Shared Content Optimization: What It Is & Why You Need to Care

In the battle for attention in today‘s crowded digital landscape, simply creating great content is no longer enough. To maximize the reach and impact of your content marketing efforts, you need to focus on optimizing your content for sharing and engagement across social media and other online channels. Enter: shared content optimization (SCO).

What Exactly is Shared Content Optimization?

Shared content optimization refers to the strategic process of planning, creating, and promoting content with the goal of maximizing its shareability and engagement potential. Essentially, it‘s all about getting your content in front of as many eyeballs as possible by tapping into the power of social media and online word-of-mouth.

A successful SCO strategy requires a deep understanding of the types of content that resonate with your target audience, as well as the specific sharing behaviors and preferences on each social platform. The more your content gets liked, commented on, and shared, the more "earned" exposure you gain—elevating your brand‘s visibility and attracting new potential customers into your orbit.

The Psychology Behind Social Sharing

But why do people share content online in the first place? According to a study by the New York Times Customer Insight Group, there are five key motivations:

1. To bring valuable & entertaining content to others
2. To define ourselves to others
3. To grow and nourish relationships
4. For self-fulfillment
5. To get the word out about causes or brands

In other words, people share content that makes them look good, helps them connect with others, and supports their values and beliefs. Great SCO content leans into these underlying emotional drivers to spark engagement.

For example, Dove‘s "Real Beauty Sketches" campaign became one of the most viral video ads of all time, racking up over 50 million views in the first 12 days. It tapped into a relatable insight around how women perceive their own beauty, evoking feelings of empowerment, self-acceptance, and social connection.


Source: Dove

The Business Case for SCO

The benefits of a strong SCO strategy go way beyond just racking up vanity metrics. When implemented effectively, SCO can drive real business results across the board:

• Expanded reach & brand awareness: The more your content gets shared, the more new potential customers discover your brand, often at an exponential rate. You gain access to extended social networks beyond your existing followers.

• Increased traffic & engagement: By consistently putting out content that people want to share, you create a steady stream of social referral traffic back to your website. Higher-quality traffic that comes through shared links tends to spend more time engaging with your site.

• Enhanced lead generation: Share-optimized content acts as a lead magnet by providing so much value that people are compelled to engage further with your brand, through actions like email signups, content downloads, or demo requests.

• Improved search rankings: Social shares are one of many "off-page" signals that Google and other search engines factor into their ranking algorithms. While not a direct ranking factor, the correlation is clear – highly shared content tends to earn more backlinks and rise to the top of search results.

• More cost-effective than paid: While paid social ads can help amplify your content‘s reach, earning organic shares is essentially free exposure for your brand. Over time, strong SCO can reduce your reliance on paid promotion to drive results.

Case in point: Airbnb‘s "Belong Anywhere" video ad in 2014, which relied almost entirely on organic sharing to attract over 4 million YouTube views. The video tapped into the universal human desire to feel welcomed and accepted, using powerful storytelling to build an emotional connection with the brand.

How to Create Share-Worthy Content

So what are the key ingredients of highly shareable content? While there‘s no one-size-fits-all formula, there are a few proven principles to keep in mind:

1. Start with a magnetic headline.

Your headline is the first thing people will see in their social feeds, so it needs to immediately grab attention and make them want to click. Some common winning headline formulas include:

• Listicles (e.g. 10 Ways to __)
• How-to guides (e.g. How to _____ in 5 Simple Steps)
• Questions (e.g. Are You Making These _____ Mistakes?)
• Strong claims (e.g. The Ultimate Guide to _____)

The headline "Marriage Isn‘t For You" is a great example – the contrarian stance sparks curiosity and makes you want to find out more. The article went viral on social media and crashed the author‘s website server.

2. Provide practical value or utility.

One of the top reasons people share content is to help others and provide value to their network. Your content should teach the reader something new, help them solve a problem, or make their lives easier in some way.

Examples: useful templates, checklists, how-to videos, resource guides, case studies with actionable takeaways.

3. Evoke emotions.

Content that makes people feel something is much more likely to get shared. Common high-arousal emotions to tap into include joy, excitement, awe, humor, nostalgia, and even anger or fear.

Effective tactics: storytelling, inspirational messages, cute animals, memes, surprising data, thought-provoking questions.

Buzzfeed is the master of this – listicles like "21 Pictures That Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity" are share magnets because they evoke a strong emotional reaction and social identity connection.

4. Leverage eye-catching visuals.

In the fast-paced social media feeds, strong visuals are essential for stopping thumbs and attracting clicks. Always include a high-quality, relevant image with each social post.

Some of the most share-friendly visual formats include:

• Original photos/graphics
• Branded quote images
• Infographics
• Short videos (<2 minutes)
• GIFs & memes

On visual-first networks like Instagram and Pinterest, the image or video itself is the primary content, so it needs to tell a compelling story on its own.

5. Optimize for each platform.

Each social network has its own nuances in terms of audience demographics, preferred content types, and peak engagement times. For example:

• Facebook: Videos and curated content tend to perform well. Aim for posts that spark conversations and meaningful interactions. Most active at 9am, 1pm, and 3pm.

• Instagram: Highly visual content rules, especially quotes, stories, and behind-the-scenes photos. Be liberal with relevant hashtags (up to 30). Best times: Monday and Thursday at any time except 3-4pm.

• Twitter: Short, newsy updates with 1-2 hashtags. Trending topics and real-time conversations are key. Best times: Wednesday 9am, Friday 9am, weekday 2pm.

• LinkedIn: Professional, industry-specific content like company news, job postings, and leadership advice. Avoid evenings, late afternoon, and weekends.

Repurposing content across platforms is fine, but be sure to tweak your copy and format to fit each one‘s best practices.

Promoting Your Content to Maximize Shares

Creating share-worthy content is only half of the SCO equation. The other crucial element is getting that content strategically placed in front of the right eyes. After all, people can‘t share content they never see in the first place.

Some effective content promotion tactics:

Paid social advertising

While SCO is all about driving organic engagement, putting some initial paid support behind your content can help get the ball rolling, especially for new or smaller accounts.

The key is laser-focused audience targeting – promoting to a small but highly relevant group of people who are most likely to engage with and share your content. These initial engagements then help trigger the algorithms to show your posts to more people organically.

Employee advocacy

Tapping into the power of your employees‘ personal networks can significantly expand your content‘s organic reach. Encourage (but don‘t force) your team members to share and engage with company content on their own profiles.

Employee advocacy platform Dynamic Signal found that content shared by employees receives 8 times more engagement than content shared on brand channels, and is re-shared 25 times more frequently. Brand messages are re-shared 24 times more frequently when distributed by employees vs the brand.

Influencer partnerships

Collaborating with relevant influencers and thought leaders is a great way to put your content in front of new but like-minded audiences. Rather than just paying influencers to hawk your products, look for authentic opportunities to co-create valuable content that benefits both of your audiences.

Examples: Interviewing influencers for your blog or video series, hosting a joint webinar or Twitter chat, commissioning a unique piece of content from a creator in your niche.

When clothing brand Aerie partnered with body-positive influencers for an Instagram contest encouraging followers to share unretouched swim photos with the hashtag #AerieReal, it generated over 2000 user-generated content pieces and a 20% increase in Instagram followers in just a few days.

Content syndication & guest posting

Selectively syndicating your content on high-authority third-party sites (like Medium or industry blogs) or publishing original guest posts can tap into new audiences and drive shares & referral traffic back to your site. The key is choosing reputable sites that are highly relevant to your niche.

Measuring SCO Success

Of course, to know if your SCO efforts are paying off, you need a way to track and measure content performance across various social channels. Some key metrics to watch include:

• Shares/Retweets: How many times a post was shared to someone else‘s feed
• Likes/Favorites/Reactions: Quick engagements that indicate a post resonated
• Comments/Replies: Meaningful interactions that show deeper interest or emotion
• Clicks: Visits driven back to your site from the social post
• Follower Growth: Increases in your audience size, especially after a viral post
• Engagement Rate: (Engagements / Impressions) x 100 – what % of people who saw your post engaged with it
• Referral Traffic: Sessions on your website coming from social channels
• Organic vs Paid: Breakdown of reach & engagement from organic shares vs paid ads

Tools like Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Google Analytics, and native platform insights can help you track these metrics over time to see what content types, topics, and promotion strategies are driving the most shares and value for your brand.

For example, Buzzsumo allows you to track your most shared content across all major social networks, see who is sharing it, and analyze key themes & formats among your top performers. This helps uncover trends and optimize your strategy based on data.


Source: Buzzsumo

Look for opportunities to A/B test different headlines, images, and messaging to see what variations get the best engagement rates. And don‘t be afraid to ask your audience directly what kinds of content they like best and want to see more of – social media is a two-way conversation, after all.

Key Takeaways & Looking Ahead

As the battle for online attention only gets fiercer, shared content optimization is becoming an increasingly essential skill for content marketers looking to maximize the impact and ROI of every piece they create.

The brands that win at SCO focus on creating genuinely valuable, engaging content tailored to the unique preferences of each social platform and audience segment – not just cranking out promotional posts and praying for shares.

By tapping into the psychological triggers that drive social sharing, placing content strategically in front of key influencers and communities, and closely measuring results to optimize future efforts, you can turn your best content into a powerful organic growth engine for your brand.

Looking ahead, innovations like AR/VR content, personalized & interactive experiences, and stronger creator partnerships will provide new opportunities to drive shares and deeper engagement. But the fundamental principle of solving your audience‘s problems and providing value they can‘t help but share will remain at the core of any smart SCO strategy.

Sources:
[1] https://www.bostonwebdesigners.net/wp-content/uploads/Psychology-of-Sharing.pdf
[2] https://dynamicsignal.com/2019/04/29/12-stats-that-will-make-you-rethink-your-employee-advocacy-strategy/