I share therefore I am

What sort of content gets shared the most?

‘People like to share things that portray them in a good light,’ says Ian Schafer.

‘Sharing a photo of a cute dog or cat makes them look sensitive. A humorous photo makes them look funny. In many ways, we define ourselves by the content that we share.’

Whether or not they’re image-based, the posts that do best tend to be more timely and relevant to what people are currently talking about in social media. Tools such as SocialFlow keep you on the pulse of what’s hot and point you to post content that people are most likely to share.

Schafer is the CEO of Deep Focus, one of the smarter digital shops out there.

‘One of the most valuable forms of engagement is whether or not content gets into people’s newsfeeds. The more these individual pieces of content finds its way into people’s newsfeeds, the better we’ve done. If people are sharing this piece of content, then we know we’ve done our job.’

It’s not about one-off campaigns any more. Brands are learning they need to be always on.