Page 37 - The Content Code: Six essential strategies to ignite your content, your marketing, and your business - PDFDrive.com

A leading reason that posts can be Liked but not shared is that a person may Like
a post to support a political, theological, or philosophical view that may upset a
general audience if it is transmitted broadly. We generally don’t want to make
people uncomfortable, so we don’t always share.

Liking lightly bonds us with other likers of that thing. But when we share,
we’re virtually shouting, “I’m in this club and I want to show the world!” As
you’re about to see, this kind of commitment isn’t necessarily easy to achieve.

Content that moves on the web may or may not have anything to do with
quality, or even the content! Why do you tweet a link, post a video to Facebook,
or email a link to your family and friends? Is it because somebody did a very,
very good job with search engine optimization? Is it because the video has
superb cinematography, or the writing in a blog post is scintillating? Perhaps …
but chances are the reason is more subtle … and surprising.

Understanding why people choose to share content sheds light on how you
can adjust your strategy and carve out a competitive edge by embedding
shareability into everything you create. Think about content you recently shared.
Why did you do it? Do any of these reasons ring true?

It made you look cooler, smarter, funnier, or more relevant—providing you
with a personal psychological benefit.
The content struck some strong emotional chord. It made you laugh, cry, or
otherwise feel something so profound it deserved to be shared with others.
It’s practical or timely. Sharing the content will help and inform your
friends.
You found a new idea and can’t wait to be the first to share it.
You feel deeply connected to the author and you want to support them.
It represents an achievement. Maybe you or your company were mentioned
in the content and it makes you feel good to show this representation of
your status.

These are some of the reasons people might share content, and in this age of
information density, you need to give your content every advantage you can by
tapping into the psychology of sharing. This chapter will begin to deliver that
edge for you and your business.

Before we dive headlong into some exciting ideas, it’s important to
remember that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for any business or content
strategy. If your audience is into Kim Kardashian quotes and cat videos, then
those content sources should be an important part of your ignition strategy. Also,
keep in mind that a majority of the research presented in this book is U.S.-based