An easy way to make website content shareable is by using “share this” functionality
I’ve written before about the concept of shareworthiness: creating content or tools of value to your target audience and making them easy to share. If you do this, then your audience will share it for you and spread the information on your behalf. When your audience shares your material, they are also endorsing it, which adds a layer of trust for their recipients.
An easy way to make website content shareable is by using “share this” functionality. You’ve seen the graphics on many sites that allow users to click a button to share the link and a description on social sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+. It’s an extension of the “email to a friend” concept that’s been around for years. Using a “share this” tool reminds visitors to take this step and makes it as easy as possible.
Doing some research, I was surprised to find this functionality missing from many pharma websites. I was particularly surprised that it wasn’t on some disease education sites, since the whole idea of these sites is to increase awareness.
Do Social Sharing Right
It is important that the text shared follows fair balance guidelines, as we all learned from the FDA letter to Novartis. This should be kept in mind during planning and implementation.
While having a Facebook page might not be right for every pharma brand, having content shared on Facebook by a fan can be very valuable. Using this approach, we have had great success for some of our clients. Providing shareworthy content and making it easy to share is one thing that pharmaceutical companies can do well – I urge marketers to take advantage of this approach. Do you agree?
(Image courtesy of webtoolkit4me.com).
About Eileen O'Brien
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Check out this study that found “web site pages displaying the Twitter share button get seven times the social media mentions compared with those that do not.”
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