Content sharing is booming on mobile devices and Facebook, beating out social sharing on desktop environments.
According to a new report from ShareThis, social sharing accounted for 19 percent of all mobile device activity in Q4 of 2014, compared to just 6 percent on desktops. This uptick in mobile sharing comes with an increase in mobile usage: Since January 2014 mobile device activity has grown by 28 percent, while desktop usage dropped about 30 percent. Mobile engagement has almost doubled since 2014.
When it comes to sharing, Facebook continues to dominate, commanding 81 percent of all social shares in Q4 of 2014, according to the report.
With that much content sharing occurring via Facebook and mobile, the stakes are high for brands to come up with mobile-friendly content that users want to share. In the social and mobile world, content is king—and viral content is the holy grail.
Bathroom spray Poo-Pourri became a viral sensation by embracing toilet humor in the YouTube video “Girls Don’t Poop.” The clip features an elegant young woman discussing bathroom etiquette in hilarious detail. The solution to cover up the foul deed is Poo-Pourri, a deodorizing spray that creates a protective barrier on the surface of the toilet water and prevents odors from escaping.
The video debuted in 2013, and in just a few weeks it generated 6 million views and nearly 300,000 shares. In other words, one in every 22 viewers shared the clip with their followers,Entrepreneur reported. Thanks to the video, Poo-Pourri’s Facebook followers ballooned 354 percent. The brand continues to engage Facebook users with toilet jokes, pop culture references, and product updates. For every one product-related update, the brand tries to share 10 entertainment posts, Poo-Pourri Marketing Director Nicole Story told Social Media Today.
“People don’t come to Facebook to be sold, they come to Facebook to escape their day and to be entertained,” she said. “Poo-Pourri wants to make people giggle as often as they poop—every day . . . sometimes twice a day.”
It turns out humor is a good strategy for viral content. BuzzSumo analyzed the top 10,000 most-shared articles across the Web and mapped each one to an emotion. Three emotions garnered the most shares:
Awe (25 percent)
- Laughter (17 percent)
- Amusement (15 percent)
Quizzes, list posts, and infographics also dominated among the most-shared content types.
BuzzSumo found that Facebook and Twitter posts with images received more shares as well, a trend Skyword has previously reported.
Interestingly, the research revealed that long-form content was shared more frequently than short-form content, suggesting that people like to share in-depth articles as well as the latest cat picture or meme.
But not all content amplification tips work for all content; content marketers need to think about what truly resonates with their target audience. The more marketers understand their niche, the better equipped they will be to create share-worthy content.
