Blog shares have decreased by 89 percent, despite the increase of blog posts written by marketers. In a blog-saturated market, how do we actively increase blog shares?
Exposure is affected by many factors including timing, the blog post title and punctuation. Here are nine blogging areas to assess in order to grow your blog shares:
1. Timing
Knowing when the best time to post your blog is key. The most popular day and time of the week to post is Wednesday at noon EST. When you post on Wednesday, you’re competing with all the other posts in the blogosphere. However, if you post on the least busy day, Sunday, there’s a greater chance that you’ll be read and shared more. In fact, 3 p.m. EST is the best time on Sunday to post your blog.
2. Shorter titles
Long blog post titles run the risk of being cut off by Google. By keeping your title length to a magic number, research says that you can average more than 400 shares per post. What’s the magic number, you ask? Seven. That’s right; keep your titles to seven words to increase your blog shares.
3. Superlatives
Catch the attention of your reader quicker when you use superlatives, such as ‘best,’ ‘biggest’ or ‘highest.’ Readers tend to gravitate to these blog posts, but you have to be careful not to go overboard. Keep to a maximum of two superlatives in your blog title. These can increase your exposure to an average of over 300 shares.
4. Punctuation
Be mindful when incorporating punctuation in your blog titles. The vertical bar (|), which is often used to create breaks in titles, causes the most shares among posts with an average of nearly 6,000 shares. The second punctuation mark that leads to the most shares is the quotation mark (single and double). Readers often see quoted titles as posts that contain more credible information. The least likely mark to get you shares? The semicolon will average you just over 200 shares.
5. Pronouns
Readers want to be talked to when reading your blog titles. Use second person pronouns such as ‘yourselves’ and ‘you.’ Stick to a maximum of two pronouns per title.
6. Length
Believe it or not, longer posts are actually shared more. Those with 1,200–1,400 words are shared an average of over 400 times. Readers appreciate the credibility and quality that accompanies long-form writing. In addition, posts with two-sentence paragraphs are shared more as well as sentences containing 20 words.
7. Media
It’s no secret that images and videos grow blog engagement. But how do you know when you’ve gone too far? The magic number for images is 11, and for images, it’s eight. However, you don’t want to share a lot of images and video if your content is on the shorter side. Images go well with 800–1,000 words, and videos are best accompanied by 1,200–1,400 words.
8. Headers
Simply put, headers increase blog shares since they make your posts easier to read. Research says that posts with 1,400–1,600 words and headers will generate over 500 shares.
9. Lists
Readers love lists, but too many can hurt you. Stick to two lists per post to get the most shares. Articles that are structured as lists also perform well.
