The more we share, the more we read

The more we share, the more we read. You would expect that a

person would share only an article that he found compelling. This is another

fallacy. People share for all kinds of reasons. Haile found no correlation

between the amount of time spent with an article and its number of shares,

once again shattering the assumption that such articles have hit their target. It

may be more likely that people share articles based on their headlines and

source. From these factors, they make a guess about how pertinent the

content is to their audience.

This seems like a common sense assump-

tion, but it may not be true. You assume that the reader clicks the article with 

the intention of reading it. This may be true, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that 

the reader actually spends time reading that article. She may glance at it and 

move on. The content marketer rejoices in the number of clicks he gets, but the 

reader may actually make no connection with the brand. The content marketer 

then creates more content just like it in the mistaken belief that his reader was 

engaged. You can see how this would negatively impact your entire content 

program.