B&TB&TB&T
  • Advertising
  • Campaigns
  • Marketing
  • Media
  • Technology
  • Regulars
    • Agency Scorecards
    • Best of the Best
    • Campaigns of the Month
    • CMO Power List
    • CMOs to Watch
    • Culture Bites
    • Fast 10
    • New Business Winners
    • Spotlight on Sponsors
  • Jobs
  • Awards
    • 30 Under 30
    • B&T Awards
    • Cairns Crocodiles
    • Women In Media
    • Women Leading Tech
Search
Trending topics:
  • Cairns Crocodiles
  • Nine
  • Seven
  • Cannes Lions
  • NRL
  • AFL
  • WPP
  • State of Origin
  • B&T Women in Media
  • Thinkerbell
  • Pinterest
  • imaa
  • Anthony Albanese
  • Meta
  • Spotlight on Sponsors
  • ARN
  • Foxtel
  • TV Ratings
  • Radio Ratings
  • Sports Marketing

  • About
  • Contact
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Advertise
© 2025 B&T. The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd.
Reading: Five Reasons People Share Content, And How You Can Harness This
Share
B&TB&T
Subscribe
Search
  • Advertising
  • Campaigns
  • Marketing
  • Media
  • Technology
  • Regulars
    • Agency Scorecards
    • Best of the Best
    • Campaigns of the Month
    • CMO Power List
    • CMOs to Watch
    • Culture Bites
    • Fast 10
    • New Business Winners
    • Spotlight on Sponsors
  • Jobs
  • Awards
    • 30 Under 30
    • B&T Awards
    • Cairns Crocodiles
    • Women In Media
    • Women Leading Tech
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Advertise
© 2025 B&T. The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd.
B&T > Five Reasons People Share Content, And How You Can Harness This
FeaturedMarketingMedia

Five Reasons People Share Content, And How You Can Harness This

Lisa Collins
Published on: 11th June 2015 at 6:00 AM
Lisa Collins
Share
5 Min Read
SHARE

Rather than focusing too narrowly on creating ‘shareable’ content, perhaps as marketers we should be looking to connect more deeply with people’s emotions, argues Lisa Collins, public relations manager at social media agency We Are Social.

What makes people share content?

I’m not the only person to ponder this question. The New York Times conducted a study ‘The Psychology of Sharing: Why People Share Online’ with a group of self-proclaimed heavy online sharers, who revealed what motivates them to share with others.

  • 85 per cent say reading other people’s responses helps them understand and process information and events
  • 73 per cent say they process information more deeply, thoroughly and thoughtfully when they share it

So we could conclude that as humans the act of sharing helps us to comprehend more deeply, but the question still remains…why?

The study concluded that “sharing is all about relationships” and “trust is the cost of entry for getting shared”. According to the research marketers should “appeal to consumers’ motivation to connect with each other — not just with your brand”. They recommend that we “keep it simple…and it will get shared…and it won’t get muddled” and we should “appeal to their sense of humour” and “embrace a sense of urgency”.

But how does this really help us when it comes to creating content that motivates people to hit the ‘share’ button?

Perhaps a study by the University of Pennsylvania can help unlock the puzzle. For six months researchers studied The New York Times list of most emailed articles, checking it every 15 minutes. The study revealed that readers preferred to share positive rather than negative articles and upon deeper analysis researchers concluded that there was an element of ‘awe’ that seemed to permeate the shared articles.

The Penn researchers defined the quality of awe as an “emotion of self-transcendence, a feeling of admiration and elevation in the face of something greater than the self”.

They used two criteria for an awe-inspiring story: Its scale is large, and it requires “mental accommodation” by forcing the reader to view the world in a different way. “It involves the opening and broadening of the mind,” writes Dr. Berger a social psychologist and a professor of marketing at Penn’s Wharton School and Dr. Milkman, who is a behavioural economist at Wharton.

So is it possible to inspire awe in our audiences? Perhaps that is a lofty ambition, however, there may be something to be learned from these studies.

In his analysis of The New York Times study social media guru Jeff Bullas claims there are five reasons that we share content with others:

1. To bring valuable and entertaining content to others

2. To define ourselves to others

3. To grow and nourish our relationships

4. Self-fulfilment

5. To get the word out about causes and brands

Rather than focusing too narrowly on creating ‘shareable’ content, perhaps as marketers we should be looking to connect more deeply with people’s emotions. If trust is indeed one of the core values we need to foster with our audience, then it makes sense to spend time developing sincere relationships with our communities.

As we know, developing trust takes time but the benefits can be huge. By helping communities develop their own sense of identity we can hope to share their emotional motivations and tap into the fundamental nature of ‘awe’ – that “feeling of admiration and elevation in the face of something greater than the self”. If we are less focused on ourselves and more focused on earning the respect of the group we may just become awesome and in doing so, become eminently shareable.

Join more than 30,000 advertising industry experts
Get all the latest advertising and media news direct to your inbox from B&T.

No related posts.

TAGGED: Australian Chinese Community, The Smith Family
Share
By Lisa Collins
Follow:
With over 20 years working in media, marketing and communications, Lisa is a seasoned senior manager with a broad range of experience in journalism, consumer PR and brand marketing. 

Residing in the United States for over a decade, Lisa worked as a journalist, film producer, fashion stylist and publicist. As a member of the senior leadership teams at Burson-Marsteller, Pentafin and 2IC at Trish Nicol Agency, Lisa has worked with global brands including: Bombay Sapphire, Cartier, Florsheim, Grey Goose, Jim Beam, Mini Cooper and Schweppes. 

 Lisa has been closely involved in developing and implementing strategic planning and has provided senior counsel to internal and external stakeholders across a range of channels including communications, marketing and new business development.

Latest News

Michelle Klein’s Tangible, Helpful Change
10/07/2025
Macca’s Unveils ‘Brekkie Comes First’ Integrated Campaign Via Wieden+Kennedy Featuring ‘Hopecore’ Memes
10/07/2025
I’ll Never Look At A Potato The Same: BMF’s Award-Winning Big Little Campaign For ALDI
10/07/2025
L-R: Sue Cato, Sally Cray, Adam Ferrier.
Women in Media National Conference Unveils ‘Crisis Comms’ Panel Tackling PR Disasters
10/07/2025
//

B&T is Australia’s leading news publication magazine for the advertising, marketing, media and PR industries.

 

B&T is owned by parent company The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd.

About B&T

  • About
  • Contact
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Advertise

Top Categories

  • Advertising
  • Campaigns
  • Marketing
  • Media
  • Opinion
  • Technology
  • TV Ratings

Sign Up for Our Newsletter



B&TB&T
Follow US
© 2025 B&T. The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Register Lost your password?