3 Ways to Increase Social Media Sharing

Starting with the best way, here are three foolproof ways to increase social media sharing. If you work these correctly (and add a little luck), you can have people sharing your efforts for years to come (seriously!).

The best way - funny, annotated pictures

The first and most prevalent method is currently becoming pandemic. You cannot look at a social media site without seeing a hundred of these. They are: funny, annotated pictures. They are everywhere and people are not sick of them yet - primarily because every one out of ten is so funny or clever that it was worth the wait. They are everywhere!

There are even some pictures that are the same, but have had different funny comments written on them. People are compelled to share the good ones because they are just so good. Many companies are putting their web address in the bottom right hand corner. If you want to post something that people will share - then do it this way. Some pictures do not even need any annotation, such as a big fat fellow with a shirt on, where the shirt says “I beat anorexia”.

There are also thousands of worst dressed pictures going around that usually do not need any comments adding, such as the Sci Fi Con’s where a very saggy “Princess Leigh” has arrived in costume that would be great if the golden bra were not scuffing her belly button. Not to mention the millions of “Only in America” pictures, with fat women in very small hot pants doing their grocery shopping, or a guy in his tatty pink dressing gown buying cigars in a mini mall.

The second way - tell people something they do not know.

Tell people something they do not know. For example, many people do not know that veal is made of baby cows that are tied to the floor for entirety of their short life. Even more people do not know that halal meat is made by hanging live sheep upside down whilst they are fully conscious, slitting their throats and having them bleed to death upside down. The British government tried to lobby the EU in 2009 to have the word “Unstunned” printed on Halal meat, but the EU said they were not allowed to do it.

If you tell people stuff (similar to what you just read) then they learn something new, and when people learn something new they often want to share it with other people (it’s human nature). So to cut a long story short, you should teach people something, and they will pass it on. It is the same with current events and news. People talk about the latest news because it is something that they just learned. Sharing knowledge is how we evolved as a species.

The third best way - start trends that people can copy

Start trends that people can copy. This is both as hard to do as creating a successful viral marketing campaign, but on the plus side, it takes NO SKILL AT ALL. The very, very best thing about this method is that anyone can create a trend. Some of the world’s biggest “douche-bags” (to coin the USA phrase) have created trends. If a douche-bag can do it then anyone can do it. Remember “Planking?”

The best and most recent example that has had a bit of success is the trend called “Embarrass Your Pet”. It is not as cruel as it sound. Simply take a photo of your pet with a hand written note next to it. For example there may be a photo with a parrot, and next to the parrot is a hand holding up a sign saying, “My master loves me because I squawk through the night and keep the neighbors awake”.

There are others such as a dog laying down looking at the camera with a note next to it saying, “I just peed on my master’s bed”. If you do not fancy starting your own trend, you could get in on this one. You are only limited by your imagination (erm…and if you own a camera too).