Let’s be clear right upfront: this post is not about clickbait—that dubious practice of pulling in clicks by withholding information (“you’ll never believe what happened next!”) or misleading readers (“lose 30 pounds by eating this one weird food!”).
Instead, it’s about crafting quality social media content that provides clear value and compels readers to click through to your website or blog to further engage with you and your brand. Here are seven key ways to make your content more clickable.
1. Provide clear value to the right readers
Your audience is made up of real people who have real needs and goals, and who are—let’s face it—probably pressed for time. Before you can speak meaningfully to them, you need to understand who they are so you can tailor your content to help them solve their problems or even just improve their day.
Why should they click through to read more? You can’t tell them if you haven’t done the research to answer that question clearly and honestly.
Make sure your social media post answers the question “What’s in it for me?” from the reader’s perspective. What benefits will readers get from reading your content? What problems can they avoid? Provide a tangible benefit tailored to your most valuable potential readers.
2. Speak directly to your audience
One simple way to connect with readers is to write in the second person using words like “you” and “your.” It’s a simple technique that immediately makes your writing more accessible.
Think about it: are you interested in how businesses can improve their conversion rates, or how you can improve your conversion rate? Making it personal gets potential readers invested in your message right from the start. Always ask yourself if your post feels personally compelling enough that it would get you to click—even if you didn’t already know how awesome the linked content is
3. Build curiosity
Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it can breathe real life into a social media post.
Asking a question is one easy way to arouse readers’ curiosity and get them thinking about how much they have to learn about a topic. But be careful with this technique, since a question in a headline may get your post flagged as clickbait if you don’t provide any context about what a reader will actually find when they click through to your site.
Citing a surprising fact, statistic, or quote is another great way to build curiosity, since people have been shown to become curious when they discover something that goes against their expectations.
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