Sharing content through social networks
Content sharing platforms allows users to discover content they can share with friends, family and colleagues. By now, most companies have accounts on several content sharing sites that allow users to publish and share content. These sites include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, among others.
Online communities are formed around shared interests and specific topics. If you produce a large amount of good and interesting content, you’ll benefit from building a presence on a content-driven social network to build your profile, gain fans and followers, and increase your rankings on search engines. There are social networks that are suited for sharing larger amounts of content, including LinkedIn, Stumble Upon, Reddit, Technorati, and Digg, among others.
Users visit content sharing platforms to discover content they can share with friends, family and colleagues. Research shows that online sharing tends to take place through many small groups and not via the single status post or tweet of a few influencers. While influential people may be able to reach a wide audience, their impact is short-lived.
In short, content goes viral when it spreads beyond a particular sphere of influence by ordinary people sharing with others. Content spreads online through large numbers of people sharing with small groups. There is little data to support so-called influencer behavior in social marketing. Content sharing can be compared to word-of-mouth conversation.
Content goes viral when lots of people engage with their normal social circles to share content. So the best way to “go viral” is to engage millions of users with great shareable content with the knowledge that they will share at interpersonal levels.
Marketers and publishers should focus on content that will resonate and get people talking to their colleagues, friends and families. Content sharing is about engaging people in conversations that mirror the offline world.
