I had an interesting conversation with my wife yesterday about sharing items on Facebook. It was the result of this p0st about politics, which was reshared multiple times by friends, family and complete strangers. She’s one of those people who rarely shares things. She doesn’t want to spam people with the things she likes and would rather talk to them one on one if she discovers an article, restaurant or deal that she believes they’ll enjoy. I have a different opinion.
I’m not sure what my friends and family will like. I think I know them but people always manage to surprise you. I’d rather share a small amount of things that I really enjoy with my entire social network and allow them to read them or not. I also believe this is a good way of repaying someone who wrote excellent content or provided a good service. I want to reward them by exposing them to more potential customers and this is a great way of doing so.
Gal’s Note – I’m clearly biased here since I want people to share my content and expose my work to more readers. However, I do this with more than just my own content.
No Overshares Please
I do try to not share too much. Doing so risks losing social capital because it seems like you’re just spamming at that point. Posting once a week about an awesome new restaurant you discovered will definitely get my attention, if you post twice a day about the great food you’re eating, I’m just going to ignore you. I disbelieve that every single restaurant you go to deserves my attention, same for every single show you see or every single article you read.
Ultimately, I like living in a world where sharing is the norm. I’ve discovered so many new things I now enjoy thanks to the sharing of friends. Everything from a new job to new restaurants and movies. I think of it as a way of letting the world know of good things in life and encouraging more people to create great products, content and services.
So go my cultists! Go out and SHARE!
