Sharing is caring: How to get people to spread your message.

As children we were all taught the values of sharing. We were told to let our friends play with our toys, to share our birthday cake with other people at the party and that everything was a little bit more fun if we did it with company. These lessons have stuck with us ever since. They've made us decent human beings, which is handy.

But now in a world of digital the term 'sharing' means something completely different. Sharing is now something brands really want us to do with their overworked corny videos, it's something musicians want us to do with their samey songs and it's something that makes Psy an international pop sensation.
Content sharing is the main goal every time a brand puts anything online. The more people click share, the more people see your name, the more people read your message, the more powerful your advertising becomes.

However unfortunately it's not as simple as that. You can't just put any old crap up on Facebook and expect it to go viral (Carling, I'm talking to you. No-one is going to share anything you ever do. Shut up.) While sharing is great for you, for the people who actually do it there's a risk. They're becoming linked to your brand. Your message is becoming their message as well.

So here's some tips on how to pump up your share-ability. It's not a science and of course some people will buck the trend and share a really annoying Korean pop song, but they don't really count as humans and so for the benefit of this can be ignored.

Would you like some food? No really, it's no problem.

CONTENT
Your content will be the main decider for how much sharing takes place. Good content is different to potentially viral content. What might be amazing for showing off your brand values might be terrible for your fans to post on their own newsfeed. You need to create things that they're going to be proud to call their own, things that they can have a laugh about with their friends, things that won't look out of place with their faces next to them.

MESSAGE
People can't read your mind and even if the content you have created is geared towards being shared, your fans might not automatically do it. Tell them that's what you want. Ask them to share it, ask them to show it to their mates. People are a lot more likely to do something if they're told to, we're simple beings.

WHO ARE YOU TALKING TO?
What sort of thing does your target audience like? They obviously like your brand, but why do they like it? Shape your content around that and give them a reason to want to talk about it. You need to make yourself a part of their conversations and not just be the person trying to start them. We've all got that friend who likes to shout about their life in the hope people find it interesting, they inevitably become the person we listen to less.