Today, social media marketing has become an essential of digital marketing, which helps businesses reach millions of customers globally. Along with this, it helps you increase brand awareness, save costs, improve brand loyalty, customer satisfaction, and much more.
While social media marketing continues to be beneficial for your business, there is a new epidemic on the market that can help you take the next step. The reactive sharing epidemic on social media.
What is reactive sharing on social media?
Do you remember when was the last time you read an entire article you shared on Facebook or any other channel? Or did you share at least a few of them without looking past the headline? Most individuals fall into the latter group.
A study from 2016 found that 59 percent of links shared on social media were shared by users without ever clicking on them. This means that users just read the title and not the entire content of the article. This is what reactive sharing is all about.
It might not seem like the best practice at first. But as a marketer, there is a lot you can learn from it for your business. Before going into the HOW, you first need to understand the WHY of reactive sharing on social media.
Understanding reactive sharing on social media
The attention span of users
The reason behind reactive sharing on social media can be the short attention span of users. We are exposed to over 100 headlines daily. And it is not possible to read all of them. Hence, we skip ahead to sharing only those that we think we support.
Ease of sharing
As you know, the main purpose of posting articles on social media is to engage your target audience, while making money through it. And when it comes to sharing, a user is less than two clicks away from sharing. This makes people more likely to share an article at no cost, especially if they like the headline.
Timing
We tend to use social media while we are working, or in line while running some errands. Hence, in situations like these, people do not have much time to carefully read the entire article, but enough time to share it on their newsfeed. This is so that they can read it later or want their followers to see it.
Reinforcement
Reinforcement basically means that people will seek out, remember, and support information that provides support for any of their existing beliefs and assumptions. For example, a Trump supporter is more likely to share an article about “7 reasons why Trump is the best”, without actually reading it.
These are a few pointers that explain, why reactive sharing is an epidemic on social media. Keep reading to understand how to use it to your benefit.
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Tips to use reactive sharing to your benefit
1. Focus on your headlines
You have five seconds or even less before the user decides to read your article or to skip it. Hence, make sure you catch the viewer’s attention and compel them to click on it. A few of the ways to do this is by making it thought-provoking, entertaining, or even controversial.
Examples of some of the best blog titles:
a) How to Become a World-Class Copywriter in One Month or Less
b) What % Wednesday Adams Are You
c) 10 Tips That Show Anybody How to Make Money Online – Guaranteed
2. Tell a story
Another way to make your article more shareable on social media is by telling a story with the title. If you do not want to give the complete story, you can always give them one part.
Example of a title that tells a story while drawing attention:
a. Man is trapped in chocolate for 2 hours
After reading this title don’t you immediately think of Willy Wonka? While your article might not be about the headline, but it will help people to recognize and relate to, and they might want to read what you have in store.
3. Know your audience
As mentioned earlier users tend to read articles that cater to their pre-existing beliefs and assumptions. Hence, you should take some out to understand your target audience, which will help you write content that encourages them to share.
Tools to create content worth the reactive sharing epidemic
CoSchedule Headline Analyzer
Creating a good title is one thing and making it shareable and rank-able on websites is another. This tool will help you evaluate and score how effectively your headline will result in social shares and search engines. Know more about this tool here.
Hubspot topic generator
Do you ever have a theme in your mind, but aren’t sure at which angle to tackle it? If yes, then Hubspot’s blog topic generator is ideal for you. You just need to add in your keyword, and the tool will auto-generate five potential topics. Click here to know more.
Hemingway editor
Hemingway helps you evaluate any of your content piece for clarity and simplicity. With this, you can calculate readability, remove or unwanted complicated words, and much more. Check out this tool here.
These are a few points that explain how reactive sharing epidemic on social media is growing, and how you can use it for your business. Keep reading iTMunch for more such blogs, updates and developments.
