#Chapter 4 - Creating spreadability

How to create spreadability?

#Spreadability, #Virality, #Engagement, #Awareness, #eWOM

In the previous chapter, you get to know your stakeholders and how to make them engage with you. It was already another good step. But we want you to go farther in this new chapter by giving you tips about how to create spreadability. Indeed, you need to keep in mind that your interest is to have your content shared all over the internet among your target audience. It is essential to spread your message and ultimately to create awareness within your community.

" Before the emerging of social media, people shared information in order to get recognition, to gain status or to learn useful tips. In today’s world, it is still the same, however, social media enable people to share that information that is relevant to them easily. This chapter will help you to provide the right strategies in order to create spreadability for your content so you can get awareness as well as recognition within your audience and beyond."

If it doesn’t spread, it’s dead

Before we start making strategies to create a killer content and to make it spreadable, we need to understand the term ‘spreadability’. The term refers to the innate ability of a message or content to be spread across social networks (Mills, 2012). It includes ways of spreading and sharing content effectively, including the motivations to share the content itself. Spreadability enables content to be shared and spread across the internet, where people could access it from different places.

According to Mills, there are two factors that make a content to be spreadable:

1. Likeability – when the content appeals to the audience.

2. Shareability – when the audience feels that his/her peers will feel the same.

If both factors are found in a content, the chances to be spreadable is high. So, if you want to have content that can spread easily, always remember the two factors. In addition, one aspect that also needs to be considered is understanding your audience needs (you will know more about this in the following chapters). By doing so, you will be able to provide relevant content for them, which will lead to likeability and shareability. For example, if you found out that at the moment your target audience is looking for an investor, create contents about finding the right investor, ways to attract investors or even better; introduce investor from your own network. Therefore, your audience will get attracted and eventually share it with their counterparts who need that information as well. Make your content or message resonates to your audience and worth sharing.

Moreover, in the book of Spreadable Media, the authors explain the simplicity of this concept; “the continuous process of repurposing and recirculation” (Jenkins, Ford, & Green, 2013). In other words, spreadability also means allowing the audience to become co-creators of content, where they can freely distribute the content. Next, to that, the book also mentions that spreadability is not only about how far it is spread but also about how deep the engagement involved within the community. As now you have understood this concept, you might be wondering “how do I create content that is spreadable?”. In the following part of the chapter, we will help you to create a killer content or message to be spreadable.

“If it doesn’t spread, it’s dead” (Spreadable Media; 2009)

How to create a spreadable content?

Spreadability will bring your message or content through communities and provide experiences to different individuals. Ultimately motivates sharing and encourage audiences to engage with the content and that’s exactly what you need in creating a community. So, in order for you to create content that is more likely to be spread, the most important thing is to understand what motivates your audience when they are looking for information. In other words, find out their needs and desires. Once you have fulfilled it, your audience will have the feeling to share it as well.

In order to increase their motivation to spread your content, you need to have the following factors:

1. Availability – your content must be available when and where the audiences want it. So, post your content or share your idea in the right platforms for the right audience, such as LinkedIn for business purposes.

2. Accessible – making content easy for audiences to access and use. Remember to produce content with a format that is easy to share to encourage more point of access, such as pdf or an mp4.

3. Reusable – it can be easily reusable in multiple ways, which encourages open-ended participation, so people can use it again.

4. Relevant – it needs to be relevant to a variety of audiences. Always seek out what’s on your audience mind or their needs, and fill the gap with your killer content.

Above all, what we advise you is to create reactive content: write content that triggers positive high arousal emotions and makes sure that your headlines evoke curiosity and awe. You can include stories as they can make any piece of content engaging, memorable and shareable.

Sharing is caring

How big is your network? Do you have 100 connections? 1000? Over a million? Probably not. The average Facebook user has around 150 connections (Simmons 2015). Important to note, however, is that everyone has their unique network with their own personal connections who you have never met. When you write your content you often reach your network. But how do you get your network to share your message to people who have never met you? In other words, how do you make your content shareable? In this chapter, we will give seven reasons as to why people share their content.

1. Social validation. People are programmed to follow a group and a pattern. In a study called "The Power of Likes” (Pearce Stevens, 2011), it was proven that 32% was more likely to upvote a pre-liked post. People are more comfortable in giving appreciation for something that is already popular.

2. Entertainment. Jonah Berger (2013) did a study to see which emotion was the most shareable. To do this he looked at 7000 articles from the New York Times. His conclusion was that positive news was getting shared more than other emotions. People like to give good news to others and don't want to ruin someone's day by flooding their newsfeed with negative news.

3. Practical value. People have always shared stories. Even cavemen told stories to each other about their hunts and adventures. They helped each other by giving to tips. We still check if our stories are useful to this day. A study conducted by de NYT insight Group (2014) found that 94% of people check if the content they are sharing is useful for the receiver. Tip: share your experiences and create tutorials on how to handle certain problems that you face.

4. Beliefs and causes. People are more likely to share content that will help define themselves to others, with 68 per cent of people share to show who they are and what they care about, according to Berger (2013). 84% of people actually share content of causes that they support. Takeaway: research your target audience to discover the needs of your users. Also, ask your users to share more about themselves and their causes.

5. Incentive. People often share something and expect something in return. This can be done through a shout-out or a coupon. Takeaway: create incentives by organising giveaways and actively respond to your users.

6. Aesthetics. Make sure that the content you are posting is easily scannable. You need to avoid big boxes of text. Takeaway: Use subheads and bullets. Break big blocks of texts into smaller paragraphs. Choose a font that makes the text easy to read, so that people spend time comprehending the actual message rather than trying to read the words.

Time to go viral

I f you look back at your day and ask yourself how much advertising you have consciously perceived, how much of these do you actually remember? If you look at your daily routine, there is a constant stream of advertising, be it on the radio, on posters, in the newspaper or on television. The result is an overload of impressions so that one very quickly switches more or less to "draught" - there are almost one hundred television stations, over 200 radio stations, almost 2000 different newspapers and magazines and over 400,000 billboards - and then there is the entire Internet advertising. But how are you supposed to reach a potential customer if he doesn't even notice the advertising anymore?

The targeted advertisement is much more effective when it comes to bringing in an audience. Personal contacts are the new magic words in marketing. Because of the enthusiastic recommendation or the helpful tip of a good friend usually shows more advertising effect than an elaborate cinema spot or an expensive advertising campaign. So what you should focus on is how to create word-of-mouth. In other words: how to create viral content?

Especially for you as a young professional, word-of-mouth marketing can be very helpful. If you are just starting to build up your business, the starting capital is quickly gone. There is rarely any room left to invest in advertising. And actually, people listen more to their peers than to advertisements. Therefore, word-of-mouth marketing is an economic opportunity to make itself a name: it has a very powerful impact because it can increase the interactions your community can have with you. So it can be a really good start to count on it. According to Jonah Berger (2013), there are 6 key factors that can create word-of-mouth through your audience:

· Social currency: the better something makes people look, the more likely they will be to share it. So be careful about your content (with substance as with form)

· Triggers: things that are top of mind (accessible) are more likely to be top of the tongue. So think about trends that can interest your target audience.

· Emotion: when we care, we share. So, high arousal emotions increase sharing. Think about the personal stories of your early adopters and care about it.

· Public: the easier something is to see, the more likely people are to imitate it.

· Practical value: people share useful information to help others.

· Stories: Marc Zuckerberg story can carry messages and ideas. Maybe yours as an upcoming startup will do the same.

Those factors can help you create virality also meaning a fast spreadability of content on the Internet and social networks. Regarding those factors, we wanted to give you some ideas of relevant posts you can use to make people share. There are12 different categories of posts you can rely on to reach your target audience but we will talk about the most useful for you, those which will help you increase sharing on social media. (Wondwesen, Tafesse, Anders Wien; 2017) The best, generally, is to alternate those types of posts not to get your audience bored. We decided to give you some examples from the startups Shazam, Just Eat and Asos (UK startup success stories):

Emotional brand posts: they focus on your consumers' emotions and can employ laden language, storytelling and a lot of time humour. It is a way for you to be closed to your target audience. For instance, Shazam wanted to post something funny concerning the numbers of Shazam of Camila Cabello.

Educational brand posts: they teach information to your community. You can make them know what your startup idea is about by explaining it in details or just tell them about something new. In the following example, Shazam gives an information about Hugh Jackman next special performance.

Experiential brand posts: they focus on the experience you create for your consumer. It is a way to draw their attention to embodied actions toward your startup. For you, it is a very good way to have behavioural responses and not just emotional ones. Shazam chose every week the artist of the week thanks to what its community is “shazaming” on the application.

Current event: they talk about popular cultural events, popular holidays or special days, sometimes even about the weather or the seasons. It is a way to connect with the everyday life of your community. As an example, Just Eat relied on the Black Friday.

Personal brand posts: thanks to those types of posts, you can concentrate on creating a relationship with your consumer. Those posts focus on their personal relationships therefore on family, friendships or even anecdotes of life. Here, Asos focus on an anecdote of life which is finding love.

Brand community posts: with those types of posts, you reinforce your brand’s online community as you try to create community identification and engagement. They aim at recruiting new members or enhancing community participation. For instance, Just Eat was the partner of X Factor and relied on the news of this TV show to engage its community.

The Psychology behind sharing

Why do people pass on information, content or recommendations to others? First of all, because the content has a real benefit for them. Almost all articles on the Internet essentially refer to a study by the New York Times Insights, "The Psychology of Sharing: Why do people share online? This was published a few years back but still seems to be the standard work in this respect. The study, commissioned by the New York Times, is specifically concerned with the motivation behind the sharing of content on the Internet: „Understanding the motivational forces behind the act of sharing will help marketers get their content shared.”

First of all, the authors make it clear that sharing and recommending results from deeply human needs and have taken place at all times. In the information age, however, distribution and frequency have changed. We all distribute more information than we did a few years ago. We use significantly more sources. We reach more people. We share content more frequently and at a much faster pace. Motivations for sharing content:

● help other people by providing them with valuable information

● make others feel entertained

● to give others a feeling for what is important to them, to present themselves in the way they would like to be seen

● self-affirmation, meaning and identity building

● support ideas, marks and movements, which are important to me

● communicate to others the image that I was the first to know about something

In most cases, several of the aspects mentioned may play a role. Even if I want to entertain someone, I probably do not do so for purely altruistic reasons. I want him to realize that it's me telling him the joke or showing the funny picture - preferably first of all. In general, younger target groups tend to share "funny" articles, photos and videos. The older the target group, the lower the share quota for such content. So anyone who has a fan base on Facebook that is mostly older than 35 should not compulsively try to produce funny content. Tana Yuki (2016) has published an interesting graphic that deals with different types of content and how they are shared in different target groups. This study goes deeper than the one in the previous part as you can see what type of content attract what type of people. You can use this graphic to identify what kind of content your target group attract. If your target audience is between 18 years and 24 you have to produce funny content that your content is going viral for example.

Best practice from

In all this chapter, we talked to you a lot about how to create a spreadable content and what type of posts you can use to do so. We talked to you a little about storytelling and how it can be a good strategy to create shareable content for your community.

Therefore, the best practice of this chapter would be about how a startup can use storytelling - and actually, they do that a lot. Indeed, the founder of Dailymotion wanted to share videos with his friends. The one of Blablacar was looking for a cheap way to go from Paris to La Rochelle. Even Stasher, the startup we introduced you to a previous chapter, had a good story to tell. And half of the startups in Silicon Valley were born in a garage (Lagarde; 2016). What you have to keep in mind is that the authenticity of those stories is not really important. What we mean is that you can have a little story about how your startup was created. But what is new is that now you can build your marketing strategy on this story. Let’s see how Blablacar did so – all of the following information come from their website.

In this chapter, you learned who your main stakeholders are and how to participate in your network, how to interact with them, as well as to make them engaged with you. To illustrate the importance to connect with your stakeholders and to networking, we created a device. We advise you to see the video we have made at first and. Then, we will explain to you more about this “Idea Sphere”.

Frédéric Mazzella discovered the principles of carpooling at the end of the '90s when he was a student in Standford (California). He was going every morning to the University with friends by taking the “carpool lanes”. Thanks to those lanes, he earned a lot of time as there was always a lot of traffic jam on the other lanes. Once back in Paris, he gave up his car. When he wanted to go back to the Vendée region for Christmas, he faced busy trains and never found any place inside. What he thought at that moment was to find a car which can do this travel so he can share the cost of it. But it was nearly impossible to find any information about it on the Internet. It is finally his sister who drove it to La Rochelle in her car.

Thanks to this experience, he thought about a comfortable solution for this kind of problem. During 72 hours, he thought about all of the possibilities that can enable a carpooling service synchronised through the Internet and mobile phones. People could, thanks to this, share trips all over the country, and not just with family members. In 2006, the adventure began. And they decided to use this storytelling to make the first contacts with their community. Nowadays, they still use it on the website to describe how the company was born. They also use it on the social networks: we let you see it by yourself if you were interested in this story.

We realised 2 months ago that when you are working in a startup, you always need to find new ideas. You are always doing brainstorming with your colleagues and you put on big white wall diverse ideas on post-it notes. The main problem is you might forget about certain ideas. But what we also figured out is that those ideas can be shared between startups and, therefore, be useful for other people. Indeed, the startup spirit is a spirit of ideas! That is why we thought about this Idea Sphere.

I t is a sphere that all your stakeholders can have - other young professionals and startups will certainly be the most interested. So how does it work? You just need to shake it and a new idea appears. It can be something you shake on a daily basis but, actually, you can do it as often as you want. What is also very cool with that object is that those ideas come from you and your stakeholders and you don't lose them when it disappears from the screen: it is saved in an open file that you also share with them.

T his device will not only provide you and your stakeholders some fresh ideas, but it will also allow you to connect with all of your stakeholders. You can, for instance, share an idea you found interesting in one of your social platforms with the #IdeaSphere and create a complete community around this object. Therefore, it is also a great tool for you in networking with your stakeholders.

To conclude, you learned in that chapter why and how to create spreadable content. We are sure that you know now how important is word-of-mouth and how to make your content shareable by your community. In the next chapter, we will try to introduce you how to analyse your community because it is now the next step you need to take. Indeed, you realised before how important it was to create a network (in the first 2 chapters) and to make your community engage with you (in chapter 3 and 4). Now it is time for you to see if your community is really engaged, to understand what can be enhanced in your strategy, and so on. This would be the goal of the 2 next chapters.

Team YouPro