie trailer formula for the best results.
Whenever you blog, repost the content twice to each of your social networks; this will let them know that you are excited about the information.
Make sure the first one introduces the subject of the post. I have found that writing in the form of a question is the best way to get attention and to set up the intro. For instance if you have posted an article about the nutrition of applesauce, you might write a short introduction in the form of a tantalizing question: “Does an Apple A Day Really Keep The Doctor Away?”
Your readers will be compelled to find out, and are more likely to click through when there is something to find out.
In your followup repost, take an excerpt from the article and give your readers a small taste of the story. Make sure it is compelling and that it generates more questions than it answers. For instance you might write “My doctor says that an apple is one of only three fruits he recommends…” In this case you want your readers to be interested in the rest of the story.
Of course the most important thing is to include a link back to your original article.
Practice makes perfect, and don’t be afraid to experiment with the types of questions and excerpts you post. It will take a while to get the hang of it, but as long as you stay with the proven movie trailer formula it is sure to pay off.
Here’s the Audio:
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