Content marketing is a critical part of any online marketing strategy for a reason. A good blog keeps people coming back to your website on a weekly basis to see what you've been writing about. It also helps your site to get picked up by the major search engines and gives your website more substance, and it helps you develop credibility and establish yourself online as an expert.

However, nowadays, there is one other aspect of content marketing that you should be concerned about -- social media sharing. If you want your blog posts to go viral and bring in as much traffic as possible, it's important to encourage social media sharing. If more readers start sharing your content with their social media friends and followers, it can help your site -- and therefore your company -- become more well-known.

There are lots of ways that you can increase your social media shares. These are a few things that you can try. In no time, you're sure to notice that more of your readers are sharing your blog posts on their favorite social media channels.  Here are 5 Content Marketing Tips to start with: 

1. Create Engaging Blog Post Images

If there is an attractive blog post image that can be attached to your readers' social media posts, they'll be more likely to share. Plus, the people who spot the share on their newsfeeds will be more likely to click. Take the time to create customized images for each post; you can use stock photos if you like, and there are plenty of programs that can help you add text. As an added bonus, your blog will look more professional and put-together.

2. Add "Buttons"

There are lots of ways for people to share social media posts with their followers. However, if you make it as easy as possible for them, they'll be more likely to do it. Use plug-ins to add handy "buttons" on each blog post. Then, readers will only have to click one button to share your content on their social media pages.

3. Create Exciting Titles

Your readers probably aren't going to share posts that have boring titles, and those who see these shares in their newsfeeds probably won't click on the links if they don't sound interesting. Take the time to craft the perfect titles for all of your blog posts to make them both more shareable and more clickable.

4. Make Sharing Mobile-Friendly

A lot of people like to read posts and share them with their friends from their smartphones, tablets and other handheld devices. Make sure that your posts can be easily read and shared on mobile devices. Consider checking your blog posts on each of your mobile devices to ensure that the share buttons are easy to use. If you have trouble doing it easily, consider tweaking the position of your buttons and your page in general to make them more mobile-friendly.

5. Use Memes

Many people love memes. In fact, if the memes on your blog post are interesting enough, people might share your post just to share these photos. You can find memes online or make them yourself, and you can relate them to just about any industry and any type of blog post. Along with encouraging social media shares, you'll probably gather a few laughs from your readers. Plus, you're bound to have fun looking for memes yourself, which can break up the monotony of content creation.

Encouraging people to share your blog posts with all of their friends, fans and followers will have a dramatic impact on your overall volume of website visits, leads and hopefully customers ultimately.