It was a cry of desperation.
The woman in one of my Facebook groups urged fellow women entrepreneurs to support one another by sharing, commenting and liking each others online content. She pleaded that we can all benefit from sharing our peers information.
I understood her frustration.
As entrepreneurs and business owners we want our content shared. And let’s just be honest, we’d like it very much if that content went viral!
But for some reason the content you’ve labored over doesn’t get the response you had hoped for. A handful may comment, a few more may like, but very few will actually share. And that’s what we want. We want people to share our content.
The good people over at The New York Times Customer Insight Group conducted some research to explore The Psychology of Sharing. This study asked why do people share online.
This is the same question asked by the perplexed business owner in my Facebook group.
Why aren’t people sharing my content?
Well according to the study, people do share content and here’s why they share:
- To bring value and entertainment to their communities
- As a way to define themselves—one respondent said they shared content that reinforced the image they wanted to present
- To build and nurture relationships
- Self-fulfillment
- To bring awareness to brands and causes
So you have to ask does your content fit the criteria. Does your content benefit the reader and their community? If you answer no, more than likely your content won’t be shared.
Key Factors to Influence Sharing
What do you do if you discover your content doesn’t fit the reasons mentioned above? The study sites seven things you can do to boost shareability. I’ll list the first five. You’ll need to:
- Tap into the consumer’s desire to connect with their community — not just your brand.
- Establish trust. “Trust is the cost of entry for getting shared.”
- Keep it simple and it’ll get shared.
- Make them laugh or at least chuckle. Tread carefully though when your message is targeted to an international audience.
- “Embrace a sense of urgency.”
There you have it. Shared content is customer-centric content. Shared content is relevant, it connects the reader to their community, it makes them look good, it’s not primarily focused on your brand and it’s simple. Those are the keys to irresistible and shareable content.