What makes people share content?
I’m not the only person to ponder this question. The New York Times conducted a study ‘The Psychology of Sharing: Why People Share Online’ with a group of self-proclaimed heavy online sharers, who revealed what motivates them to share with others.
- 85 per cent say reading other people’s responses helps them understand and process information and events
- 73 per cent say they process information more deeply, thoroughly and thoughtfully when they share it
So we could conclude that as humans the act of sharing helps us to comprehend more deeply, but the question still remains… why?
The study concluded that “sharing is all about relationships” and
“trust is the cost of entry for getting shared”. According to the
research marketers should “appeal to consumers’ motivation to connect
with each other — not just with your brand”. They recommend that we
“keep it simple…and it will get shared…and it won’t get muddled” and we
should “appeal to their sense of humour” and “embrace a sense of
urgency”.
But how does this really help us when it comes to creating content that motivates people to hit the ‘share’ button?
Perhaps a study by the University of Pennsylvania
can help unlock the puzzle. For six months, researchers studied The New
York Times' list of most emailed articles, checking it every 15
minutes. The study revealed that readers preferred to share positive
rather than negative articles and upon deeper analysis researchers
concluded that there was an element of ‘awe’ that seemed to permeate the
shared articles.
The Penn researchers defined the quality of awe as an “emotion of
self-transcendence, a feeling of admiration and elevation in the face of
something greater than the self”.
They used two criteria for an awe-inspiring story: Its scale is
large, and it requires “mental accommodation” by forcing the reader to
view the world in a different way. “It involves the opening and
broadening of the mind,” writes Dr. Berger a social psychologist and a
professor of marketing at Penn’s Wharton School and Dr. Milkman, who is a
behavioural economist at Wharton.
So is it possible to inspire awe in our audiences? Perhaps that is a
lofty ambition, however, there may be something to be learned from these
studies.
In his analysis of The New York Times study social media guru Jeff Bullas claims there are five reasons that we share content with others:
- To bring valuable and entertaining content to others
- To define ourselves to others
- To grow and nourish our relationships
- Self-fulfilment
- To get the word out about causes and brands
Rather than focusing too narrowly on creating ‘shareable’ content,
perhaps as marketers we should be looking to connect more deeply with
people’s emotions. If trust is indeed one of the core values we need to
foster with our audience, then it makes sense to spend time developing
sincere relationships with our communities.
As we know, developing trust takes time but the benefits can be huge.
By helping communities develop their own sense of identity we can hope
to share their emotional motivations and tap into the fundamental nature
of ‘awe’ – that “feeling of admiration and elevation in the face of
something greater than the self”. If we are less focused on ourselves
and more focused on earning the respect of the group we may just become
awesome and in doing so, become eminently shareable.
https://wearesocial.com/uk/blog/2015/07/reasons-people-share-content
What do you consider social-media marketing? For most businesses and
brands, the answer is simple: an opportunity to publish relevant
content, grow your follower base, and generate both thought leadership
and engagement.
But what if we told you that in limiting yourself to this definition,
you're missing out on what might be the most important part of social
media marketing?
Everyday, countless members of your target audience discuss topics
that relate to your brand, either directly or indirectly. They don't
care whether you hear about it or not, and they're not taking special
steps to comment and discuss their topics of interest on your social
media channels.
To engage this audience, you have to know where to find these
conversations, and how to engage with them. In other words, you have to
engage in social listening. It sounds reasonable, but only few brands do
it; in fact, only 24% of businesses engaged in social listening in 2015. Don't be one of those people, and build your social listening strategy using these 5 steps.
1) Prioritize Social Listening
Should you really spend a significant part of your resources browsing
through social media posts rather than posting your own? While most
brands understand the general value of social listening, they don't
quite get just how important it can be to business success. The answer
to that question, though, is a clear yes.
Consider Twitter. Of all the Tweets about your brand, only 30% actually include your Twitter handle.
Even more importantly, only 9% use the @ in addition to your handle. In
other words, 91% of updates that you should know about will never show
up in your notifications. If you don't search for them yourself, you may
never know about them.
In addition, if your goal is to grow your brand awareness, you should
think beyond your brand and toward your industry.
Experienced content
marketers already know about the importance of reaching beyond promotion
and toward thought leadership.
If you can find relevant discussions within your industry, the value
of injecting thoughtful and valuable information without directly
selling your product is immense. Of course, that's impossible to do if
you don't know how to find these conversations.
2) Find Relevant Keywords
Once you and your team understand the true importance of social
listening, it's time to build a strategy that helps you structure and
scale the process. Similar to SEO, building that strategy begins with finding the keywords and phrases your audience regularly discusses.
Naturally, that keyword list should include the various iterations,
abbreviations, and even misspellings of your brand name. The more
variations of your name you can come up with that members of your
audience may actually search for, the less likely a comment about your
product or service will slip through your cracks.
In addition, begin to research industry-specific phrases that tend to
encourage discussion. A graduate school looking for potential students,
for example, may want to begin listening to keywords such as graduate school, grad school application, and goal statement (a crucial part of the application process).
Finally, consider including keywords for your competitors, as well.
You may not want to directly engage with all of the conversations
concerning your competition, but it's valuable to understand the greater
discussion not just around you, but your entire competitive
environment.
3) The Right Tools
Social listening would be impossible without a number of tools that
can help you conduct automated searches through social media for the
keywords you found above. Fortunately, a number of services can help you
streamline that process without a significant time investment.
Some social media management tools, like HubSpot and HootSuite, offer integrated listening services. Others, like Social Mention, are free but require manual searches. Yet others, like KeyHole, and NUVI offer more comprehensive, dashboard-based services for a fee. This list provides a more comprehensive overview of the best listening services available for your brand.
4) Create an Engagement Strategy
Of course, even the best keywords and tools matter little if you
don't know what to do once you actually find relevant discussions for
your brand. That's why the majority of your time should be spent not
listening, but responding to the relevant conversations you find on
social media.
To streamline that process, create an engagement strategy. You will
find all types of comments, from complaints to praises, comparisons, and
general industry discussions. Create a rubric that allows you to be
strategic about the best response to each type of comment.
You should also be strategic about the various networks on which
these discussions might occur. A comment on LinkedIn, for example,
requires a very different type of response than a Tweet. Understanding
the medium should be a core part of how you engage with each user.
5) Evaluate and Adjust
Finally, as is the case with any type of marketing efforts, build
your social listening strategy in a way that allows for adjustments over
time. Not every response will be viewed favorably. Some users may feel
they are intruded upon, while others will use it as an opportunity to
lash out at your brand. Keep track of your wins and losses over time, in
order to better understand how you can best treat each individual
comment.
In addition, give yourself the opportunity to adjust your keyword
strategy overtime. If you find that some keywords never seem to gain any
traction, eliminate them from your reports. On the other hand, if you
keep coming across keywords you're not tracking yet, add them. That way,
you can be sure that when a discussion relevant to your brand occurs on
social media, you at least know about it.
Given the weight we give others' opinions on social media, it's
baffling to see just how few brands prioritize social listening as part
of their social media marketing. At the same time, it's also an
invaluable opportunity: by creating a strategy around it, you can get a
leg up on your competition and more effectively reach your target
audience.
What do you think of this, how well do you listen?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/miketempleman/2017/01/26/how-to-really-engage-with-your-social-media-audience/3/#14cb003949f7
