I attended the Social Collective conference in London earlier this month. In an apparently very exclusive presentation, CNN shared some recent results from global research (called ‘Pownar’, for ‘power of news and recommendation’) they have done looking at the sharing behaviour of digital users. Fascinatingly in-depth look at the web of sharing each user can create online.
In an age of viral and content marketing gone wild (thanks, social media!), understanding what makes certain content ‘share-able’ is a necessary asset to any strategic campaign. Sharing, as highlighted by the CNN research, is typically driven by one of two basic motivating factors: altruistic (“I’ll share this because it is similar to my friend’s interest”) or broadcasting (“I’ll share this to increase my status in this subject”).
While the study explored a broad scope of content, it did of course focus specifically on CNN content. It found, interestingly enough, that every ‘sharer’ typically brings an average of 5 new visitors to the CNN site. Specifically within their business content, research determined that over half of their readership was as a result of sharing and that almost half of the ‘frequent sharers’ (6+ shares in a week) were from the C-suite.
So business customers (and decision-makers) are online, actively consuming – and sharing – content.
If you don’t have already have a content strategy in place, perhaps it’s time?
[NOTE: You can read more on the research from CNN here]
