A problem shared is a problem halved, or so they say. Did you know that 4 billion items are shared on Facebook, DAILY. These include pictures, status updates, links and videos. Videos of people singing, videos of cats playing the piano, videos of babies talking to each other and even (especially) videos of people falling over. The amount of content that people share and post to each other is simply astonishing, and with the growing user bases’ of social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus, this ‘sharepocalypse’ is only going to continue.
For this reason, I decided to look into the reason behind why people share things on social networking sites. Much to my excitement, I discovered that the New York Times recently conducted a study on why people share online, and their results were truly fascinating. Their study revealed that individuals mainly share for three reasons:
- As a form of information management
- As a way to define themselves and their world
- As a way to build and maintain relationships.
To explain further, results unveiled that a whopping 73% claimed that they process information more deeply and thoughtfully when they share it. If you think about it, this stat makes total sense. By sharing something, you end up looking over it more and more. The more someone comments on your content, the more chances there are of you reviewing it again, plus it’s always there to look back on. Therefore, yes it does aid you in deeper information processing, and as basic psychology teaches us, the deeper you process a piece of information the stronger the memory trace, so surely this is good news for marketers.
Other results from the New York Times explain that 68% share to give people a better sense of who they are, and 49% share to influence others regarding products they care about. This comes down to building a stronger sense of who you are and trying to show your friends and family what you’re interested in.
Along with this, interestingly 78% share to stay connected with people they would otherwise not be in touch with. From this we can learn that marketers should be focused on providing strong content that enhances consumers’ relationships with one another.
You can read the full report from the New York Times here: http://nytmarketing.whsites.net/mediakit/pos/
So next time you think about sharing something, think about the reasons behind why you are doing so. You may even uncover something new about yourself.
This inforgraphic is worth a look, it breaks down how much we share and how it is possibly a bad thing.
