Find your sharers
When I was at The Gottman Institute, we discovered the people who shared our content on social media weren't the people we were targeting.
We were targeting people in relationships, but our content was being shared by therapists. It makes sense when you think about it.
Who is likely to share relationship-focused content? It's not the people trying to improve their relationships. It's therapists wanting to reach those people. So we doubled down by creating content with therapists in mind.
My friend Derek Flanzraich had a similar experience at Greatist, a media company he founded for healthy-minded millennials. Who is likely to share recipes, workouts, and other healthy lifestyle content? It’s not the people actively trying to get healthier, but trainers, nutritionists, coaches, and chefs wanting to reach those people. Derek calls them “sharers."
Greatist still created content for their target audience, but made it easier for health and fitness professionals to share by tweaking headlines, adding infographics or design elements, and sometimes involving or even interviewing the experts themselves. It was key to their early success, and later acquisition by Healthline for many millions of dollars.
Rand Fishkin, founder of SparkToro, calls them “amplifiers." In this article, he argues that you shouldn’t ask, “What do my customers want?” Instead ask, “What do people who reach my customers want?”
Image via SparkToro
More shares means more reach, which means more awareness and ultimately more business.
As a therapist, who are your sharers? They could be other therapists, journalists, podcasters, authors, or influencers.