What The Share Says

Sharing Is More Than Caring

A click-through is better than a like, and a share is better than a click-through (normally because the share befalls it).

As marketers we can measure the number of times things like this occurs, but it’s merely quantitative data. I press you to ask what does it say qualitatively.

This is when math meets fun.

When your target shares your content, it’s validation that the content was impressionable, but why? The answer is often found in what the sharer says about the content when she shares it. How is she hoping others view her by sharing it?

By answering questions like these, we discover the emotional reasons one shares your content and what motivated the behavior. The more we look into this, the better we’re informed by data.

This is most prominently noticeable on twitter where it’s easier to retweet content. Look at the last twenty items someone retweeted and what they said about the content – this will give you more insight into who they are than tweets coming directly from them.

This way of viewing sharing also applies to the real world.

What are your coworkers sharing?

I shared a book about constraints with the president of a branding firm. To me I did so because I thought he would benefit from it, enjoy it and it would help solve some business constraints.

What you have the ability to deduce is the emotional reasoning behind it.

I shared it because it positioned me as someone who knows about constraints, thinks in big business terms, and cares about the agency enough to share the book internally (I could have shared it with a friend who doesn’t work at a branding firm, but I didn’t, and that says loads).

When you dig into the why of people’s sharing habits, you’re in a better position to create more content that gets shared because no one shares content just for the sake of sharing it, they share it because it says something about them to everyone they share it with.

 

Stay Positive & Sharing Is More Than Just Caring

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Garth Beyer
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