Catalyzing Social Sharing With Social Media Advocacy

Creating good content that resonates with your audience is important, but it is only part of the equation.

Anybody who is trying to get content to go viral is asking themselves this question: What will make people share this content?

This is a question that marketers are contending with constantly. With the rise of content marketing, there is an abundance of content from various organizations and companies dominating people’s social media feeds. It is easy for an organization’s content to simply get lost in the mix, no matter how compelling it may be. But having content that people actually want to share is key to getting increased exposure, and potentially even going viral. Thus, it is important to understand the psychology of what drives people to share content on social media.

The New York Times Customer Insight Group explored this topic, and published a white paper on it. They found that there are 5 key reasons that people share content on social media:

1. To bring valuable, enlightening and entertaining content into the lives of people they care about.
2. To define themselves.
3. To grow and nourish their relationships.
4. Self-fulfillment.
5. To get the word out about causes (or brands) they believe in.

For marketers, the primary focus will be on the last reason, but the reality is that all of these motivators should be taken into account when creating content that is shareable. Yes, the content should help consumers to connect with your brand. But it should also appeal to the other factors, including consumers’ interests and passions, and their motivations to connect with other consumers. This can drive consumers to form more genuine, loyal connections to the brand and to coalesce around it to form a stronger community- a community that will want to share your content, ultimately helping you to reach more people and grow as an organization.

Organizations and marketers will need to take time and efforts to properly craft a strategy for creating content that both resonates with audiences and strengthens the audience’s connection to the brand. The stronger the connection, the more likely they are to share the content in question. But creating the right content that is optimized for enjoyment and social sharing is just part of the equation. The other part is the actual process of having the content be shared by audiences. Sometimes, the content may be great, but there may just not be enough push for people to share it.

How can companies help push loyal and potential customers that are reading and enjoying content over the edge into social sharing? A good approach is to adopt a social media advocacy strategy, and ensure that there are tools and systems in place to aid audiences in the implementation of this advocacy.

What might this look like? Fanzee has the answer to that question. As the campaign management platform for social media advocacy, Fanzee can help streamline the process of social sharing. Loyal customers become advocates, who receive notifications and encouragement from their favorite brands when there is new content to share. To learn more about how Fanzee can help, click here.