No matter what it is, a local business closing, a natural disaster, or a man-made disaster, one thing is for certain: bad news travels faster than good news on social media. Somebody shares, Likes, or comments on some tragic story and suddenly it’s all over your newsfeeds because it seems like everyone is doing it.
The speed of bad news online is just the time it takes to make one click.
Meanwhile, good news gets a very small portion of shareable activity. It’s the same click – and opportunity to add your own pithy comments – as bad news but few seem to take advantage of that ability.
We see this a lot with local business closing announcements, be it a restaurant, a retail store, or anything else ‘mom & pop-ish.’ When the small business posts on Facebook they are soon to be closing there will be hundreds of comments and other interactions stating “Oh, that’s too bad!”or You’re my favorite place, I am going to miss you!” or “L”
What were these hundreds of bad news commenters doing when they were supposedly enjoying the store’s products or the diner’s French fries? Were they sharing the content of the business, checking in when they were there, or posting filtered pics of the plates of pancakes? Probably not.
What more consumers need to do is what we call Share Then Like. Share the good news then Like the content. Sharing is a much more powerful tool, whether it is a Share on Facebook, a Retweet on Twitter, a combination of both on YouTube, or similar action across the other platforms, than simply clicking a Like button.
It took all the thought for me to hit the * while typing this as it does for me to Like something. If I Share something it allows me to add my opinions and thoughts to the content thereby further influencing my friends and followers. TWEET THIS
This is how audiences of audiences are reached – which is always the goal of social media – and its how things go viral.
It’s also the responsibility of the business to create a shareable environment with your content and through your IRL business. Here are some things you can do:
1. Post real world calls to action for customers to post photos, check-in, and interact with your business in your store, in your personal conversations, and even on your receipts. TWEET THIS
2. Make it easy for the audience to find you online by publishing the full addresses of your web and social locations. Putting F and T logos in your ads is useless. TWEET THIS
3. Pay attention to who is interacting with you on social – good or bad news – and interact with them as your brand page or account. TWEET THIS
4. Say ‘Thank You’ to your fans and followers more than you think you should. Gratitude goes a very long way. TWEET THIS
Thank you (see?) for the time today and let us know any time if we can do anything to help you reach more of your customers and prospects than you currently are!
UPDATE to #ShareThenLike
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