Again, the same words:

The method is the method, the result is the result. It is effective but not a shortcut.

It has been explained very clearly. After you have a common understanding, you can read on.

01

If you want readers to share your content, first of all, you must make sure that they are interested in your content, right?

How can you be enthusiastic about sharing content that you are not interested in at all?

What content are people generally interested in?

There are 2 directions for sure:

1) To satisfy curiosity

Curiosity is one of the core intrinsic motivations of human behavior and the most reliable topic selection direction for content creation. Human curiosity is endless.

Everything that is unknown, new, innovative, insightful, breaks common sense... etc., can easily arouse people's interest.

2) Related to me

People will always care about the content that is relevant to them, but not necessarily the other things you talk about.

Especially in an era where attention is extremely scarce, content is strongly associated with users and highly relevant to "me", which gives us more opportunities!

Whether it is video, audio, graphics, or comic strips, when creating content, we can first highlight the content that is relevant to "me" and use more information from the user's circle of concern.

For example, many new media accounts will deliberately create a character and tell a story about a protagonist who is similar to the target audience, so that readers will think, " Isn't this talking about me? " The result is a high degree of involvement.

Others will clearly describe the region, age, gender, occupation, social identity and other labels of the corresponding group of people, so that users can know at a glance that this information is related to "me". For example, "Social Guide for Post-80s and Post-90s".

02

Once readers become interested, they will certainly not share it immediately.

By nature, everyone likes to share. How many people have you seen who can keep a secret?

But people are all profit-seeking, so who would share without a reason?

It’s like we want to sell a product. Although everyone has the desire to buy it, what is the reason for buying your product? If not, why would anyone buy it?

Similarly, if you want readers to share your article, please ask:

What's your reason for sharing? ?

The more compelling and tempting the reasons for sharing are, the more people will share.

03

First of all, the quality of the content itself is of course a strong reason, and it is the basis of everything.

Who would recommend a bad product? The content has no value at all, is difficult to read, and has no logic. Readers will immediately close it. How can it be shared?

I think after working in new media for a while, everyone will have a rough idea of ​​whether a piece of content is good or not.

If the content itself is not thoughtful, why force it?

Mr. Ogilvy has two opinions on advertising copy, which are also appropriate here:

Consumers are not morons, they are your wives and daughters. If you think that a simple slogan and a few boring adjectives can induce them to buy your products, then you underestimate their IQ. They need you to give them all the information.

Never make an advertisement that you would not want your wife and son to see. You probably wouldn’t have the idea of ​​deceiving your own family, and you certainly can’t deceive my family.

As for the content, the first thing is to choose the topic. I have previously compiled some very reliable topics for hot topics, which you can refer to:

01. Hot items and hot topics are good friends. It is easier to become a hot item if you enter the hot topic in time.

02. The topic has high attention, covers a wide target population, can penetrate into multiple circles, and form multi-circle communication

03. Find those strong emotional convergence points to stimulate high arousal emotions

04. Subvert the existing common sense, say something that others have not said, and say something that is different from the public's perception

05. Find an angle of entry from the controversial point or the opposite side of the incident

06. Find the eternal hot topics and menstrual pain points that the target group has been paying attention to for a long time

07. Satisfy strong curiosity and arouse unexpected satisfaction and desire to share

08. Valuable and insightful, able to provide others with new knowledge about intracranial orgasm

Of course, a topic is a topic, and a popular article is a popular article. They are related but not equal.

It's just an extra layer of possible protection.

In addition, opinions and unique insights have always been the darlings of content dissemination and sharing.

The angles of a lot of content may be the same, the hot topics may be the same, and even the stories may be the same, but the novel perspective is unique.

Good content should have its own stance and point of view. Don't have moderate views, be sharp and tricky.

No matter how good the content is, it is only high in quality. However, opinions with personal will are the most powerful tool to encourage readers to resonate and share, and opinions are often the triggering points.

Of course, the use of operational means and the enhancement of relationships are also reasons for sharing.

For example, you have a good relationship with users and interact with them frequently; you often organize activities and have a high stickiness with users; or you have copywriting that guides sharing; or you have activities in the text that stimulate sharing - sharing to get red envelopes, sharing to get information, sharing to join groups, etc....

This also provides reasons to share.

Let me emphasize one more point: the effect of forced sharing is definitely not as good as active triggering, and sharing cannot harm the interests of readers.

You wrote an article called "Boss?" Just a Big Fool, the content is very convincing, but do you think readers will be so willing to share it on WeChat Moments?

Probably not. We also need to consider the positivity of the content. The content itself cannot be too negative . Especially with titles, you need to manage user expectations.

If you only consider opening it and recklessly use clickbait titles, then your title will give users too high expectations. Although the content itself is good, they will think you are using clickbait titles and will not share it. He was unwilling to give the same experience to his friends.

The title should benefit yourself and the users. This is your reason too.

04

Some people say: The quality of the content I create is very high, and the user feedback is also quite useful, so why is there so little sharing?

Isn’t it agreed that high quality content is enough? Is the quality not high enough?

Not necessarily! !

There is a phenomenon: for a lot of content, your users will choose to collect and reward it, but are unwilling to forward or share it.

Taking my official account as an example, I often receive many similar sincere messages: " I saved it, but I just don't want to forward it ."

Smiling and shedding tears is just like love.

I have encountered this situation too many times. In fact, many accounts that write vertical content have a lot of collections but very few reposts.

It’s not that the content is bad, it’s just that users are unwilling to forward it.

At this time, the question we need to think about is how to make the practical content have more "dissemination attributes".

This brings us to social currency.

In life, money is the easiest to circulate; on social media, social currency is the easiest to circulate (forwarding and sharing), and the key to dissemination is to increase the social attributes of the content.

The social currency of this content mainly includes:

Provide users with topics to talk about:

Can your content provide users with something to talk about? Is it the latest news, a hot topic, or a novel angle?

Help users express their ideas:

Does your content help users express themselves? It expresses what the user wants to say, the emotions he wants to express, and the feelings he wants to vent.

Help users build/consolidate their image:

Can your content help users shape and strengthen the social image they want? Embody identity, consolidate labels, and find belonging to a group.

Satisfy users' needs to help others:

Can sharing your content help friends, family, colleagues, etc. and accomplish altruistic acts?

Promotes social comparison:

Does your content make them look more prestigious? More stylish? Or more money... can they participate in social competition?

If your content is of very high quality and has enough social attributes (providing topics for conversation, helping others, showcasing your image, facilitating expression, and promoting comparison), then this can greatly increase the chances of being shared.

After creating your content, ask yourself:

How is the quality of my article? Can it serve as social currency for readers? What could be his reason for sharing?

But nothing is absolute.

It doesn’t mean that users will forward and share just because you provide enough social currency. That’s the next question.

05

When reading an article, readers may have another psychological activity: "Oh, this is good information, I will save it quickly. I don't want others to find it, this is my knowledge base."

This is a typical self-protection mentality. Protection of knowledge.

Sharing a high-quality content can help you build your personal image and consolidate your social status.

As for “collecting but not sharing”, it may be because they are worried that sharing the useful information will reduce their own competitiveness, which is their own competitive barrier.

Whether users choose to share or just collect it depends on the category of your useful information.

Lao Zei has previously divided common useful content into two categories: "easy to share" and "difficult to share", and I'm listing them here for your reference.

Easy-to-share dry goods:

Although this type of content contains a lot of professional knowledge, there is one key point: it is not so direct in improving one's core competitiveness, or it is not so easy to produce immediate results.

On the contrary, if what you share is full of various social currencies, it can help shape your self-image.

So, there is no need to be overly " protective ". Most people shared it.

Thinking-type dry goods: mainly various big-name thoughts/insights, methodologies, and in-depth analysis, but not operational methods that will take effect immediately. Sharing this kind of content will make you look awesome.

High-end information: mainly in-depth knowledge, interpretation of unknown things, reinterpretation of common sense, brain-opening analysis, authoritative data reports, etc., which look high-end and the person sharing them also has high-end information;

Information-based information: mainly industry information that is very topical, complete, and timely. Sharing it will be the first-hand topic of conversation;

Opinion-based content: mainly various unique, sharp, and valuable opinions and attitudes. Sharing them not only shows that you have opinions, but also consolidates your image.

Inventory-type dry goods: mainly various industry-related inventories, such as mid-year, year-end, and hot items. It is quite popular at the moment, and the operation is relatively simple, with a high sharing rate.

Hard-to-share information:

Although this type of dry goods also have social currency attributes, they are more of a variety of practical skills, shortcuts, unique tricks, and high-quality resources.

The most important thing is that it can be used immediately in a short time, so who is willing to share?

Thinking-type dry goods: Like the first one above, it also includes various thinking methods, methodologies, in-depth analysis, etc. However, there is not only thinking and strategy here, but also practical operational methods . Such content collection is more;

Skill-based content: mainly various practical skills to solve problems immediately. These are all obvious "shortcuts". The more powerful the skills, the less willing they are to share them.

Resource-based dry goods: mainly various dry goods resources in vertical industries. The more inaccessible and systematic they are, the better. These are all “competitiveness”, of course I keep them to myself;

Tool-based useful information: There are magic tools in every vertical field. If you find a very useful tool, will you share it as soon as possible?

Unique and special skills: mainly various clever moves, newly discovered new and strange moves, unconventional routines, etc. This kind of technique is mostly collected for personal use.

Of course, not all content is meant to be shared with others. There would be no bottom line.

In my opinion, both are needed. You can adjust the ratio of the two types of "easy to share" and "difficult to share" based on your own situation and find a rhythm that suits you.

Creation is not easy. Regardless of success or failure, think more.

I hope the above will inspire everyone.

Related reading:

How to write a promotion plan for new media operations?

New Media Operations: How to create a popular article opening?

New media operation user growth skills!

The underlying logic of new media operations

24 categories of essential tools for new media operations!