Why do we share content?

What motivates people to share information on their profiles so willingly? The New York Times conducted an advanced study that identified five key reasons why we share content online:

– Improving the lives of others – almost all survey participants (94%) admitted that they were sharing content because they believe that in this way they can improve the lives of recipients of this information. You should therefore strive to create useful content that will help your target audience and its audience.

– Self-definition – two out of three participants (68%) share content online to create their own “idealized version of themselves online”. So when you create content, think about whether it will be something that the recipients will be able to feel proud of or somehow build the content about themselves.

– Develop relationships – four out of five participants share content because they can maintain relationships with others. Consider how your content can help develop interpersonal relationships. Ask your audience to mark their friends in the comments or engage them in other ways, e.g. “share this movie with the biggest dog lover you know”.

– Self-fulfillment and a sense of belonging – everyone likes to feel useful and valuable. The study showed that its participants enjoyed when they shared the content themselves. However, they enjoyed it more when they received interesting and useful information from their friends.

– Manifesting their beliefs – 84% of participants said that they share information as a way to support the topics or brands they care about. So think about whether you are able to create content related to topics relevant to your audience.

So, as you can see in the examples above, the main reason we share information on social media is our relationship with other people.

We share positive content more often

According to the Association for Psychological Science, arousing certain emotions increases the chance that the information will be passed on.

The study explains that sharing stories or information can be partly caused by agitation. When people are aroused, whether due to emotional or other stimuli, the autonomic nervous system is activated, which motivates social activities. Emotional features of content always have a greater effect among recipients. However, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have determined that positive content is more often shared.

How to share emotions in turn? In face-to-face conversations, we often imitate the facial expressions and behavior of our interlocutors to build a sense of unity. The Emoticons in mind: An event-related potential study showed that when we see emoticons, we react just like watching real facial expressions.

So share positive content and decorate it in the right way with emoticons. This is of course the beginning of the road. You must also use creations that cause emotions, as well as the right words that will stimulate you in the right direction.

We all apply the reciprocity rule

Reciprocity and gratitude are of great importance in society, as is altruism itself, which socially pays off. Each of us was taught to say “thank you” and that “it is not right” not to help someone who had done something good for us before. We feel a huge disappointment when someone does not repay us for previous favors and the other way round – we feel obliged to repay for favors.

We look badly at people who, for example, receive something good, but do not show adequate gratitude. We do not want to identify with such attitudes, so we are ready for a big effort to reciprocate for the help we have received.

That’s why people like each other’s pictures, they mean those who marked them before, etc.

This principle – because it is very strong in us – is widely used in marketing. An example would be giving free samples of the product in the expectation that such a gift would encourage you to buy more or trying out some equipment for free (e.g. long ago you could use the Internet for 3 months for free and hardly anyone after that time decided to return the equipment. In this case, not only the matter of gratitude, but also … habits worked.)

Use this rule also in your marketing activities. Free e-books, reports, trendbooks, publications, tool lists, etc. are of great value in the eyes of the recipients. This may encourage them to buy your product, subscribe to the mailing list, like your profile on social media or share your information.

We compare ourselves with others

A company that produced utility software wanted to encourage people to reduce energy consumption at home. Therefore, selected residents received letters saying: “your neighbors reduce energy consumption”, followed by a comparison of figures for energy consumption in the area.

The information presented in this form was met with a vivid reaction. When residents learned that 77% of their neighbors turned off air conditioning, they did the same. As a result, energy consumption in the districts has changed noticeably.

This way of communication brought much better results than typical slogans like “save energy to save money”.

Comparing yourself to others is also linked to the phenomenon of social proof, according to which our position on selected people, issues, etc. is governed by the reaction of the majority. But how to use this knowledge?

User-generated content is a great way to show your target audience what others are saying about your brand. Positive comments and reviews published by your clients are examples of social proof working in your favor.

In addition, another study showed that 76% of customers consider the opinions and reviews of ordinary people to be more reliable than the advertisements of the brands themselves. Theoretically, every marketer knows this, but not everyone emphasizes it strongly enough in advertising.

Summary

You don’t have to be a professional psychologist to understand people’s behavior on social media. Remembering the facts discussed here, you will definitely be able to better engage your target group and gain customers in social media. It is also worth seeking knowledge in professional literature that agile combines the issue of marketing and “imprinted” human behavior.

– Definition
Usability in SEO Copywriting is to provide users with the information they need in an accessible way when preparing content for positioning. This is one of the more important features of SEO texts that copywriters sometimes forget about when creating texts with relevant keywords, but without answering the questions that bother readers. Without usability, content will not have adequate substantive value that will allow the reader to choose the right product or service. At the same time, it is an important element of web usability, i.e. all factors determining the functionality of a website for users using it.

– Application in texts
When creating content, the copywriter should be aware of what the user can expect, what issues raise his doubts and what he is looking for online. Then he should try to fulfill them in a clear, clear way so that his message is understood by a person who does not have extensive knowledge in a given topic. Remembering usability and wondering how to write SEO texts correctly, you should also take care of other elements affecting web usability, i.e. a properly created visual layer of the text and its availability on the site.

The most important features of useful content for SEO Copywriter

We will briefly present in this text some of the most important principles that SEO Copywriter should follow in order to construct statements that are useful to recipients of their content that meet the principles of web usability. The basic activities that are used to create content that fulfills the task of usability are:

– simplicity of communication and compliance with the KISS rule,
– creating a persona, i.e. a portrait of a potential recipient of content,
– providing only useful information for users,
– adapting the content to the rules for creating texts for the Internet.

The simplicity of the message

An important feature of usability and web usability is the creation of content that will be simple and understandable to the average user. When writing about car batteries, for example, it’s impossible not to use professional phrases related to its construction and parameters. However, this should be done in moderation and ensure that every user, even one who has little knowledge in the field of motoring, can obtain useful information for their needs. The KISS rule is connected with this, in the light of which texts should be created without unnecessary additions.

KISS (Keep it Simple, Stupid) is currently one of the important principles not only of SEO Copywriting, but also of the entire marketing industry. These words are already over 50 years old and are attributed to Kelly Johnson. It was an American aviation engineer who recommended the construction of machines in such a way that any mechanic could cope with their maintenance and repair. This quote became so universal that it later found its practical application in many other areas of life.

When applying the KISS rule, it is worth remembering to be moderate in creating content, according to the advice: “Write straight, but not simply!”. When creating content in an accessible language, you must remember about the language correctness. The simplicity of the message can not be associated with stylistic or linguistic errors, as well as indecent words!

Creation of the persona

Creating a persona is a very important step in creating content that complies with web usability. This is a portrait of a typical recipient of our content who will be interested in using our services or buying a product. By performing this action before writing the text, we will know what our potential customer is looking for, and thus providing him with the information he needs to make the right decision – that is, take advantage of our offer – will be easier.

By creating persona you will know the basic information about your standard client: how old he is, what he does professionally, what interests he has, as well as many other features that will not only help to achieve user satisfaction and increase sales results. They will also facilitate SEO Copywriter writing texts and allow you to create a text scheme that will be useful and valuable in terms of web usability.

Facebook can also be a useful tool in creating persona. Thanks to the data contained in this social network, we can have a clear picture of users responding to our business: likes, commenting and sharing our posts.

Providing relevant information

It often happens that we read a text with several or even several thousand characters, but after reading it we have the impression that we have not found anything interesting. It is very possible that we will not get through it, because most of the content will be useless to us. The so-called. “Pouring water” certainly does not promote the usefulness of SEO texts and web usability. The copywriter should include the substantive issues to the maximum extent possible. The previously mentioned persona is connected with it, thanks to which it is possible to determine what information the potential customer will be looking for and such data should be received.

Content creation in accordance with the principles of webwriting

The place in which we publish content determines how they are placed so that they are most useful to the user. In the case of websites, such rules are set by webwriting, i.e. the technique of creating content for online needs. The features of utility mentioned earlier are closely related to it, namely simplicity and brevity. It is also worth applying other web usability principles:

– include the most important information at the beginning of the content to attract the reader’s attention,
– use short sentences, without multiple constructions,
– use friendly formatting: short paragraphs, headers, as well as bullets that will draw the attention of “scanning” the content of the recipient,
– use visual materials: photos, graphics or multimedia.

Summary

Caring for usability in SEO Copywriting, which is an important element of web usability, is one of the most important rules for people writing texts in terms of positioning. Without complying with it, the texts can become completely useless to the recipient. Therefore, it is worth following the following guidelines:

– When writing SEO texts, you should focus on a maximally simple and understandable message, and at the same time correct in terms of language.
– It is extremely important to create a persona, i.e. a portrait of the universal recipient of our content, thanks to which it will be easier for us to adapt the appropriate content to users. At the same time, it will affect the effectiveness of our activities.
– Users want only useful information, so you need to limit the use of unnecessary content that is not related to the topic.
– Adapt the content to the rules that prevail on the Internet – prepare texts that are visually attractive, including multimedia materials, containing the most important information at the beginning of the text, using webwriting and UX writing techniques that affect web usabiility

UX writing is a writing technique that complies with User Experience, i.e. the user’s experience on the website, adapting the content to the usefulness of the recipient. You can read more about UX writing in the future text of our web usability guide.

The usability of content is only one of the elements, although very important, belonging to web usability. We will describe this issue in more detail in one of the next texts on our blog about positioning.