THE PSYCHOLOGY & PHYSIOLOGY OF SHARING
Psychological Science
75% of people shared an article after having run in place.
Only 33% shared an article who were previously sitting.
THOUGHT: Jonah Berger describes in his article “Arousal Increases Social Transmission Of Information” how physical activity prior to being offered an opportunity to share information with others actually increased the likelihood that people would do just that.
Lesson: Make people run before visiting you online.
Okay, so maybe that’s not practical. But if you can find an opportunity to engage with your audience after they’ve completed physical activity, look for a way to do so. If you’re audience are athletes, is there a tool you can give them that will allow them to easily share your content?
The article also describes experiments that indicate that language that evokes amusement or anxiety will result in more sharing of that content than if the tone of the language surrounding the content is sad or expresses contentment.
While it may be obvious why people spread funny content (i.e. it’s funny), this also explains the proliferation of anxiety-inducing headlines (What You Need To Know About Content Sharing, 15 Mistakes Your Life Depends Upon You NOT Making, etc.) and why television news perpetually teases the “Your Baby Is In Danger” stories.
People talk about them.
So if you want your stuff to be shared, try scaring your audience. 🙂
SUPER COOL TOOL TUESDAY: Photorank.me is the Klout-like influence-ranking site for photo-sharers.
Thank you for the return of the NFL.
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