Content creation is growing at an incredible rate.

Every day, approximately 2 million blog posts are created, along with hundreds of millions of status updates, photos, and videos. Many businesses assume they can grow by creating fresh content, but with the amount being churned out every day, it takes much more than that.

You must generate content that stands out from the crowd. That grabs attention. That wows people. And more than anything, that is incredibly shareable. Shareable content generates traffic, which generates more shares, which ultimately boosts the bottom line.

In this post, you’re going to discover 10 ways to create incredibly shareable content.

#1 – Find Out What’s Trending

Trending content – topics that everyone is talking about – is much more likely to be shared due to its relevance. For example, during the 2016 presidential election, everyone wanted to share political videos and posts.

By creating content related to current trends, you can quickly generate more shares.

How do you find out what’s trending?

BuzzSumo allows you to select particular topics, such as Apple, Kate Hudson, or the Orlando Magic, and then receive a notification every time something important happens around that subject. The Trending section of the site will also let you know which content is being shared the fastest on a daily or hourly basis. And, Most Shared can keep you up to date on high performing content from any industry or domain.

Tools like these allow you to find high performing content around any subject and then create even better content that will generate more shares.

Twitter / Facebook Trending

Both Twitter and Facebook have a “trending” section in the sidebar, allowing you to see the current hot topics. These topics are a natural jumping off point for content creation and are more likely to create a buzz.

#2 – Engage With Your Community

Engaging with your online community allows you to discover what matters to them and what burning questions they might have. There are numerous ways to interact, including blog comments, a particular Reddit thread, Quora, emails you’ve received, and social media conversations.

As Gini Dietrich says:

“If you have an active community on your blog or on one of the social networks, read the comments! You will get story ideas just from what people say—things you hadn’t yet considered or different perspectives. If no one is commenting on the content you create, read the comments on other blogs within the industry.”

#3 – Tie In Pop Culture

Whether you like it or not, pop culture and memes drive massive amounts of shares. If you can tactfully use culture or memes in your content, it will drive up the number of shares it receives. Obviously, you have to be careful about this. Unless you’re writing for BuzzFeed, you don’t want your entire post to be about the Kardashians.

#4 – Use Lists

Lists are hugely popular due to how skimmable they are. Studies have also shown that lists tend to generate more social shares than most other forms of content. A study by BuzzSumo showed the following breakdown of shares by content.

#5 – Write Long-Form Content

You might think that shorter articles are shared more, but the opposite is true. BuzzSumo discovered that longer content between 3,000-10,000 words got far more shares. That’s one reason my long-form, 5,000+ word article on how to make a website received more than 10,000 shares.

#6 – Interviews With Influencers

Creating interviews and roundups with experts and influencers is a fantastic way to drum up shares. Why? These influencers are more than likely to pass the post to their own audience, which can be a huge social booster. Plus, people trust these experts, which in turn means they trust the content of the post. I’d even argue that trust is the new marketing currency

#7 – Include Images

Social media, now more than ever, is image driven. Hubspot learned that Facebook posts that include images receive nearly 3x more engagement than plain-text content. If you’re feeling ambitious, create images that directly tie into the content. As Brian Sutter says:

“Level two for marketers is to convert part of their content into an image that works as standalone content. For example, if you have educational content, put together an image of the basic steps to follow, then bundle those steps into one image.”

#8 – Include Social Sharing Buttons

This should be obvious, but must be included. On all of your content, include social sharing buttons for one-click sharing to social media. People don’t want to copy and paste a link into Facebook. Without social buttons, you are shooting yourself in the foot in terms of shares.

#9 – Write Killer Headlines

Few things generate more shares than a killer headline. Your headline is your first impression, the way you reel readers in. A boring headline generates few clicks and fewer shares, while a killer headline immediately sucks the reader in. Don’t be content with a vanilla headline when you could have something compelling.

If you need help, CoSchedule offers a headline analyzer to improve your headlines.

#10 – Create Outstanding Content

Last, but certainly not least, you must produce out of this world content. With so much garbage being made, the one way to stand out is to create something amazing. Making weak, tepid, boring content will hurt your brand, not help it.

People will check out your content if you promote it enough, but that’s where the hard part begins. You need to consistently deliver a memorable experience with your readers, where they’re delighted by the value you offered. Valuable content is not only your key to unlocking and increasing web traffic, it’s how people learn to trust you and your brand implicitly over time.

Otherwise, you’ve wasted your chance to leave a positive impression, and your audience will tune you out and move on. Don’t train your audience to ignore you. Make something great.

Conclusion

In a world filled with “Which Harry Potter Character Are You?” quizzes, quality, shareable content is a breath of fresh air. And, if you take the time to craft brilliant, viral, insightful comment, you can establish yourself as something of an expert.

It’s not enough to create a blog post. Remember, 2 million are getting created per day. Create something outstanding, and people will take notice.

Originally published on BuzzSumo: 10 Awesome Ways to Make Incredibly Shareable Content