What & Why People Share On Social Media (Infographic)

The social media landscape is changing. Or, in other words, it’s like the polar icecaps of Facebook are melting, and in the runoff we’re excavating cavernous content mills, stalagmites of rampant egotism and indulgent self-consciousness, and a veritable cesspool of cat videos. The landscape’s changing so drastically – and now so quickly – that experiments like Mat Honan’s (“liking” everything on Facebook for two days) are totally legitimate as both performance art and communications research.

What people are sharing and how they’re sharing it is changing. Changing fast. A new infographic from Go-Gulf, a web design team based in Dubai, has gathered the latest data, which is now available in this newly released (July 2014) social media infographic. Here are the highlights…

What People Like to Share on Social Networks

• 43% Pictures
• 26% Opinions
• 26% Status Update of what and how they are doing
• 26% Links to articles
• 25% Personal recommendations of things they like
• 22% News items
• 21% Links to other websites
• 21% Links to other people’s posts
• 19% Status update of what they are feeling
• 17% Video clips
• 9% Plans for future activities, trips and updates

The Social Media Strategy Takeaway: Nearly one year ago, Facebook users were uploading 350 million photos per day to Facebook, according to internet.org (via Business Insider). That’s not including Instagram. And that figure is a year old – a time during which Facebook has only continued to grow. Instead of posting your content as a link, try posting a photo with a link in the caption. Traditionally, photos have been known to perform better than links on Facebook – though the rules have changed.

Why Do People Share on Social Networks?

• 84% Share because it is a way to support causes or issues they care about.
• 78% Share information online because it lets them stay connected to people they may not otherwise stay in touch with.
• 73% Share information because it helps them connect with others who share their interests.
• 69% Share information because it allows them to feel more involved in the world.
• 68% Share to give people a better sense of who they are and what they care about.
• 49% Share information on products they like with a hope to change opinions or encourage action.

The Social Media Strategy Takeaway: When posting content to Facebook, take a strategic perspective, and ask yourself, “Why would someone want to ‘like’ or ‘share’ this post with a friend via Timeline?” One approach to determining the potential value of your post would be to start at the top of this list, and aim for the majority of your content to fit into the ‘why’ criteria in the top half of the above list.

Go-Gulf’s Social Media Infographic

We’ve only covered the tip of the iceberg. View the full infographic from Go-Gulf below. Have a question or comment? Let’s talk in the comments section below.

Infographic by- GO-Gulf.ae

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