BuzzSumo’s a cool tool that shows you how many social shares a piece of content gets. Check out this example:

Pretty cool, right? When it comes to your content, how can you boost the chance for shares on platforms like these? While a little bit of luck’s involved, you can in fact act with persistence. Here’s what to do:

• First, You Must Have the Right Media Outlet
  You won’t get thousands of shares on your own blog, as sites where this happens have massive, loyal audiences they’ve spent years building. They also typically have at least small teams of professional writers who create content. Pulling the same off for your own SMB blog equates to more than a miracle, so you must approach these big-name blogs to gain exposure to a large-enough audience.
• BuzzSumo Reveals the Most Shareable Ideas
  You can’t copy someone else’s idea, but when you enlist the help of BuzzSumo to view the most buzzworthy content, you gain a general sense of what works best. This can inspire ideas of your own, with a little bit of luck needed from there. You can estimate how well your topic will perform but won’t know how many people will actually share it.
• Your Idea Must be New, Different, and Maybe a Little Surprising
  With a large-enough audience, even a common idea can score a couple thousand shares. Yet, if you want your content to get shared as much as possible, familiarize yourself with topics media outlets cover—and have a new and different one of your own. The element of surprise works quite well. There’s no need to be outrageous or controversial (unless you want to), but if you have a new angle that challenges conventional thinking, this is often a great way to win more attention.
• Unique Stories
  Within your content, stories work incredibly well to engage. This can take shape as a personal story or maybe a legend or myth. Perhaps it’s a story you heard from a friend. Stories engage the human mind, while facts are forgotten. So, if you have a great story that makes your friends’ or clients’ ears perk up and summons great reactions, it makes sense to use the same in your content as well (provided it ties into your topic).

Is Writing Highly Shareable Content Easy?

No way. A 1000-word post can take 10 or more hours to write…even for a skilled writer.

Top writers make every word count, fine-tuning their stories until they create the most valuable piece possible.

There are no guarantees with respect to the subsequent number of shares and exposure, but you will achieve valuable results with consistent effort.