Content sharing makes the digital and analogue worlds go round - here's why

“People share to grow and enrich new and existing relationships,” says Chanel Hardman, country director for South Africa at ShareIt Group. “In a digital age, more people feel the need to make connections through mobile devices, whether that’s building and rebuilding connections with family and friends, or connecting with brands and causes that resonate with them.”

Although completed a while ago, a New York Times study still effectively captures the essence of why people want to share content: we now live in the Information Age, and we share more content from more sources with more people more often and more quickly.

People share content to bring value and entertaining content to others and to grow and nourish our relationships. They share content to define themselves, and to achieve self-fulfilment – and they share content to spread the word about causes or brands that are meaningful to them.

And in doing so they also share each other and discover new content, discover new commerce offers, discover new videos, and then use sharing platform as a way to find more things to share with their friends. “ShareIt is like the airdrop of the Android ecosystem, which is able to productise users’ core social behavior of sharing things with friends and sharing things with the family.”

“The deep and rich imperatives that inspire us to share content with our peers often need more functionality than short messaging services can offer,” says Hardman. “Consumers – particularly in regions where data is costly or in erratic supply – prefer to share rich multimedia content like large files, music, pictures and games via a platform that doesn’t require active WiFi, or demand mobile data.”

A peer to peer sharing format that is more social ecosystem than social platform, like ShareIt, helps the 69% of online consumers who want to share information because it allows them to feel more involved in the world, do so while being confident that they’re reaching an engaged and interested audience.

Just as important has having an engaging and targeted sharing platform is being mindful of how shared content is curated, Hardman adds. “Having a platform to share information with others doesn’t mean that we should dismiss the notion of creating and maintaining boundaries of what we share, whether it’s to protect reputation, mental health, or to carefully manage just how much the world out there has access to each individual’s information.

“That’s why an app-based environment that lets users manage their own connections so that people with similar interests can share content with audiences that they intend to connect with, is so meaningful,” she continues.

With the world needing, making and finding new ways to connect with others and share their experiences and feelings in a post-pandemic environment, consumers are choosing the most innovative, effective and efficient ways to share their content. According to the 14^th edition of the AppsFlyer Performance Report released in 2022, ShareIt ranked fourth globally in terms of volume and power rankings within non-gaming categories, and seventh in in-app purchases, across its 2.4 billion downloads in more than 150 countries.

More than an instant content-sharing platform, ShareIt provides opportunities for brands to connect with targeted audiences who have already expressed a resonance with their brand or industry, achieving exceptional return on investment.

For example, in 2021, ShareIt ran a campaign for a well-known streaming company with the aim of driving mass traffic to its site, and in turn, driving sign ups. The campaign angle “Discover a universe …” resonated perfectly with ShareIt’s users and the product offering that ShareIt offers. On just one day, the campaign delivered more than 310,000 impressions on a premium ad unit, creating mass reach and awareness.

On a smaller ad unit, data shows that users with ‘intent’ or higher interest in the campaign engaged with this ad unit, and this part of the execution delivered higher than usual click through rates compared to other campaigns.

“Users appreciate advertising when it resonates with them and the creatives are well thought through,” says Hardman. “The average click through rate on the placement was 3.15% across all units - almost four times higher than industry standard.”

With people’s need to share and engage with content being as old as the ages, and the quest for a meaningful and accessible platform that offers an engaging user experience to do this continuing, despite the numerous options available, users will continue to choose the service that responds to their needs efficiently, and appropriately.