Why do people share on Social Media?

Sharing on social media defines the existence of Brands, Corporates, and Celebs. Give your timeline a minute and you will be thrown with news or image or video liked by your cousin or a post promoted by a brand.
Right from Motivational post of the day to memes and latest news, you have it all on your timeline.
But what is it that makes people share things on Social media? Here are a few explanations for this kind of behavior.

a. Sharing defines individualr
According to the New York Times report, 68% of people share to present themselves in a certain light, with their actions they define the way theu wish to be seen on social media by others. Hence by sharing posts like Cos rescued from well, dog adoption videos, people present their compassion for other beings at display.

84% of people have stated that they share certain stuff on Social Media as a way to show their support to the socio-economical issues and brands that share their views.

People voluntarily share thoughts, ideas, news, jokes, etc. to show themselves in perfect light – show the best version of themselves or version they want to become.

b. Share to entertainr
Over 49% of people share content to entertain other people with content that already brought them joy. When an individual is exposed with content and he/she relates with the content the first thing that comes to their mind is whether others will think the same. And this is exactly how you find commonalities with others. When you share content enough times, people who have found it funny and useful will form a relationship with it and sharer and come to expect it in the future.

c. Share to convincer
People share things on social media with the intent to convince others or sway others in their thinking. The best example would be Political opinions. People share messages to gather masses to act for or against a certain law or political figure.

By sharing content like political essays, views, experiences, people express themselves strongly about a certain thing and with Social media it now has the potential to reach thousands and millions.

d. Share to convey an emotional state.
People share post to also showcase how a certain event or experience has impacted their life. Certain emotions – sadness, fear, disgust, joy, and surprise are easily recognizable and as such easiest to convey and spread. Rare is a situation when people don’t laugh or share content that has child laughing, cute animals, bus driving homeless person, people share food with the homeless.

It is interesting to note that sharing happens immediately when a user is consuming an emotional piece of content.

e. Share to connectr
Social media is helping people to stay connected in this fast-moving world. Sharing important events like wedding, outing with family, the fun you had in the club last night, etc. can reach a large number of people who care enough about the couple in question and maybe wouldn’t have another way of hearing the news.

78% of people share on Social Media to stay connected with people, such as family, school friends, college mates, colleagues, etc. Well, it is not only sharing but also tagging specific people in posts, the thought is to communicate the particular message that would be interesting or related to that person.

To conclude, why we shared this post?
It is to help Brands/Corporates/Celebrities understand how the content for your brand/product/personal can be shared by aligning with the views of the information is consumed.