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Nearly every smart marketer wants to create content that puts their company on the map and attract more customers.

According to HubSpot’s research, inbound marketing and content marketing have been the most effective method of doing business online. It’s no secret that high quality and shareable content is in high demand, but it is becoming exceedingly difficult to create top-notch pieces that cut through the noise.

A big piece to the inbound marketing puzzle comes from social media. The reality is that a lot of great content goes undiscovered due to improper optimization.

Social platforms can be a highly effective advertising tool for content, but unfortunately it’s all too easy to miss the mark on your strategy — and ultimately, engagement suffers right along with your ROI.

One of the primary focuses of content creation today is shared content optimization (SCO). Shared content optimization is the process of optimizing content to increase the likelihood of social shares, impressions, and even sales.

Without including shared content optimization into a content strategy, marketing efforts can quickly fall flat. The idea behind SCO is to create magnetic content that resonates with the audience, which encourages sharing throughout various channels.

What are The Benefits of Shared Content Optimization?

SCO helps content perform its best on social media platforms. For example, you likely wouldn’t post the same content on LinkedIn as you would on Twitter or Instagram.

In addition, social content optimization ensures that marketers effectively reach the target audience on the right platforms.

As a shared content optimization strategy encourages social sharing, it will naturally lead to more shares. In turn, this increases the exposure of social media profiles and can lead to an influx of followers — especially if the shared content is highly relevant and engaging for the audience.

This blog post will teach you how to apply the best optimization techniques for social media content. It will also explain how to use proper elements such as CTAs and graphics to enhance social shares.

Furthermore, marketers can learn how to properly optimize schedules based on channels and create snack-sized content that’s easy to consume. While shared content optimization isn’t rocket science, there is certainly a method that needs to be applied in order to get the best results.

Further Defining Shared Content Optimization

There are several steps to creating shared content optimization, which includes optimizing for impressions and enhancing the likeliness of sharing.

However, the first step is to understand the true definition of SCO — which is the process of adding relevant hashtags, commentary, questions, and media to spark engagement and increase social shares.

It’s also important to understand that the process optimizing content will vary across social platforms and channels.

In order for shared content optimization to work for a content strategy, there must be a deep understanding of the audience, as well as the ability to track and monitor progress so efforts can be adjusted as needed.

Creating Content for SCO

Marketers can use several components for developing SCO content, including a call-to-action, graphics, hashtags, targeting specific groups, and even using videos.

Once there is content prepared to share with an audience, it will need to be optimized to maximize impressions. This can be achieved in several ways, with one of the most effective methods including the use of trending hashtags.

10.21.15 #TheFutureisNow #PepsiPerfecthttps://t.co/DCcND4SlDU

— Pepsi™ (@pepsi)
October 5, 2015

However, there needs to be relevant in terms of the trending hash and the topic at hand—otherwise, the content will simply be viewed as spam.

Other ways to enhance the number of impressions with SCO is adding a call-to-action or graphics to a social post.

A call-to-action can be as simple as asking for a retweet or a Facebook share. As long as the call-to-action is compelling and provides incentive to the audience, increased social sharing and more impressions are sure to follow.

Follow @Wendys to play 30 Days of Bold and enter to win daily prizes! #getbold http://t.co/en0yEEZb

— Wendy’s (@Wendys)
September 14, 2012

Enhancing Messages with Visual Elements and Helpful Tools

Graphics are a big part of correctly optimizing content for social media sharing.

In fact, social media posts with images generate more engagement and have up to an 87% interaction rate with followers. Including graphics, videos, and even GIFs can greatly influence an audience to share content.

For example, take a look at BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed is known for its entertaining GIFs, and it’s one of the many reasons its content is shared so frequently on social media. This brand has effectively harnessed the power of shared content optimization, and they use interesting and engaging media for maximized impressions.

Image Credit: Cleverwood.be (via BuzzFeed)

Aside from animated GIFs, marketers can also consider adding CTAs and visual cues on graphics, which will help increase shareability.

There are several ways that marketers can create graphic and video content for SCO. Adobe Photoshop is one of the most popular tools for graphic design; but if you don’t have time to navigate through this complex software, you can use a user-friendly graphic design program such as Canva.

In addition, video production can be quite simple if you use tools such as VideoMakerFX, which is template-based and easy to customize.

Keep in mind that it’s important to use consistent branding elements across all social media channels.

Marketers need to think beyond their logo and cover images, and expand consistent fonts and color schemes into visual elements. This will ensure that the content is completely connected with your brand, and the audience will realize its original source.

Thinking beyond the logo is demonstrated brilliantly by the Always #LikeAGirl campaign by Procter & Gamble’s:

Optimizing Channels for Maximized Sharing

Data and tracking are critical to optimizing your channels for maximized sharing. One of the most important considerations to track and consider is the audience location and habits, which can help you determine the right schedule for the chosen channel.

Nearly every social media channel offers some form of analytic data. Marketers can dive into these insights to learn more about the target demographic in terms of age, income, education, marital status, and more.

Furthermore, marketers can also discover the best performing posts. This data will help marketers understand the type of content that resonates with audiences the most.

Once marketers have a solid understanding of the audience, best performing content, and peak hours for publishing content, the strategy can focus on SCO, based on audience preferences.

Automating the sharing process will increase productivity for marketers of every level. Consider using tools such as HubSpot’s Social Inbox to publish posts in advance, which also allows marketers to plan out their social strategy on one convenient platform.

Selecting The Best Social Media Channels

While it’s tempting to promote content on every social media channel, this method can actually be counterproductive. Marketers need to focus their time and energy on social platforms that bring them the best ROI and engagement.

Social media channels that offer the best customer interaction, comments, and shares should be the primary focus of any social media marketing strategy. Once the best social media channels are established, marketers can focus on optimizing the content in a method that makes sense for the specific platform. This means to publish posts during peak hours, use relevant hashtags, and appropriately-sized graphics.

Increase Sharing Success with Shared Content Optimization

Shared content optimization doesn’t end with graphics and hashtags. Something as simple as asking the audience to share content can help increase impressions.

Best of all, the CTAs can be directly embedded into visuals — or marketers can just simply ask for the share or retweet by using text.

Another way to increase sharing success is to create bite-sized content. Bite-sized content is easy to consume and it’s fun to scan and share.

Keep in mind that the average attention span of an adult is only 8.25 seconds, so marketers face the challenge of creating content that is quickly absorbed yet engaging.

There are several ways to get your audience to bite on snackable content. For example:

1. Promoting large campaigns with bite-sized content
2. Offering bits of playful content
3. Re-sharing content about your brand that is submitting by users
4. Keeping your content suspenseful — make the audience wonder what will happen next

Lastly, marketers can also add content suggestions to encourage extra sharing. This helps further promote existing content while encouraging additional shares on social media.

Motivate The Audience to Share on Social Media

Unfortunately, simply asking for social shares sometimes isn’t enough. However, there are still ways to grab attention of the audience and motivate sharing over multiple channels.

One method is to add a human element and include emoticons within your posts — this will add an extra layer of visual interest, and make a brand stand out from the competition.

Getting started with video? https://t.co/aw9VNEtcZZ A Modern-Day Marketer’s Guide to Creating Epic Video Content 🎥 http://pic.twitter.com/KPOtT7w7fd

— Buffer (@buffer)
August 24, 2016

Graphics are always a go-to method of increasing social shares. There is no denying the power of using graphics to optimize and promote content, and numerous studies have shown that graphics can earn content more impression than only using text.

Promoting Optimized Content

Once the content is ready to go, it’s time to put your shared content optimization strategy to the test.

Publish your content on free social media channels to begin testing what works best for your schedule and audience. Do research on demographics on each platform, and carefully review data of your posts while you consistently tweak your strategy.

Furthermore, there is always the option to boost visibility with paid content campaigns. Facebook advertising is relatively inexpensive, yet it can yield great results. Be careful while optimizing paid campaigns, and be sure that the right keywords and demographics are targeted for best results.

One of the last pieces to the puzzle is recommending the content on content distribution channels. This will help promote your hard work to the largest amount of people possible, while ultimately spreading your content far and wide.

Increasing Clickthrough Rates

When you’re working hard to promote and optimize your content, you don’t want to forget about CTR (clickthrough rate). Driving traffic to your website from social media isn’t as complicated as you think — and it all comes down to a few simple strategies.

The first step is to ensure that your posts are attractive and cohesive. Be sure that your graphic or video is properly optimized for your social platform, and your text is free of spelling and grammatical errors.

The next consideration is to give your readers a reason to share your posts. For example, you can create content that hits a pain point and draws readers to your website for a resolution.

You should also try to alternate headlines, use actionable words, and be responsive to your followers on social media.

Enhance Your Content Strategy with Shared Content Optimization

Is shared content optimization part of your digital marketing strategy? By creating quality content, promoting with the right tools, and tapping into the target audience, marketers of every industry can see a boost in online sharing.

These days, it seems like most marketing jobs require at least a basic knowledge of search engine optimization. Even writers need to know about it — gone are the days, it seems, of simply composing with words. We have to know how to rank, build links, and yield traffic.

But many of us aren’t sure where to begin. And that, says HubSpot Senior Acquisition Manager Matt Barby, is due to the deluge of information available on SEO.

“The problem is that most of it is either ill-informed or just factually incorrect,” he explains. Luckily, because Barby’s job has involved working with SEO and its experts over the past few years, he’s built a go-to arsenal of resources on the topic — which we’re eager to share.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the amount of sites for learning SEO, fear not — we’ve put together a list of some of the most comprehensive resources out there. Check them out below.

How to Learn SEO: 9 of the Best Resources to Bookmark

1) Moz

Since 2004, Moz has served as what it calls “a vibrant online marketing community.” In addition to making marketing analytics software, Moz offers several resources to marketers within the realm of SEO, including its “Beginner’s Guide to SEO.”

Broken down into 10 chapters, the guide really gets to the basics — what is search engine optimization, and why marketers need to use it. From there, the chapters gradually become more advanced, covering topics like what can impact a search ranking, and how SEO efforts can be tracked.

We particularly like this guide’s layout — with helpful graphics strategically placed throughout the text, it’s makes a detail-rich topic more readable. And, throughout each chapter, Moz sprinkles in different experiments that readers can try along the way to put each lesson into practice.

2) Google

Since Google is currently holds the #1 Alexa rank, it’s no surprise that the reigning search engine of choice has its own guide to SEO.

Google generally has several resources on optimizing web content for search — usually catered to its own platform. But in addition to helpful articles like “Steps to a Google-friendly site” and “Do you need an SEO?“, the search engine also has its own downloadable Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide.

It’s worth setting aside some time to read through this guide. Though comprehensive, it’s also exhaustive — and that’s a good thing, if you’re really serious about mastering SEO. It also goes into best practices for optimizing your web presence for different formats, like mobile, and how to promote your site in a way that search engines recognize as rankable.

And if you want even more resources, check out the “Learn” section of Google Webmasters — it links to a ton of helpful information about creating search-friendly experiences online.

3) Search Engine Land

Source: Search Engine Land

You might remember the periodic table of elements from high school science classes — it’s a chart that organizes every chemical element according to its atomic number. Since its inception, similar periodic tables have been modeled to break down a number of complex topics, including SEO.

That’s the work of online search marketing publication Search Engine Land. And with such a name, it makes sense that it would have its very own “Guide to SEO.”

Similar to the Moz guide, Seach Engine Land breaks down its strategic guidance in chapters, making sure to cover the different rules and spam-like behavior that should be avoided to prevent ranking penalties.

Then, there’s the aforementioned “Periodic Table Of SEO Success Factors,” which takes the most fundamental concepts from the guide and organizes them into a descriptive infographic. And we love infographics — they communicate complex information in a way that’s concise and digestible, which is helpful when tackling a new topic.

4) ViperChill

When you first visit the ViperChill blog, you might notice an area of small, pale text at the top: “New? Start Here.” There, you’ll read the story of how entrepreneur and SEO expert Glen Allsopp created ViperChill, “the place I share everything I’ve learned in order to help other people make a living online.”

While ViperChill doesn’t have a point-by-point guide like some of the others on this list, the blog has a strikingly interesting and informative collection of resources on all things SEO. “It’s a no-frills site, but has tons of value,” says Barby. “If you’re looking to skill up in actually getting sites to rank, then Allsopp’s content is a must read.”

That content is diverse, too — from case studies to unique how-to articles, Viper likely has tips and hacks for any stage of learning SEO, from beginners to people who are getting to the more difficult stages of their strategy.

5) HubSpot

Here at HubSpot, we make stuff for marketers. And since SEO is a pretty in-demand skills for marketers these days, it makes sense for us to provide the resources that will help you succeed at that skill.

Not only are SEO tools part of our products, but we’ve also created a whole bunch of educational content on the topic — including templates, guides, and even a 30-day website traffic planner. 

Plus, you may have noticed that we’ve covered SEO a few times in our Marketing Blog. Here are a few of our favorite posts on the topic:

• On-Page SEO 101: Tips for Keyword Optimizing the Most Critical Parts of Your Website
• Why You Won’t Recognize SEO in Five Years
• How Mobile, Voice & Social Are Changing SEO [Infographic]

6) SEO auv

One of the most important aspects of SEO are the keywords you select. In fact, keywords make up such a crucial part of the overall strategy, we would suggest nailing down the basics before trying to master this step.

Once you do, SEO auv has a great guide that you can consult for your keyword strategy — “How To Do Keyword Research For SEO.” One thing we love about it? Right off the bat, the author addresses the frequently changing landscape of SEO, and the tools that marketers use for it.

The article addresses some of the most recent developments within SEO technology, and how a keyword strategy should reflect that. It guides the reader with steps on how to perform the right kind of research that should result in the most optimal keywords — though those steps are lengthy, but valuable, as the guide goes into quite a bit of detail.

7) Ahrefs Blog

Ahrefs, a big data marketing platform, has a big focus on backlinks — the links from one page to another one, which is also a way of describing inbound links.

The Ahrefs blog is rich in SEO resources, but there’s one in particular that catches our eyes, which is “A Data Driven Guide To Anchor Text (And Its Impact On SEO).” As the title suggests, this entry does a deep dive into anchor text — the “visible, clickable words used to link one web page to another,” like the ones we used to link to the Ahref blog just now.

Essentially, the more external sites use specific anchor text to link to your site, the more search engines think your site should rank for the words within that text.

Getting into the importance of anchor text in SEO is a bit more advanced, but still important. And once you have the basics down, this Ahref blog post will serve as a valuable resource in using anchor text to improve your rank.

8) Matthewbarby.com

We would be remiss not to mention that Barby, one of HubSpot’s resident SEO experts, also compiled his own search engine optimization guide.

In “19 Actionable SEO Tips to Increase Organic Traffic,” Barby creates an interactive quick jump menu that allows users to navigate any area of SEO they wish to explore, from product snippets to influencer platforms.

Again, it might be best to brush up on basic search marketing knowledge before tackling this resource. But one thing we like about Barby’s guide is that it works to dispel some of the inaccurate — and sometimes, harmful — information out there about SEO. What’s more, there’s an option to simply view the article’s summary when you’re short on time, and revisit the entire text when you’re really ready to dive into these highly relevant tips.

9) Cranberry Radio’s SEO 101

Sometimes, you just need to get down to the very basics. That’s why we love Cranberry Radio’s SEO 101 — a series of podcasts that dive into search engine optimization from the bottom-up. 

There’s an interesting collection of topics here, from keyword planning to the range of Google’s algorithmic updates that we’ve seen over the years. SEO 101 walks step-by-step through what each of these developments and sub-categories of SEO mean for marketers, along with some valuable do’s and don’ts.

Time to Optimize

The thing is, the way SEO works changes. A lot. And when you don’t have a team or colleague completely dedicated to search marketing, the changing technology and platforms can be so overwhelming that it’s tempting to not even bother getting started.

But don’t fall victim to that. As we’ve covered, SEO is an imperative part of any marketing strategy, and it’s possible to tackle it without a ton of help.

“I have a very small hit list of blogs that I regularly trust for information around SEO,” says Barby. And we, too, suggest bookmarking these sites for future reference. Not only will they assist with your current SEO efforts, but they’re also the most likely resources to keep you posted on the latest developments.

Where did you turn to learn about SEO? Let us know in the comments.