“Should I ‘Like’ or Should I ‘Share’?” reminds me of a lyric from a band I grew up listening to. I’ll let you twist on that for awhile…feel free to comment if you think you know the band and/or the song.
Obviously that’s not what I’m writing about. It’s a serious question when it comes to social media. As a novice writer/blogger, you always think you have the next great piece that’s going to connect with the audience you’re trying to reach. Getting a “Like” on your piece is validation, but what we’re really hoping for is that a piece will catch on and go viral. Expectations are very low here as that rarely happens, but it DOES happen.
Social media is a funny thing. It connects us in a way that wasn’t possible before MySpace, Facebook, LinkdIn,Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, SnapChat, and others. Before social media became mainstream, there was a notion that we were all connected by no more than six degrees of separation (feel free to comment if you can name the lead actor in the movie, “Six Degrees of Separation”). I think social media has potentially reduced that number down to maybe three degrees of separation. I have no science to back this up, but that’s just my gut feeling from looking at the obvious. This takes me back to the question of, “Should I ‘Like’ or Should I ‘Share’?” Having 1,000 “Likes” on a published piece is affirmation, but it doesn’t necessarily make the piece go viral. However, if those 1,000 “Likes” turn into a 1,000 “Shares” and the process repeats itself through the six (or three) degrees of separation, your piece just went viral and probably being recognized on traditional media outlets.
So speaking for all writers and bloggers…if it’s worthy of a “Like”, it’s worthy of a “Share”. The idea is if you “Like” something, chances are others in your network will “Like” it too. I say “Share” it and give your “framily” and professional network a chance to “Like” it as well.
The question is…will you “Like” or will you “Share” this post? The next question is…can you get that tune out of your head that I referenced above?