Are you struggling to get Facebook shares, likes, and Twitter retweets for the content you post online?
Maybe the content isn’t cool enough.
That’s one factor that could be holding people back from sharing says Emerson Spartz who studies how posts go viral on the internet. He has developed a theory on internet virality and in the Chicago Tribune article “Sharing online: It has to look cool”, he outlines the key points of his theory.
What makes people share online? The four main principles are as follows:
1. Incentives – The more you reward people for sharing, the more they will share. Examples of incentives include coupons, giveaways, and contests.
2. Emotion – Focus on creating posts that elicit a strong emotional response. Most content doesn’t get shared because it doesn’t create enough emotion.
3. Happiness and Anger – These two emotions are the most powerful motivators. People will share things that make them happy (humor, animals, nostalgia) and things that make them angry. People tend not to share things that make them sad.
4. Looking good to others – When people consider sharing content, they think “How will this make me appear to others?” It is critically important to understand the user and how they want to appear to others (cool, intelligent, comical, etc.), for they will share content that makes them appear this way.
Additional tips for developing engaging content include:
– Repackage content – Instead of creating original content, find content that is already popular among users and use it as inspiration. Create a similar piece of content that has a twist or spin that makes it different.
– Optimize for mobile – Understand, for example, that people on mobile phones often skip videos. Therefore, having screen shots and a write up about it is important.
– Master the headline– The headline is the most important part of your content; it’s the whole sales pitch for the content. It determines whether or not the user clicks.
If you’re wondering why your content isn’t getting “likes”, “shares” or “retweets”, it’s probably because users don’t find it beneficial, emotional, or cool. Consider the above principles and tips. Maybe it’s time to take a different approach to what you post online.
