One of the central benefits of social media is the ability to share content with just one or two mouse clicks. Your supporters are already sharing interesting content on Facebook. They’re retweeting it. They’re favoriting videos on YouTube as well.

All with one mouse click.

But even though sharing has gotten easier, actually getting people to share can feel like pulling teeth. And when when you see other non-profits getting thousands of views on YouTube with what seems like no effort, it’s downright frustrating.

So how do you get people to share your content?

5 tips on sharing

1. Accept that social media is not email

Having an email list of 80,000 people is a far cry from having an active, thriving community of fans. The same goes for the 5,000 fans you have on Facebook, especially if they fanned your Page only for a chance at winning a free iPod (yawn). It’s all about vitality. So stop thinking so much about accumulating numbers. Instead, start thinking about nurturing the 1% who are already raving fans.

2. Understand the power shift

If you’re thinking on some level (even subconsciously) that your job is to get people to do something, stop it. You can’t make people do anything today. Facebook, blogs and Twitter has tipped the power balance in favor of anyone with a blog who has something smart to say. The days of Mad Men are gone. Bloggers and Twitter junkies are now the new powerful media moguls. Twitter pummeled The New York Times last year. Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch have been supplanted by Perez Hilton.

3. Respect the blogger

The powerful new media folks I mentioned above? Yeah, they’re really smart, too. Respect that fact – or live to regret it. In other words, don’t hire an amateur do a mass copy-and-paste blogger outreach campaign.

4. Consider how you share

Think about the last time you shared a video on YouTube. How did you share it? Did you email it, tweet it or post it on Facebook? More important, why did you share it? Was it funny? Did it make you think of a specific person?

5. Give them the tools

Chances are you already have a growing number of supporters who talk you up at parties and on Facebook. What’s that? You don’t have a Facebook Page? OK, fix that. In fact, optimize all your social media for sharing. And make your fundraising easy to share, too.

What makes you share?

Cross-posted from JohnHaydon.com.

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