Getting more shares may be a great way of expanding your audience, but to get shares, you have to work for them. Here's how to get your content in the right place to go viral.

You’ve written a compelling, useful blog post and optimized it with your target keywords. Now it’s time to post it to your social media profiles, and sit back and enjoy the rush of traffic.

Several years ago this scenario may have been true, but today content marketing has become so competitive that you must include significant promotion as a core element of your editorial process.

Yes, of course, tweet your blog posts several times. Add Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ posts that highlight why someone might want to read your posts, and then go to work on getting your posts in front of other people’s targeted audiences.

There are three steps you should take in building an influencer program that will help you get your content in front of more people.

1. Find and Segment Influencers

Step one, of course, is to find the influencers you want to target. By influencers, I mean other content producers in your chosen industry who you believe have a following of your ideal clients. Buzzsumo’s influence-ranking tool is great for identifying these folks.

Next, you’ll want to build a spreadsheet of influencers segmented by your differing market segments or personas. Many businesses seek to gain influence with different levels of stakeholders. For example, a company might need to interact with the CFO and purchasing agent, and we need to create profiles of influencers for both.

Collect as much social information as possible, and add it, as well as relevant notes, to the spreadsheet. This process can be automated, to some extent, by using a CRM with unified communications (UC) and social built in, such as Nimble.

2. Build Relationships with Influencers

Now that you have your list, it’s time to begin building relationships. One of the first things you should do is to follow the social media accounts and blog feeds for every influencer on your list. Take the time to get to know their content habits, behaviors, and needs.

Next, begin the practice of sharing their content with your followers, posting relevant and useful comments on their content and, where appropriate, featuring their content in your own blog posts, emails, and newsletters.

3. Write and Post Guest Blogs

Posting guest blogs is a great way to expand your audience. Start by building a list of potential guest blog post opportunities. Look both for places where you can post and writers for your blog. Once you identify writers and blogs, have them share their posts on your blogs, and do the same for your posts on theirs. It spreads your sphere of influence into their networks, and many times these outlets will share other pieces of your content.

Getting more shares may be a great way of expanding your audience, but in order to get shares, you have to work for it. Making sure your content is seen by the right people is a great place to start.

This article was originally published on Inc.