Find out what cake, blending I-Pads, subway sandwich baby, and Willy Wonka have in common. Discover what makes content go viral and how marketers can design content to influence sharing.

1. Sweet Emotion

2. PART TWO
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SHARING
 In PART ONE we learned what motivates people to
share content online
1. . To bring valuable and entertaining
content to others
2. . To grow and nourish our
relationships
3. To define ourselves to others
4. Self-fulfillment
5. To get the word out about causes or
brands

3. AS MARKETERS WE LEARNED
 Sharing on social media networks fills an innate
human need to be SOCIAL
 It is CRITICAL for any serious business to share
content with users that satisfies there NEED to be
SOCIAL and encourages them to SHARE.
 Create your content with the intention of satisfying
your customer‟s SOCIAL NEEDS.
 Design your content specifically to be SHARED and
turn customers into advocates of YOUR BRAND.

4. WHAT WE ARE GOING
That‟s
TO LEARN Hot!
 What are the  How marketers can
characteristics of influence sharing
viral content? when creating
 What role does
content?
emotion play in  How can marketers
determining create content that
whether or not is more likely to get
something gets shared?
shared?

5. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IS
USELESS IF…
 In some cases
 Content marketing content can even
and social media harm your brand if
marketing are a users see your
waste of time if no content in a
one shares your negative light
content
 Your brand’s success
is based on
influencing the
digital word of
mouth in a
positive way

6. LET’S WORK TOWARDS THE
BERMUDA TRIANGULATION
What
MOTIVATES
people to
SHARE?✓
Content
that gets
shared
What are the
What role does characteristics
EMOTION play? of VIRAL
content?

7. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH
TO VIRALITY
 Here‟s a question to challenge you.
 Do people tend to share positive or negative
content?
I am
Wicked
SMAHT!
Positive Content = Content
that has more “positive”
words compared to
“negative” words.

8. AND THE ANSWER IS…
 Contrary to public wisdom, POSITIVE content is
much more likely to be highly shared than negative
content.
 In Part One of The Psychology of Sharing we
learned that one of the reasons people are
motivated to share things is to define themselves to
others.
 If people are transmitting content
digitally that is a reflection of some
part of their IDENTITY, it is likely
that the content they share is going
to be POSITIVE.
Just hanging out

9. SEEMS SIMPLE RIGHT…WRONG
 The likelihood that a piece of content becomes viral
is much more complex than whether it is positive or
negative alone.
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE SWEEEET EMOTION!!
 Online content that evokes a
STRONG EMOTIONAL RESPONSE
is more likely to go VIRAL, regardless
of whether those emotions are of
positive (awe) or negative (anger, anxiety)
nature. Yummy: food is
associated with high
levels of emotional
activation

10. TRIGGER HIGH LEVELS
OF EMOTIONAL ACTIVATION
 When marketing content triggers strong
emotional responses both positive and negative,
it is significantly more likely to get shared
 TREAD LIGHTLY – remember why people are
motivated to share.
 Don’t be another Celeb Boutique Celeb Boutique
disaster tweeted this after
the Aurora
Massacre and may
never recover

11. NEGATIVE EMOTIONAL
CONTENT IS OK IF IT MAKES SENSE
 BMW created a series of suspenseful short films
that elicit anxiety in viewers.
 The film series has accumulated over 1 million
YouTube views.
They also
have a lot
of money,
which
helps

12. NOT QUITE BUT…
STILL ON THE PODIUM
SURPRISING INTERESTING USEFUL
 Consistent with the notion that people are
motivated to provide valuable and entertaining
content to others, SURPRISING and
INTERESTING content is also highly VIRAL.
 Also, consistent with the idea that people are
motivated to share content to contribute and define
themselves, practically USEFUL content is VIRAL
too.

13. MEAT AND POTATOES
HOW TO INFLUENCE SHARING
1. Evoke a strong positive emotional response (be careful with
negative)
2. Appeal to consumers motivation to connect with each other
3. Build your reputation as a trusted source
4. Keep it simple
5. Be human, appeal to consumers sense of humor

14. EVOKE A STRONG POSITIVE Don’t be
another
EMOTIONAL RESPONSE bobble-head
in the world!
 Think this when
creating content: Would
I share this with the
Dalai Lama? If not,
don‟t worry just try to
be PASSIONATE with
what you share.
 People appreciate
PASSION because it‟s
REAL and UNIQUE.

15. DON’T JUST PROMOTE – EVOKE
EMOTION AND ENDORSE A LIFESTYLE
A picture of a Celtics Jacket Valuable content that
triggers a strong emotional
response
OR
Cake is tasty, it
is also
associated with
strong positive
emotions.
From Celtics Pinterest Page
WINNER!!

16. APPEAL TO CONSUMERS MOTIVATION TO
CONNECT WITH EACH OTHER
 Another motivation
people have for sharing
is to GROW and
nourish relationships.
 Make it easy for them.
 Provide short post titles
for Tweets, proper
context, make sharing
buttons visible (above
and below your posts),
encourage them to
share.

17. BUILD YOUR REPUTATION AS A TRUSTED
SOURCE
 Everything you create
doesn‟t have to WOW your
audience, but it must show
your CHARACTER.
 People are motivated to
share things that define
themselves – empower
your customer with do-it-
yourself articles, tips and
tricks to do things easier,
and ideas to impress their
Look at these sharing
numbers, pretty friends.
sweet!

18. KEEP IT SIMPLE – LESS IS MORE
 There‟s way too much
information out there,
make your content
concise if you can
 Blog posts in list format
are gaining VIRAL
status every day.
I have
trouble with
this one,
really.

19. YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE A COMEDIAN
JUST DON’T BE A ROBOT
 Humor is real
 Humor builds trust
 Humor is memorable,
you want people to
remember you, right?
Is that a
Chicken,
Bacon, and
Baby?

20. HOW TO TRIGGER AN EMOTIONAL
RESPONSE AND GET SHARED
Get Visual
Kinda Like this
presentation
 90% of the information transmitted to the brain is
visual, visuals are processed 60,000 times faster
than plain text. (source: 3m Corporation)
 According to Facebook, posts that include an
image are 120% more likely to be shared.
 Include at least one emotionally engaging
photo in EVERY POST, if not more.

21. HAVE FUN WITH YOUR CONTENT
MARKETING
This I-Pad
blended up
like a
margarita!
 Be creative and have fun, I know it‟s hard.
 Make sure to follow through with your content and
interact with customer comments.
 Blendtec got silly with their blender and created a
YouTube video series called “Will it Blend?” –
whattya know it went VIRAL.

22. TRY MEMES – THEY’RE ALREADY VIRAL
 They are SHAREABLE
 Their funny I don‟t always
include images
 They humanize your brand in posts…but
when I do it
 They evoke strong emotion works.
 They cut through the clutter

23. WHAT I HOPE WE LEARNED
 Viral content is likely POSITIVE and it almost always
evokes a strong EMOTIONAL RESPONSE.
 To influence Sharing and create VIRAL content
your content MUST:
Evoke a strong emotional
response
Appeal to users
motivation to connect Build trust
with each other
Be funny Be simple

24. HOW TO TRIGGER AN EMOTIONAL RESPONSE
Get Visual
When in
Rome…SHARE
this
presentation
Thanks for listening…stay classy

25. SOURCES
 „What Makes Content Go Viral?‟, Journal of
Marketing Research
 „The Psychology of Sharing‟, The New York Times
Consumer Insight Group
 Stock Exchange Photographs
 All other images are linked to original sources

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Peter Abbott
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