-Uncertainty: Pick any news station. Seriously, any of them. This stuff sells.
-Shared fantasy: This can be G to R rated fantasy. Dream vacations to dream hookups with anime Star Wars characters dressed as furries...well I guess that would just be Chewbacca..scratch that, but you get the point.
-Humor- You know those videos of people falling off of buildings, flying off of rope swings, catapulting off of overexcited trampolines, being attacked by the collateral damage of a 5 year old trying to break a piñata with a baseball bat? They are humorously satisfying and pleasurable regardless of the pain factor. Humans, what masochists.
-Unfinished content- There are various artists that you can find on any social media platform where they thrive off of creating large projects that are released in small bits at a time. The trick is that it is interesting enough that their targeted audience for them to wait for the next round of sharing and will even pay for the content that is being created. One of the best and most unique examples that comes to mind are artists and couple Mitch Gobel and Sally Mustang who together create an ongoing art exhibit about sexual experience and defying social norms.
Mystery- Paranormal things, haunted objects or houses, Netflix series, clowns...Trump...
-Timelines- The current presidential election is one timeline that has everyone spreading and sharing until their brains explode and even their mothers won’t support them anymore. No more likes for you, Bobby, this isn’t you, those liberals have brainwashed you.
-Activism- Feminism, Black Lives Matter, the current pipeline controversy on Native American reservations, LGBTQ rights, vegetarian and veganism, and the list goes on.
Now, when comparing this to a list that our COMM 339 class created together, that we believed was most shareable and spreadable from our perspectives in the social media world, you can see some similarities based on the genre rather than the specifics of what is shareable. Each personal list will vary depending on each student’s experience with social media, their level of involvement, and specific interests in either platform or content, but the collective list as a class looks as follows:
-Practical or Life Hacks - Facebook is one of the main platforms that shares content like this in super short and inedible shareable videos or picture collaborations. There are specific brands or content creators that have recognized this shareable nature of this genre of social media culture if you will.
-Relatable or Personal- Tumblr poetry feeds or sappy relationship tweets.
-Cute- Animal videos, baby videos (I don’t know why), cutesy relationship things that are just depressing if you’re single, etc are all under the cute umbrella.
-Shocking or Breaking- This is just renaming Uncertainty from the previous list.
-Scary- More clowns....Trump. Okay, okay I digress.
-Celebrity- For some reason people still are interested in Keeping Up With the Kardashians.
-Contests/Giveaway- Free stuff? Count us in. Even if nothing is truly free, we like to believe this Utopian falsehood anyway.
-Trolling -Also called “roasting”. Extra crispy to the point of disintegration is the desired roast level.
We can see a few consistencies, but quite a few dissimilarities just between the interpretation of shareability from two groups who study the same type of social media content. This may be due to age, qualification at this point in life, the types of social media that we are interested in personally, and the list goes on. According to Spreadable Media, all media needs certain qualities in order to be spreadable. It needs to be “available when and where audiences want it”, “portable”, “easily reusable in a variety of ways”, and “part of a steady stream of material”. This isn’t a guaranteed formula of success of course, but the success rate of the shareability of posts is greatly increased if these aspects are implemented.
I am able to create my own list of aspects that I personally think are the most shareable or spreadable on most social media platforms Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, etc, by examining what culture means to me in a social media sense. According to Fiske, “audiences “pluralize” the meanings and pleasures [mass culture] offers, evade or resist its disciplinary efforts, fracture its homogeneity or coherence, raid or poach upon its terrain” and that people produce culture when they integrate products and texts into their everyday lives,” (Spreadable Media). Whether it is mass culture or popular culture depends on who is in control. “Under the producer’s control, it is mass culture. Under the audience’s control, it is popular culture,” (Spreadable Media). My list would look as follows:
Cultural Connections - A great example of this which is currently happening is Wurstfest in New Braunfels, Texas. There is a huge cultural connection that people have with each other, on and off of social media, based off of familiarity, experience, and enjoyment.
Tragedy and Love- Just read ancient social media. Yes, I am talking about Shakespeare. Nothing has changed.
Politically Stimulating Topics/Issues- Politically stimulating issues will always, always be shareable as long as there are polarized political parties, religions, social classes, genders, etc. This aspect can extend towards the Activism aspect previously mentioned.
Okay, it can be funny too...
Social Circles- Depending on the social media community that is interacting, the level of shareability and spreadability changes. This is similar to the cultural connections aspect. The spreadability and shareability of my posts varied depending on how it relates to my multiple social circles; high school circles, college circles, friend circles, interest circles, and the like.
My list is shorter, but my aspects have more of an umbrella functionality rather than being specific. Each aspect can branch out into other channels that are connected by relevancy and cultural influence. Shareability and spreadability is different for each social media user, but if the content itself is grounded in the basic principles described in Spreadable Media, you’ll experience more successful spreading and sharing much quicker.
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