Content’s a Beach: How to create shareable content, beat algorithms, and create fans

We had the opportunity to chat with Andrew and Pete who have recently released their book “Content Mavericks” which is focused on giving business owners a process to follow when creating their content. It’s theoretical but it’s also practical with activities to fast-track your content marketing success.

We talked with them about content and how to create really fun, relevant content that will get shared and retweeted, how you can beat algorithms, and in the meanwhile create fans who love what you do.

They’ve shared with us the five reasons why people share content and how you can hack into those reasons when creating your own. This will help you beat the algorithms and get wider reach on social media while creating super fans who will share and buy everything you do.

All you have to do is remember the handy acronym BEACH.

B: Brand Advocacy

This is the one that people underestimate the most, but if you think about it, it actually makes a lot of sense. People are more interested in sharing content from brands they know already. Many marketers will start an online marketing campaign, but they’ll fail at the relationship marketing part of the equation. When they’re trying to create content, they’re already on the back foot because they aren’t focusing on the right aspect. Nobody knows who they are.

But, once you’ve built relationships and trust online, if you’re someone's favorite, they will just share your content anyway, without you even having to ask. Sometimes they’ll share it without even reading it!

Starting out, many people are reactive, especially on social media. They’ll wait for people to start commenting on their stuff or they’ll wait for people to start following them. Instead, you’ve got to be proactive. You’ve got to go out there first and make that first point-of-contact. It could be sharing other people’s content first, replying to people first, or adding people first.

E: Emotion

You are not a robot; I am not a robot, so why do we talk to people like robots? Why do we send these automated messages or give generic responses to each other? Stop creating content that is blasé and focus on creating content that evokes an emotion!

Humor is underutilized by brands on social media. You don’t just have to be funny; you can be awe-inspiring, shocking, nostalgic, serene, there are so many emotions you can channel in your content.

We get it. You’re trying to be professional. You want your content to be perfect. But, in reality, we know it’s not always true. You’re not perfect, and you’re not always professional. If you continue to put up a front or a barrier to your true self, you’re not going to be able to accomplish that brand advocacy that will get you to build relationships with people.

A: Appearance

This isn’t about your appearance, it’s about the appearance of your audience. The key is to make content that makes other people look good. This makes it much more likely that it will be shared! It shouldn’t always be about us or our products, and how awesome we are, it’s about your audience.

So, ask yourself two questions:

1. Who is your customer and how do they want to look online?

2. What kind of content will let them look like that?

Take a look at what Chubbies is doing. They are a shorts and clothing retailer. Potentially, that’s kinda boring. What kinds of educational content can you create out of that? Putting on shorts 101? You’d quickly run out of topics to write about. So, instead, they focused their blog on entertainment. Their content is all about the fun stuff you could be doing on the weekend while wearing your Chubbies shorts. They know that people want to seem fun and exciting, so they’ve centered their focus around that.

C: Causes and Beliefs

If you align your brand towards something people believe in or are really passionate about, then people will share your content for you because they want that message to be spread. A good example of this is Uber. They collaborated with the Mothers Against Drunk Driving campaign, and created a hashtag #LeaveTheKeys and asked people to make a pledge against drunk driving. They encouraged people the leave their keys at home, go out and have fun, and take an Uber home.

It was a successful campaign because of all the people who are passionate about safe driving (as they should be) sharing the content released by Uber. People want that message to be spread.

Now this has to be real. You can’t just align yourself with any old charity to get retweets on Twitter. You have to be passionate about the cause and it needs to make sense in the context of your business. It also has to be relevant to your audience so that it resonates with them.

H: High-Value

The more valuable the content is, the more likely it is it will be shared. But, it can be hard to really understand what this means. And, we get it. It’s hard to spend the time on a piece of content like a blog or a video. Even Andrew and Pete admitted when they were blogging that they never spent more than two hours on a blog. At least until they had the chance to write for Social Media Examiner. They recognized the opportunity and took hours and hours to research, write, and proof the blog. And, no surprise, it did well. They got lots of great feedback and shares.

So, why did they only spend a half hour on their own content, they asked themselves? From that point on, they upped their game and spent more time on each blog they produced.

Imagine that instead of your own blog, your writing or producing content for the leading publication in your area of expertise. That’s the amount of effort you should be spending! If you spend the time and effort, your content will be much better and more valuable to your audience, meaning they’ll be more likely to share it.

There you have it! The five reasons people share content and how you can incorporate it into your content line-up. How have you guys used BEACH to create shareable content and grow your audience? Let us know in the comments below.

Also, check out what Andrew and Pete had to say for yourself. We explored this topic during our weekly #TrainingTuesday live stream where they joined us to chat about their content strategies.

A little bit about them: Andrew and Pete are the fun content marketing duo who help solopreneurs and small businesses to create insanely shareable content that builds brands people love, through their membership community - ATOMIC. They won the 'Digital and Social Media Company of the Year Award', and also 'Business Personality of the Year Award'. As international keynote speakers they have been featured on sites such as Social Media Examiner, Entrepreneur on Fire, Convince and Convert, Kim Garst and Huffington Post, and are authors of the hit book, 'The Hippo Campus'. You can find out more about them at www.andrewandpete.com.