A few months ago I storifyied some posts about the "Psychology of Sharing" report from The New York Times. Not having been there for the presentation, I captured what seemed to be the more salient tweets from the event. Now, I ran across the actual presentation (hat tip John Porcoro) and there are some great nuggets I missed. Specifically, they identified key motivations about why people share. At it's most basic, it's about relationships:
- bringing valuable and entertaining content to others
- defining ourselves to others
- grow and nourish our relationships
- self-fulfillment
- to get the word out about causes or brands
For me, the motivation for why someone does something speaks volumes. If you are a business or organization wanting to address the needs and challenges of prospective customers/clients, understanding the underlying motivations will help everyone be successful.