There Are 2 Reasons People Share Content and You Only Want 1 of Them
People will knee-jerk share a Buzzfeed/Upworthy sensationalistic headline. But people aren’t necessarily reading the articles or watching the whole video!
“WE’VE FOUND EFFECTIVELY NO CORRELATION BETWEEN SOCIAL SHARES AND PEOPLE ACTUALLY READING.” (source)
Ok.
There are two reasons people share content:
- “Ooh! This looks like it will be good.” – didn’t read it
- “Ooh! This actually is good.” – did read it
Buzzfeed and Upworthy are very good at number 1. The Atlantic is good at number 2.
Takeaway: Go for quality, long-form content. Actually inform or entertain or solve someone’s problems. Then your shares will lead to reads and even purchases.
Why isn’t this longform? I didn’t have time. But it definitely isn’t sensationalistic, so I got it half right! :-)
Brian Carter is a popular business expert and keynote speaker with Fortune 500 clients like NBC, Microsoft and Humana as well as small businesses. He delivers motivational keynotes with practical takeaways with the comedic flair of his stand up comedy background. His agency, The Brian Carter Group, creates marketing that excites customers and increases brand visibility, sales and loyalty. Brian is a bestselling author you’ve probably seen on Bloomberg TV or in Inc, Entrepreneur, The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times. He has over 250,000 online fans and reaches over 3 million people per year.