Comments on: What Makes People Pass Along Your Content?

By: CEC Insider » Inception: A “Thrilling” Lesson for Communicators

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[...] a recent study indicates that stakeholders are 30% more likely to share or endorse something they discover – or, [...]

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[...] mind of college students. Recently, I conducted a brief survey of 184 college students. Similar to an earlier study I did on adult consumers, the purpose of this survey was to understand college students’ online social activities and [...]

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[...] relevant messages that customers consider worthy of passing along. My own research found that the top reason for passing along information is the relevance of the information to those you want to share it with, and that factor ranked [...]

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Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:52:05 +0000

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By: Davion

Davion — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:16:35 +0000

Hey this is great research! I somewhat expect some of the answers, but didn't quite expect the part about people being more likely to pass on info they discover themselves rather than info passed from a friend. I suppose, when I consider it, I tend to be more likely to do just that. I think we take pride in that which we discover for ourselves and we often want to be a source of fresh new content for our friends, which is great strategy… as long as we remember to ask them for their advice as well!

By: Yuping Liu-Thompkins

Yuping Liu-Thompkins — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 11:12:54 +0000

JF, sorry I've been out of the digital world a few days and couldn't get back to your question sooner. From what I can gather from the responses, self-expression seems to go hand in hand with the other reasons, which makes it more like (3). For example, some individuals mentioned that they specifically pass on information related to music or news, reflecting what they use to express themselves. It appears that self-expression is the one extra push that makes information more likely to be passed on. However, judging from the most often reasons cited as listed in the blog, connection with others seems to be more of a driving force than self-expression. In other words, we pass on information not necessarily to say who we are but to connect with others (in a helpful or entertaining sort of way). But this could be partially due to the way we asked the questions, which are more related to personal word-of-mouth. But sharing information can also happen in a very public way, such as through a published article or a blog. In those contexts, I suspect self-expression can play a stronger role.

By: jfbelisle

jfbelisle — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 21:27:53 +0000

Yuping, thanks for the reply, I totally agree that simplicity (parsimony) is always better off than accumulating reasons (dimensions) that are not that useful (add very few variance explained). My point was more an extension of your survey, not a correction. As pointed out by @David, I was trying to clarify with you and others and ask if you would consider “the desire to express ourselves” as:

(1) A predictor (an antecedent) of the five reasons you mentioned
(2) A necessary condition for the five reasons you mentioned
(3) A complement of these five reasons.

Personally, my answer would lie between (1) and (2), but I am really not sure. Any idea?

By: Yuping Liu-Thompkins

Yuping Liu-Thompkins — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 02:38:57 +0000

JF, thanks for the comment. Yes, I do believe self-expression is important. In fact, relevant/interesting to oneself has also been mentioned by some respondents as a reason they pass along content. That partially reflects the self-expression aspect. The five factors I listed in the blog were the top factors mentioned. There are quite a few other considerations too, such as this relevant to self aspect, source credibility, security, whether it is professionally related, whether it is inspiring or encouraging, etc. But these were not mentioned as widely among the study participants as the five factors listed in the blog. This does not mean that they are not important factors, however, given our sample size of 156. With a large enough population, these other factors can affect a large number of people as well.

By: jfbelisle

jfbelisle — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 22:36:24 +0000

Nice synthesis Yuping. Nice point pointed by David also. Based on David's comments, I was wondering if the “desire to express ourselves” was not more of an important predisposition of why people pass along, which would reformulate David's comments as “I want to express myself, so I pass along messages and I pass along the messages that I consider: (1) relevant to those sharing information with, (2) humor, (3) relevance to oneself, (4) important, (5) unique.” Any other formulations?

By: Yuping Liu-Thompkins

Yuping Liu-Thompkins — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 23:49:15 +0000

David, thank you for your insight. My post was originally intended from a business angle. Your take from a philosophical point of view is interesting. I don't claim to be an expert on philosophical perspectives. I would say that one of the findings from my study is actually consistent with what you said. One of our finding is that people are most likely to pass on a piece of information to someone when they believe it is going to be relevant to that person. Why do people do that? Because they want to be helpful (e.g., “be Kind” in your term). Sharing information to shape opinion does exist too, as in the case of political lobbying or social issue-related word-of-mouth. But I think sharing information to be kind is very much a reality too.

By: David Hakala

David Hakala — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:24:26 +0000

This is all very.. well, no, it's not interesting at all. A specialist (in social media marketing or whatever) is one who learns more and more about less and less until eventually he knows everything about nothing.

I do not share information in order to shape opinions. I do it to be Kind. I am Kind in order to stimulate the release of hormones that make me feel good. That's all there is to it.

Examining and quantifying the past only creates expectations of the future, sources of disappointment and suffering. Past and future do not exist, they are Delusions. They are wastes of one's Attention.