- Why Aristotle Would Have Nailed Digital Content
- What do we know about the Motivations Behind Sharing?
- What the Data Says About What Users Actually Want
- 3 Things that Marketing Pros Get Wrong About Sharing
- How to Work Out What Your Audience Shares and Why
- A Simple Way to Add ‘Shareability’ to Your Decision-making and Workflow
Everyone talks about “going viral,” but few digital teams stop to ask why people share in the first place. Even fewer dig into what their audience shares.
Sure, time is tight. And analytics dashboards don’t always give you clear answers. But if you don’t have a working theory of why your readers pass things on, you’re flying blind.
This post summarises the research on the common drivers behind digital sharing—and offers a simple framework to help you understand what makes your audience tick.
Why Aristotle Would Have Nailed Digital Content
Long before social media, Aristotle cracked the code for making ideas stick. At a time when few could read, public speeches were key. The Greek philosopher wanted to know what made them memorable and, therefore, shareable via word of mouth.
Despite the revolutions in literacy and communication over the past 2,500 years, you could argue that nothing in his prescription has changed:
- Ethical appeal (ethos): People are more likely to engage with content from a trusted, authentic source. Think: behind-the-scenes posts, expert insights, or a strong, consistent voice.
- Emotional appeal (pathos): Content that makes people feel something—joy, outrage, hope, surprise—is more likely to be remembered and shared. Memes, stories, and powerful visuals thrive on this.
- Logical appeal (logos): We also love content that teaches us something or helps us make sense of the world—infographics, how-to videos, and sharp, data-backed takes.
Source: Super ELA
Why do people share digital content?
Jonah Berger’s influential 2013 book Contagious, partly based on an analysis of the New York Times’ most emailed stories, identified six key drivers of shareability:
Social Currency: We share things that make us look clever, cool, or ahead of the curve.
Ex: The ‘White Lotus’ girls trip and why we can’t let go of our childhood friends – CNBC
Triggers: Content tied to everyday cues is more likely to get shared.
Ex: Can the weather affect our moods? – BBC News
Emotion: The stronger we feel, the more we share — especially awe, anger, surprise, or joy.
Ex: A baby hippo is going viral – and paying the price – BBC News
Public: If something is visible, it spreads. People copy what they can see.
Ex: ‘Most Shared’ on NYT.com and most other major news sites
Practical Value: Useful = shareable. People love to pass along things that help.
Ex: This Habit is Quiety Ruining Your Relationships – NYT.com
Stories. Facts fade. Stories are memorable.
Ex: At 14, I walked through the desert to reachhe US. My story didn’t end there – The Guardian
A health warning: STEPPS is very helpful, but works best when the goal is broad appeal and mass reach. Much sharing happens in private chats, small groups, or niche communities, where trust and timing matter more than emotion or visibility. It also doesn’t fully account for algorithms; some content spreads not because it’s inherently shareable, but because platforms boost it, especially if it’s divisive or provocative.
What the Data Says About What Users Actually Want
Berger’s research was based on sharing. But another aspect of social media is following. Hootsuite surveyed 6,000 social media users on what made them share and follow branded social media accounts. It’s an unusually rich source of insights, of which six stand out:
Corporate ego: 52 per cent are exhausted by self-promotional brand accounts. 1 in 3 would rather they didn’t exist at all!
Five deadly sins: The factors most likely to cause unfollows were: Clickbait – 76%, Boring – 68%, Inauthentic – 68%, Repetitive – 68%, Angling for metrics – 63%.
The trifecta of entertainment: Consumers enjoy branded content when it: ‘Tells or teaches me something new’ – 56%, ‘Makes me laugh’ – 55%, ‘Inspires me’ – 47%.
Why people follow: The most appealing things were ‘Communicating in a relatable and authentic way’, ‘Posting content that inspires me’, and ‘Having a compelling point of view within their area of expertise’.
The least important followability factor is ‘Maintaining an active social presence by consistently posting and interacting’.
Why people share: ‘I agreed with the content/perspective’ – 44%, ‘The post was informative’ – 29%, ‘The post was funny/entertaining’ – 27%, ‘The post was inspirational’ – 24%.
Takeaway: If you want to cut through, you need to do something useful.
Common Misconceptions About Why People Share and Follow
We often think of sharing as a way to spread content. But as Jonah Berger and other researchers point out, it’s much more than that. Sharing is social.
Every like, comment, repost, or DM is a way for people to say:
“This is who I am.”
“This made me think of you.”
“Let’s talk about this.”
It’s less about broadcasting, more about connection. But many marketers don’t see it that way.
According to a study by digital agency Orbit Media, when marketers and everyday users were asked the same questions about why people follow or share, the gap in perception was huge:
- Marketers overestimate the importance of a steady content stream
- They underestimate the value of helpful, relatable, or personal content
- And they often miss the fact that social media is still… social — driven by human connection, not just clever campaigns
People share to connect, not to consume. If your content doesn’t help them look good, feel something, or start a conversation, don’t be surprised if it goes nowhere.
How to work out what your audience shares and why
If you use a social media management tool like Sprout Social or Hootsuite, you can go into the analytics and order posts according to their share count. This is the simplest way to start the analysis.
Top-performing teams go further and regularly (at least monthly) spend quality time discussing what worked and what didn’t for top and bottom performers. This is the best way to identify the attributes that get content shared and to embed this thinking into team decision-making.
Time-poor teams may not have the resources to do this, at least not until the value of such analysis has been established. For these players, AI offers a helpful way in:
- Data: Usually, the only data you have on shareability is from social media accounts. Pick a platform and download a decent volume.
- Classification: Apply the STEPPS framework to the posts. If you are looking at a modest number of posts, do this manually. With higher volumes, upload the data and ask your LLM to do the classification for you.
- Analysis: Use a variety of prompts to pull out the patterns. These work well for me:
“Here are summaries of 5 high-performing and 5 low-performing articles. Help me identify what might explain the difference in performance, especially regarding emotional appeal, usefulness, or relatability?”
“Classify these posts according to Jonah Berger’s STEPPS categories and order the categories in terms of performance.”
“Based on this content performance data, what patterns can you identify about what gets shared most by our audience? Include topics, tone, headline structure, visuals, and emotion.”
Any of these approaches will get you thinking about ‘shareability’ and encourage you to start experimenting.
How to Build Shareability Into Your Team’s Workflow
Let’s face it: it’s all too easy to slip into broadcast mode — pushing out content without pausing to ask why anyone would care enough to share it. But if you want your content to travel, you have to think like the audience — not the publisher.
So how do you bake that thinking into your everyday process?
Add a “Shareability Check”: It doesn’t need to be complicated. Just a simple step in your content planning or story pitch process can make a huge difference. Something that stops the team mid-scroll and says: “Hang on — would you share this?”
One of the most effective tools? A story idea submission form with built-in prompts that force a shift in perspective.
Try questions like:
- Who is the audience?
(Not just demographics — what do they care about right now?) - Why would this resonate with them?
(What itch does it scratch — emotional, informational, identity-based?) - How can we frame it so it feels personal or relevant?
(Is there a human angle? A surprising twist? A familiar tension?)
That much would have been familiar to Aristotle. But because we live in a visual-first world, add:
- What’s the image, chart, quote card, or video that makes this most shareable?
Don’t just make content to publish — create content that travels through digital space by embedding relevance and emotion in the process from the start.