We have seen it over the years in every facet of our marketing efforts, and new research into what goes viral online further confirms it:
Folks pay attention to – and spread – what’s new and unique – what’s novel to them.
Want to know what people will share?
What’s new and unique.
Want to pepper your digital destinations with content worth sharing?
Focus on what’s new and unique.
Want to spike that water-cooler conversation, the kind that used to be limited to the water-cooler before social media made the world one big water-cooler?
Focus on what’s new and unique.
I’ve found that ReTweets tend to contain less common words than normal Tweets, and I’ve found that survey-takers highlight “news” as the most common type of content they share.
And he continues:
In our everyday lives we are exposed to many more stimuli than we could ever hope to consciously digest, so our minds have evolved to include a sophisticated filtering mechanism by which our attention is drawn only to the important bits. This selective attention can be triggered by things like hearing our name over the noise of a loud party, or by a change in something familiar. We’ve all had the experience of noticing something different about someone or something we see every day. Were it not for the difference, we would have never actively focused our attention on these things since they’re so common place.
What’s new and unique?
Well, breaking news, for one. Status updates of your friends, for another. Whatever relates to what your morning show is discussing right now, for a third.
What else is “novel” enough to drive attention and attraction for your websites?