Sometimes I’m surprised to find myself on the home page of a website. Most of my media consumption starts on Facebook, Twitter or even a good old-fashioned email (yes, by ‘media consumption’ I mean looking at lists on Buzzfeed). I know I’m not alone, too. Looking at sites like KIIS 1065 and The Edge, which have dramatically increased their mobile audiences this year, we have days where up to 70% of our audience is arriving via social media.
That makes for a real shift in the way we are using social media to not only reflect our brands, which in our case are shows like Jonesy and Amanda or Kyle and Jackie O, or the stations themselves, but to drive our digital audience. It takes a mix of social media posts that drive reach, conversation, engagement and click through.
This year, the nature of our posts has changed significantly. We now think of them in two categories – the instant hit of the click-through post and the gentler, slower-acting, but just as effective sharing post.
What’s the difference? We find when it comes to entertainment content or prizing, people are happy to click on things they wouldn’t otherwise share. Clicked content can be more personal or more frivolous. A few examples would be:
- Celeb stalking: Just because you read everything you can about Jennifer Lawrence doesn’t mean you want to tell everyone.
- Health and lifestyle content: You don’t need the whole world to know which body image issues you’re indulging this week, how many things you’ve tried to get the kids to sleep or even where you’re thinking of holidaying.
- Guilty pleasure content: I haven’t seen a lot of shares of the 50 Shades of Grey trailer, but it is rocketing up our most popular content charts.
The second category is content you will share, and this was the talking point for several of the speakers at this year’s Mumbrella 360 in Sydney. From these discussions I compiled the following list of ‘shareable’ content:
Pillars of sharing
• Inspiration
• Humour
• Helpful tips
• Capturing the moment
• Expression of identity
• Emotional gift (this made me feel x, I want you to feel x.)
• Knowledge sharing
• Dynamic between men and women.
• Humans acting like animals.
• Animals acting like humans.
This last one was summed up in this quote from Hal Crawford, editor in chief at ninemsn who said, “If you see a penguin in a little jumper, write the story.”
Sharing content helps the members of your audience reflect their best self socially: the version that passes on a great life hack, recommends an insightful industry article, or just connects with a friend over a common interest. Sharing gets your brand in front of people you might not otherwise get a chance to talk to, so it’s critical for reach.
Typically though, its importance doesn’t make it easy. As with all social media strategies the key is to get the balance right for your audience. Why did they start talking to you in the first place? What will make them enough of an advocate for your brand that they’ll put it in their social feed?
In other words, find out why people like you and give them more of it. Simple, right?
