Sharing is caring

really it is .

I recently read a guest blog by Jackie Barrie, she wrote a lovely guest blog about email marketing and left a tip on the post that was very useful, read it here (sorry, can’t give away the punchline).

That lead me thinking along the avenue of what people share when they read and write on the web.

When I comment on a blog that doesn’t use Disqus as a commenting system (which allows me to add my comments also onto my facebook page and twitter updates) then I use Twit That. Twit That is just dragged and dropped into your browser toolbar and I share what I commenting on and what I am reading.

I did share a lot via social bookmarking, but lately that has fell by the wayside.

With the advent of Facebook liking, where you can ‘like’ a blog post anywhere on the web and it will update your facebook profile, I wondered if there would be anymore sharing on my blogs where it’s installed. Nope, apparently not.

People prefer what they feel comfortable with, tweeting, twit that – ing, social book marking. Yes, sharing is caring, but it has to work for the person that uses it and well as the person who owns the content.

And the ‘why‘ people share.

Funny gets shared a lot. Those cheezeburger lolcats I see zip around the web, along with jokes, petitions, fundraising requests and one or two poignant requests for help. I thought perhaps the most shared stuff has to have a request in it, but on further reflection the things that are most shared are the things that touch us. Either by our heartstrings and then our pursestrings, or through the desire to make someone smile and share something warm.

If that’s right I should be ending with a cat or burger-eating cat joke with a just giving page attached, but somehow I just haven’t got it in me!

Don’t construe that as an attempt for the poignant tug of the heartstrings share, it was acceptance that some posts like this one, will be ordinary, they won’t be shared and they won’t be liked to death over on Facebook. There’s nothing wrong with that, understand its nice to read something that’s easy on the heart, purse and soul every now and then.

In reading and writing content, not everything has to pack the killer punch. It does have to satisfy a need though.

Sarah