As a rule, social network users are very careful with their posts. They diligently form their image, which they would never want to destroy with low-quality and useless material. If you want your content to be regularly reposted, you have to understand your audience. So, you have to understand what and why they are interested in.
Understand the Psychology Behind Social Sharing
The fact is that it is very difficult to convince users to share your content on social networks. The news feed is a reflection of the identity of the page owner, who spends a lot of time giving it the appropriate look.
This means that you need to understand what kind of content people are willing to share with their friends and subscribers and why they do it.
The most common reasons for sharing are:
- social network users think about how the posts they share will affect their environment;
- users share content that supports a person, a message, a product, etc.;
- users share information to keep in touch with their subscribers;
- users repost content because it helps them to get in touch with people that have similar interests;
- users repost content, as they feel that they have an impact on the lives of other people;
- users say that content social shares help them demonstrate what is important to them.
How to Motivate Users to Share Your Content?
If we love to talk about ourselves so much, what makes us make reposts of other people’s records? Understanding these processes allows you to create content that will be better and easier to distribute.
Here are the main psychological techniques that motivate users to share your content:
1. Help Your Readers Look Smart in Front of Friends and Followers
Often people want to show things that make them more attractive and smarter for other people. An advertiser wants to provide an increase in the number of fans and traffic to a landing page and the user wants to get recognition from other users. However, how can this be realized with the help of content? Try the following:
- Publish high-quality content about the latest discoveries (news or research);
- Publish content that helps solve any problems of your subscribers and their friends;
- Publish content, the sharing of which will help your readers create the impression that they are in touch with a successful and authoritative person (with you!).
2. Readers Must Trust You
No one wants to share content that shows them to a disadvantage with friends. If you are too superficial, official or assertive, you will not succeed in gaining the trust of a large number of readers.
There are a few rules that you must follow in order to earn trust:
- Give evidence to support your point of view. Be sure to provide links to research publications.
- Show social proof. Show how you helped your customers (post reviews), or demonstrate that you are an expert in your field (provide links to your publications on authoritative resources). In addition, the more reposts your content receives, the more likely it is that your content will continue to be shared in social networks.
3. Keep It Simple
What most people do before sharing a post? They do not read the post completely. Namely, people decide if the content is worth sharing, based on the title and introduction.
If your posts are written in a complex language, it will be difficult for the user to determine whether such content will help him look smart or be useful to his friends and subscribers.
4. Focus on Creating Content That Causes Curiosity, Surprise, and Amazes to the Depths of Soul
Your content should evoke emotions in people if you want them to share it.
The following 5 emotions contribute to this the most:
- Curiosity;
- Interest;
- Uncertainty;
- Surprise;
- Astonishment (extreme degree of surprise).
Not only the headlines of your articles should evoke emotions but also their very content. Use trigger words to trigger emotions, and remember that most viral content causes more than one emotion.
5. Put the Finishing Touches:
- Select the appropriate location for the sharing buttons. It is best to place them at the beginning of the article – under the heading, directly under the post, or it can be floating buttons.
- Use images to make your content stand out and grab attention.
- Use Meta tags for social networks. If you simply place a link to your article, then social networks will take data from the meta tags of this page. But if the social network supports open graph meta tags, you can use them to make the repost look more attractive and get more attention and interaction with your subscribers.
Conclusion
To increase the number of social shares and promote in social networks, you do not need to be annoying for your readers. In fact, the more you admire them, the more willing they are to share your content with their friends and subscribers.
