3 ways to ensure that people actually read your tweets, posts and shares

Like many people who are plugged in to multiple social media platforms, I sometimes feel overwhelmed by the constant stream of information sharing. Those platforms can be an invaluable source of insight and new ideas, but there’s so much out there that users have to be selective regarding what they actually click through to read. Here are three tips to improve the chances that your followers will pay attention to what you share:

1. Keep it relevant. First and foremost, share only content that is interesting and applicable to your customers and followers, if you’re using a social media platform for your organization. Even on your personal accounts, don’t share things that are uninteresting to others (what you had for breakfast, for example) or that could harm your reputation (rants about your co-workers, for example).

2. Limit the number of posts. Even if all of the content you share is relevant, however, it’s still possible to overshare. One of my co-workers stopped reading the posts of a LinkedIn connection, not because they weren’t good, but because he shared upwards of 50 posts every day. Often in these cases of overposting, the problem is that the person has multiple social media platforms linked. I suspect that my co-worker’s connection had his tweets forwarded to his LinkedIn account. Tweeting 50 times a day, while still a lot, is significantly more acceptable than sharing 50 posts on LinkedIn or Facebook. If you inundate your followers with posts, they will tune you out, either by ignoring you, by unfollowing or unliking you, or by blocking you from their walls. Instead: Think about the platform you’re using, and choose the appropriate number of posts for that site. As a general rule, limit yourself to no more than 10 shares per day on platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn—and that’s assuming that they’re all very relevant to your followers (and not all self-promotion). You can share far more on sites like Twitter and Pinterest, as long as you keep the content interesting.

3. Preface your posts. I’ve noticed recently that I’m much more likely to click through and read something if the person who posted it explains why he or she is sharing it. We’ve talked about the importance of “Why” multiple times here, so that should have been obvious. The problem is that it’s really easy to be lazy about it. You click the “Share” buttons and the tweet or post is already created for you. Why bother adding your own comment? Adding your own thought—whether it’s an accolade like “I’ve never thought about networking from this perspective. Brilliant!” or a call to action like “What do you think: Is this entrepreneur forward-thinking or completely out of line?”—reminds your followers that you’re a human being with real thoughts, not a robot sharing random posts.

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What makes you click through—or skip over—something shared through a social media platform?

[Image Source: F. Delventhal]