Is it a cake or a meringue? 🤔 No you're right, it's a cake! 🍰 So turns out I'm using food for another marketing analogy, which seems to help explain the point and make me hungry in equal measure.
I'm sharing a photo of this tasty looking swiss roll to help describe the 80/20 rule when it comes to your social media marketing. First of all, marketing is annoying. You are trying to invade someone's personal (digital) space to get your message across and encourage action. To do this well, you have to 'sandwich' your sales message between valuable content. Here is where the 80/20 comes in. 80% of the posts from your business social media feed should be *valuable content*, with only 20% being sales posts.
Depending on your audience, there could be a huge variety of posts as to what is 'valuable' to them. This could be posts that:
- Entertain them (funny videos / memes)
- Inform them (industry articles / videos / infographics)
- Intrigue them (your story / behind the scenes, throwbacks etc)
- Inspire them (pretty photos, quotes)
- Excite them (competitions, giveaways)
- Shock them (topical causes / stats)
Basically, for every 'sales' post you share - you want to share around 3/4 posts of non-sales, valuable content that will appeal to your audience, make them trust/like your brand more and ultimately, be more likely to buy from you when they see the next sales post.
If you overdo the jam (the sales posts!) you run the risk of coming across as a pushy salesman, annoying, repetitive and users will either unfollow your brand, unlike your page or simply skim past your posts without any recognition.
Get in touch if you're looking for ideas of types of 'valuable' content you can share with your audience.
When you're managing multiple social media channels and time is tight, it can be very tempting to create a post on one channel, say Facebook, and then simply copy and paste the exact same image and text onto other channels. We are all guilty of it and I'll be the first to hold my hand up and admit I've done this in the past!
There are two issues with this, firstly you may have completely different audiences following you on different channels - and the message that strikes a chord with one of them could mean nothing to the other. The second is that when you copy/paste posts on the SAME platform but through different account channels, it's extremely obvious to users as - if they 'like' and 'follow' both of your pages - they could see the exact same post coming in succession from both of your pages, which can appear lazy.
Ask yourself - why does my umbrella (overarching) brand have multiple Facebook pages, Twitter accounts or Instagram accounts etc?
If the answer is that you have different audiences interested in different things, you need to step away from CTRL + V and tailor the message consistently across each individual channel. This can be as simple as tweaking the format of the sentences, or using a slightly different opening line - perhaps using a rhetorical question which piques the interest of that individual audience. Mixing up the emojis used (or removing them) can change the 'tone' of the post! Within the post's image, you could use a different lead image for each account channel or if posting a mini album of photos (2-4 images) mix up the order they appear in.
Many of us Facebook page managers are searching for ways to increase the 'organic' reach of our Facebook posts. By 'organic' I mean posts on Facebook that you don't pay to promote, that are initially shown to people who have liked your page. Over the past couple of years Facebook has become more and more clever about monetising the platform and is now making it incredibly difficult for page's posts to be seen by their fans, without any paid promotion. For example, your page might have 1,000 likes - but it's more than likely that around 10% of these people are actually seeing anything you post. When you pay to promote your Facebook posts this can be to people who like your page, their friends or anyone on Facebook that you select through a range of (very specific!) targeting options.
That being said, there are a few tricks you can utilise to try and increase your 'organic reach' and how many people see your Facebook posts without getting your wallet out to pay to promote the posts.
Use Photos and FACEBOOK Videos
Facebook likes it when you use visual content and will give posts that use photographs, or videos in particular a higher organic reach. If you're planning on posting a video then you're much better to upload the video directly to Facebook, rather than sharing a YouTube link.
Watch your timing Your posts are most likely to be seen by more of your fans if you share content whilst they are actually online. This will vary by page, but I find it tends to be based around meal times or when people are commuting - breakfast, lunch time, dinner and then around 8pm also seems to be a popular time for my pages.
Like your own posts
This might sound strange, but Facebook will show content to more people if it already thinks it is valuable and interesting. To kick start this I always 'like' posts from my page and then my personal account. If you work for an organisation you can encourage staff to like your page and actively 'like' content and also share if they're feeling extra nice!
Post links in the comments
Facebook is less likely to show content if it thinks it's overtly 'salesy'. To minimise how much it looks like you're trying to sell something in your posts, I always include any links in the comments - instead of in the actual caption area.
Ask people to like / comment / share
Another way to increase your reach is to get people engaged with your posts. You can do this by including questions in your post captions, asking people to 'like' the post or 'share' the post - in a light hearted way only!
Share Instagram images
Something I've discovered recently is that Facebook LOVES when you share Instagram images. Might be something to do with the fact that it purchased the platform in 2012! This is also a great way to share user generated content on your Facebook page, by searching Instagram for people sharing photos of your products, location, shop - you get the picture.
Thanks for reading. I'd love to hear if you have any tips on how to increase your organic reach!
Hello everyone! My poor blog has been very neglected of late as I've been super busy with lots of different things. Very exciting news - I've started a new job as Marketing and PR Officer with New Lanark World Heritage Site. I'm also in the cast of Lanark Amateur Musical Society's upcoming production of Our House, and have just started a Diploma in Online Marketing course with the Shaw Academy. I've been thinking about this blog post for a while as part of my new role is producing press releases for New Lanark. I also dealt with them a lot in my role at Glasgow 2014, not writing them, but being responsible for releasing them on the website/social media in line with embargos. I've pulled together some of my top tips for writing press releases, and would love to hear if you've got any more! 1. Make the timing clear - when you send out a press release you have to let the recipients know when they are allowed to share the information. If you're sending out a press release that has to stay under wraps until a certain date it means it's 'under embargo'. Make this clear by stating Under strict embargo until DATE and TIMEat the top of your press release .doc and your email. If your press release can be shared immediately put Immediate release: DATE YOU SEND PRESS RELEASE OUT. Bold and red also never hurts to get the message across! 2. Have a good headline - At the start of your press release there should be a good headline that is eye catching, easy to read and makes people want to read more. Try and keep this to about 5-6 words maximum. Also use this headline in your word document title and your email subject line.
3. Get to the point in first paragraph - Your first paragraph should summarise what the press release is about and convince them it's newsworthy. The second paragraph should expand the point in more detail. The third paragraph can include supporting quotes. Finally, the fourth paragraph should again summarise the press release, include a closing statement and reference any relevant websites. 4. Include quotes - Including quotes written in people's voices can add personal colour and life to a press release. Always mark our quotes with speech marks, and include the name and job title/relevance of the person to the press release. 5. Include hard numbers and facts - these will help to make your story more newsworthy and will also help journalists pull out the most important information for their publication. 6. Be succinct - a press release shouldn't be a novel, it should be just enough to convey your news and summarise the key points - if a journalist wants to know more they can contact you (see point below!). Try and stick to one page of A4, or 300-400 words max. 7. Notes to editor section - include ENDS at the end of your press release copy, and then an underlined title called Notes to editor. This is where you can leave your contact details (name, number and email) and any other information that may be relevant to the editor, but doesn't necessarily fit within the actual press release - such as your website address for more information. 8. Use images where appropriate - when including images make sure to reduce their file size and attach them to your email after your word document. Make the name of the image a description of what the image is, not something random like DSC13893.jpg as this could lead to captions being mucked up. I also tend to include a copy of the image within the press release word document too so the journalist can see why it's relevant. 9. Word not PDF - I always send press releases as word documents instead of PDFs as they are simply easier to copy and paste text from. It's also a good idea to include your press release copy in the body of your email as well as attaching it. 10. Pressing send -you don't want all of your contacts to see who you're sending out press releases to, so send the press release email to yourself and BCC (blind carbon copy) all of your press release mailing list in. And we're done! I hope that helped anyone who is perhaps writing a press release for the first time, they are fairly easy to produce once you're into the swing of them but you can't ever get complacent - always check check and triple check spelling, grammar, facts, quotes and people's names. If you need any more help or would like to ask me any questions please feel free to tweet me @_Melissa247
In the words of Michael McIntye, "Are you feeling Christmassy yet?" I'm certainly in the mood for a mince pie after looking through some of this year's most popular Christmas ads from the nation's biggest food & gift retailers. From penguins to the post office, it's been fascinating looking at how some retailers have went all out down the emotional route to drive shares and others have focused on showcasing the quality and prices of their festive offerings. Maybe I'm a big softie, but my two favourite ads are the ones from John Lewis and Sainsbury's that tell a real story. Kudos also goes to Waitrose for their charitable song-download donations, and to Aldi for giving me a serious craving for a smoked salmon voulevant.
Do you have a favourite from the ads below? Tweet me @_Melissa247 or leave a comment!
The Post Office: "Get Christmas All Wrapped up"
For the first time in around 5 years, the Post Office have released a Christmas advert to encourage more customers to post through their outlets - with the ad highlighting benefits like reduced postage for small parcels and guaranteed Christmas delivery right up until 23rd December. The quirky advert stars a range of celebs including: comedian Robert Webb, singer Pixie Lott, Downton Abbey’s Jim Carter, actress Amanda Holden and chef Gino D’Acampo.
Views by 17.11.14: 2,386
Positives: Not too soppy. Makes brown parcel tape and recorded delivery fun & memorable.
Negatives: Webb's 'Wonka-esque' character appears to have been popping LSD like chocolate coins.
Hashtag: #AllWrappedUp
Waitrose: "The Gingerbread Stall"
This advert tells the story of a girl who is put in charge of making delicious gingerbread biscuits for her class’s stall at the school Christmas fair. Although not very memorable to begin with, the advert has a few moments that make you smile - like the naughty dog munching a batch of the gingerbread biscuits. In true Christmas spirit, the soundtrack to the advert is a cover of Dolly Parton's 'Try' and was created using voices of members of the public, who took part in Waitrose's Donate Your Voice campaign in October. All profits from the sale of the track are being donated to charity which I think is a lovely touch. You can download it on iTunes and Google Play.
Negatives: Not immediatly as memorable or shareable as other ads until you know the story behind the advert & the charity aspect.
Hashtag: #DonateYourVoice
Marks and Spencer "Follow the Fairies"
Marks and Spencer have cleverly created the two characters of Magic and Sparkle the fairies in this year's polished Christmas advert. Whilst I don't think the actual advert itself is anything to get too excited about, the 'Magic and Sparkle' concept capitalises on the reputation of M&S being a bit of a "treat" and "special" shopping destination. Another brilliant element of the campaign is the @thetwofairies twitter account which tweets from the perspective of both the fairies, and follows them as they spread kindness throughout the UK meeting people young & old and leaving them special gifts. This appears to have captured the imagination of kids, with lots of mums tweeting their photos & messages for the fairies.
Views by 17.11.14: 3,031,595 (third place!)
Positives: Great online engagement with the Christmas-dinner-buying target market - mums!
Negatives: The actual TV advert is a little bit long and doesn't show all the amazing engagement with the fairies across the UK.
Hashtag: #FollowtheFairies
John Lewis 'Monty the Penguin'
John Lewis' advert tells the story of a little boy, Sam, and his best friend Monty the Penguin. "It's a tale of love, friendship and giving someone the gift they've been dreaming of this Christmas." Like last year's Bear & Hare advert, John Lewis are masters at creating characters that make you go 'awww' and Monty is no exception. Admittedly, I did almost cry watching this advert the first time - but I'm not sure if it's made me any more likely to shop in John Lewis - probably because I don't have a child who will implode if they don't get one of the sold-out Monty toys.
Views by 17.11.14: 15,667,803 (leading the way!)
Positives: Funny & engaging twitter accounts for both penguins Monty & Mabel....they even flirt!
Negatives: Christmas commercialism gone a bit mad with a plethora of Monty merchandise....penguin cufflinks anyone?
Hashtag: #MontyThePenguin
Sainsbury's 'Christmas is for Sharing'
Quite possibly my favourite of the lot, Sainsbury's advert is a 3 minute long tribute to real events from 100 years ago. Made in partnership with The Royal British Legion, it commemorates the extraordinary events of Christmas Day, 1914, when the guns fell silent and two armies met in no-man’s land, sharing gifts – and even playing football together. The chocolate bar featured in the ad is on sale now at Sainsbury’s. All profits (50p per bar) will go to The Royal British Legion and will benefit armed forces and their families, past and present. A definite tear-jerker, I really love this advert and although it doesn't scream 'buy your christmas shopping at Sainsbury's' it's certainly got people talking about an extremely worthy charity.
Views by 17.11.14: 9,065,759 (second place!)
Positives: Makes you feel all the feels. Keeps WW1 in our minds during this commemorative year & helps raise money via unique chocolate bar sales.
Negatives: n/a (maybe I'm biased)
Hashtag: #ChristmasIsForSharing
Debenhams 'Found It!'
Debenhams' advert encourages viewers to "Explore the magic of a Debenhams Christmas as the search begins for your most fabulous festive season yet" Although it shows off a very pretty and festive looking store, I'm struggling to find any real saving grace of the advert as it seems to lack any real emotional story, or actually promote the benefits of shopping at Debenhams compared to other shops this Christmas.
Views by 17.11.14:695,806
Positives: Engaging weekly competition for people who share their #FoundIt selfie with their Debenhams purchase.
Negatives: Advert doesn't stand out at all against it's competitors. It's also confusing as you can't really tell what all the kids are doing running around, and finding the fluffy reindeer at the end is a bit of an anti-climax.
Hashtag: #FoundIt
Boots #SpecialBecause
This endearing advert from Boots celebrates being together at Christmas, surrounded by the ones you love. It's a nice mix of an emotional story - celebrating the mum at the heart of the family - and successfully showcases the range of special gifts you can pick up at Boots to treat those special to you.
Views by 17.11.14: 284,342
Positives: Encouraging people to share the love with their #SpecialBecause hashtag pulled together on their website.
Negatives: Not much, could have a clearer CTA to use the hashtag at the end of the ad.
Hashtag: #SpecialBecause
Tesco 'Lights On'
Plugs...plugs everywhere! Tesco's Christmas advert shows a range of people getting ready for Christmas, with the help of Tesco of course. This advert doesn't appeal to me too much as it doesn't really convey an emotional story, or highlight any benefits of shopping at Tesco this Christmas. I think their retro 2013 advert was FAR superior!
Views by 17.11.14: 505,377
Positives: Funny characters & relate-able situations (how do lights get tangled EVERY year?)
Negatives: They don't seem to be bothering too much with continuing the adverts engagement, and haven't even tweeted about it in almost a week!
Hashtag: #MakeChristmas
Aldi 'Everyones coming to us this Christmas'
Leaving the tissues behind, Aldi have gone for a light-hearted advert which highlights the trend of Aldi/Lidl's growing popularity and reputation for selling high-quality food at a fraction of the price. Out of all the ads, this is probably the one that's most likely to make you change your mind when deciding where to fork out for the Christmas turkey. Oh and yes, that is Jools Holland at the end!
Views by 17.11.14: 40,785
Positives: Engaging social media competition where users tell @AldiUK who is joining them for Christmas dinner for a chance to win the food from the advert.
Negatives: Now I'm hungry....
Hashtag: #AldiChristasAd
Thanks for reading, Melissa x
Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way.......*damnit!*
One long term effect of working at the Commonwealth Games is that I now find myself paying much more attention to big sporting events than I would have in the past. Pre-Glasgow 2014 I wouldn't have batted an eyelid at the World Cup, and I definitely wouldn't know what Fourballs was. As it happens, the Ryder Cup has just finished at Gleneagles (in my Scottish homeland!) and I've been paying attention to the action. I won't say close attention as I still can't bring myself to watch sport for hours on end on TV, but I have been following both teams and the main Ryder Cup account activity across their Facebook & Twitter channels. According to The Drum the Ryder Cup saw its highest ever online traffic after receiving 162,000 social mentions in the last week. The fans talking about the competition on social media were certainly enjoying what they were watching, with 79% of social mentions being positive. The top hashtags people used were #rydercup, #rydercup2014, #golf, #USA and finally #europe. I have to say that I think Team Europe had the more polished social media strategy with behind-the-scenes photographs, informative score info-graphics and witty captions - whereas the USA's was a little bit cheesy with the fake movie posters and semi political campaign graphics. Take a look below to see some of my favourite posts from the past week, the last one is sure to give you nightmares!
With posters being one of the main methods of advertising an amateur production, it's important that they look good enough to pull in the punters! I know that a lot of community groups don't have enough budget to pay designers to produce advertising materials, so most of the time it's someone in the cast/committee that ends up creating them. It can be hard to know where to start designing a poster for a performance, with the amount of information you need to fit on (dates, times, prices, rights etc) and any brand guidelines linked to the actual show. (logo, graphics etc) As a little helper to other amateur dramatics groups out there, I've pulled together some tips for creating posters and a A3 layout template that might be of use. (see below design tips)
Design tips 1. Beware of high contrast gradients or gradients that use more than two colours. These can look quite dated. Keep gradients subtle and stick to harmonious colours not too far apart on the colour wheel. For example white/grey, orange/yellow, purple/blue. 2. Just say no...to Wordart. Over fussy text with too many effects (3D, bevel, gradient, shadow) is another way to make posters look dated. If you want to make your text stand out try using a free font from a website like dafont.com. 3. If you're going to include photographs in your poster make sure to crop the edges carefully - organic forms like hair can be especially tricky to make look neat and professional. 4. There might be a a lot of elements in your poster, so make sure the important details stand out by making them easy to read and in the right place. (see guide below!) The most important details are probably the show name, dates, location, price and how to get tickets. 5. Don't steal images from Google! It can be tempting to copy and paste images you need from Google, but it's actually illegal. A great site for royalty free images is sxc.hu. 6. Always place text on a solid or semi-solid colour background so it's legible. If you need to place it over an image try adding a low opacity shape behind it. 7. As we tend to read from top to bottom, left to right, it makes sense lay your poster out so the most important details are easy for people to spot. Although, rules are made to be broken so sometimes this layout can be moved around if the visual idea requires it.
Example A3 poster layout
Some good examples
If you're looking for someone to design your poster for a low cost please feel free to send me an email to melissareilly3@gmail.com :)
Using social media for work and play, there are a few things about certain channels that are starting to get on my nerves. If I ruled the internet, there are a few usability and feature changes I'd make to some of the main social media contenders to make my life that little bit easier... Twitter
Instead of having to go through a third party site like bit.ly, I'd LOVE it if Twitter had an option to automatically shorten URLs within the desktop site & mobile. It just makes sense!
It would also be useful to have the ability to 'quote tweet' from the Twitter mobile app - I can't think why this feature is only on desktop? Sometimes you want to explain why you're RT'ing something. (Since writing this post and updating my twitter app you can now do this - someone must have been listening ;) )
It would be great if the new ability to upload multiple photos was also available on the desktop version of Twitter - it seems to be only on mobile right now. The other day I found myself taking photos on my phone, emailing myself them to edit on Photoshop, then emailing myself them back to download them again and then upload them to Twitter with my phone - ahh!
In the twitter ads platform it would be really useful if you could have an 'enter now' call to action with a webcard - makes much more sense for running competitions!
Instagram
It's kind of annoying that your 'Following' feed doesn't have a scroll or 'more' functionality so you can look through more of your friends' activity. (maybe I'm just nosey)
The BIG one. Please Instagram, can we have hyperlinks in image descriptions yet? Pretty please with a cherry on top! (it would also be nice if there was an automatic link shortener - see above)
Linkedin
When you accept someone as a new connection their little profile picture pops up for a second...then disappears! Of course you want to have a nosey at the employment history of this mysterious new connection. Instead of having to go and then (try and remember) their name and search for it, it would be great if you just had a simple 'view their profile' option after connecting with someone.
Facebook
Whadda'ya know - I can't think of anything I'd change about Facebook right now as a user. As a page manager that's a different story and a whole other blog post.
What about you, do you have any social media 'bug bears'? Comment below! (...and let the revolution commence!) Thanks, Melissa.
It's here everybody. Last night the FIFA World Cup kicked off and for the next month we'll have football matches on the telly almost (thank goodness!) every day. I'll put my hands up and admit that I'm really not that interested in football at all...like, not even a little bit. That being said, working at Glasgow 2014 has piqued my interest in how the biggest football event of the year uses social media, with a particular focus on Twitter, to engage and communicate with their fans. Last night, the first match of the tournament #BRAvCRO, or Brazil vs Croatia to you and I generated over 12.2million tweets during the match. With 3,336 tweets per minute using the hashtag synonymous with the competition, #WorldCup. The tweets came from all over the world with more than 150 countries joining in the conversation. Check out this cool heat-map which visualises the conversation, and shows the huge influx in activity when a goal was scored.
As we know, people love to share photos via social media - and that was no different last night. Twitter have pulled together an interactive gallery of some of the most shared photos posted during the match, with the top two coming from the Official @FIFAWorldCup account. The most mentioned player of the match was Brazil's top goal scorer @NeymarJ who consequently gained over 165,000 new followers on the day of the match. (10x the amount of followers he gains a day on average)
Taking a look at the official @FIFAWorldCup twitter account we can see that they have 1.47 million followers. Interestingly, the account has been branded as the 'FIFA World Cup' organisation, rather than the individual event IE twitter.com/Brazil2014. This means that in four year's time when the next world cup rolls around they can just 're-brand' the channel and will have a solid follower-base of 2 million +....give or take a few hundred thousand.
Another thing I find really interesting, and quite surprising is that the channel doesn't seem to offer any customer service facility - from looking at its 'tweets and replies' feed there aren't any direct @mentions to fans which would indicate them answering questions. With so many people using social media to voice their opinions/make enquiries I wonder if they are missing a trick here. On the other hand they may have made a conscious decision to make the channel purely about pushing out the best/most relevant content - and leave the questions about parking spaces to some poor guy on the end of a phone.
In terms of content so far they seem to be covering a nice range of different types of material. They are giving fans exclusive insights by showing behind-the-scenes content like the players' dressing room and a shot of the stadium before the Opening Ceremony started. They are also sharing the most up-to-date information like team line ups, and live tweeting throughout matches. Not forgetting to engage with the fans, they're also asking a lot of engaging questions - and RT'ing some of the best answers, which always helps in driving up the replies. The web page they seem to be driving the most traffic to is the match specific Live Blog which is pretty nifty showing a range of content like quotes, facts, stats, weather and photos of people wearing carrots on their head. El dente! I mean....GOOOAAALLLLL!
I'll be looking out for interesting content throughout the rest of the tournament and will be saving my cheers for my sweepstake selection. Go Cameroon! Thanks for reading, Melissa. Feel free to share - Tweet
I woke up this morning and noticed that twitter was all aflutter with talk of the CIA's surprisingly witty first tweet. The secretive government organisation joined Twitter and Facebook yesterday, with a promise of making #unclassified information more widely available to the public.
We can neither confirm nor deny that this is our first tweet.
— CIA (@CIA) June 6, 2014
In less than 24 hours the tweet has gained 210 RT's and 120K favourites, driving over 383K followers of the new account. Not bad! I can't say I know too much about the CIA (does anyone?) but I think they've made a smart move in launching the account with more of a 'human' tone of voice, much unlike the @FBI's account which just seems to robotically post out web links. Everyone loves the glamorous idea of secret missions and spies, so the tone they appear to be planning to use definitely further enhances the 'coolness' of the secretive government organisation. I'll certainly be giving the account a follow, and will be sorely disappointed if I don't see some form of extra terrestrial activity. Now I'm wondering if MI5 will follow suit in joining the social network, and if they'll use a similar tone of voice to our American cousins...or if the stiff upper lip will remain. A parting thought to the hypothetical land of film. 007's #FirstTweet? @Bond007: Shaken, not stirred.
I've noticed recently that everyone seems to be talking about making content 'go viral', as if there is a magic lever you can pull that will...*poof!* make your content spread like wildfire across the internet. Unfortunately, there isn't a magic formula or 'Viral content for Dummies' book out there (actually is there? must check amazon) and if there was I'm sure Zuckerberg would have tried to buy it for oh let's say, 13 billion by now? Content goes 'viral' when it is shared in quick succession by a large group of people, then their friends share it, and their friends....and their friends...and their - you get the picture! Although there isn't a sure fire way to tell which content will be widely shared or not, I've had a think about it and I think there are things that a piece of content should do, or make people feel to allow it to be worthy of a share/RT in their opinion.
Shock people Shocking content can be something that surprises them, baffles them or just simply makes them sharply intake breath then let out an "Ohmigoddddddd" "Can you believe this??" "This is crazy!" Content like this is most likely to be created organically (happen on it's own) but if you can be there to capture moments on video or camera then you're onto a winner. Just like the CCTV camera that caught this bear scoping out unsuspecting Scottish couple Bob & Irene in California...
Make them laugh From what I've seen, positive content tends to get shared more than negative content online and what better way to make someone feel positive than to make them laugh? Funny content might not be for everyone, depending on what industry you're in - but for the majority of businesses I'd say it's a good idea to let your metaphorical hair down and test the comedy waters*. * Good writers/content producers essential. You don't want to seem too try-hard and be like the weird uncle at a family party cracking out the obscure jokes that nobody gets. Making me chuckle recently is the Cadbury Creme Egg Facebook page...
Activate their FOMO (Fear of missing out) "Have you seen this???"
Us humanoids are naturally curious and when we hear whisperings of something that's going on in the internet, we're more than likely to seek it out so we can see it/watch it and be able to join in the conversations with everyone else. We'll also then feel inclined to share the content to show that we're part of the gang. It also helps if the content is hard to find or even banned. When someone tells you NOT to think of a black cat, what do you think about? And when someone tells you that no matter what, you must NOT look inside the box - what can't you stop thinking about doing? ...and when you hear that something is banned on the internet then by-jolly you're going to find it! Admit it...you searched for Scarlett Johansson's banned superbowl ad didn't you? (along with about 13 million other viewers)
Relate to them My Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds are becoming overrun with the relate-able graphics known as memes. People seem almost unable to control themselves when it comes to sharing these graphics, as they allow them to show that they relate with the content in an 'I agree with that', 'I do that too!' way without having to actually say it. Take this one for example, you're having a crappy day and don't really want to be seen to be moaning about it... just click 'share' show that you concur with the populous in 'Monday hating' without coming across as too negative or a bit of a grumpy guts.
Connect emotionally Content that connects emotionally with someone is always going to perform well as it's another way for people to relate to the content. By 'connect emotionally' I mean content that has been produced with a certain mood or feeling in mind that will elicit emotions from people or mirror what they are already feeling which will in turn lead them to engage with, or share the content. On the most basic levels, this could be split into four categories:
Happy - share because the content makes you feel good, laugh, feel positive vibes. Supportive/Proud - share to show your support for a cause, person or organisation. Sad - share to raise awareness of a cause, event, show you empathise. Angry - share to get reaction, generate conversation, protest.
Give them useful information Lastly, people will be inclined to share content they feel will be useful to others - such as an interesting article, informative graphic or demonstrative video. If you know your business/industry then this type of content should be one of the most accessible to produce. Work in beauty? produce make-up tutorial videos using your products. Work in DIY? produce an info-graphic on how to tile a bathroom (can you tell I don't do DIY??) Just think, how can you teach people something new?
I'd love to hear any of your thoughts on why you share content, or if you've found any good examples of viral content you couldn't resist sharing!
