The Awesome Power of Sharing

Our mothers usually teach us to share at an early age. “It’s important,” they tell us. “You need to share your treats or your toys with friends,” they encourage. And sharing becomes ingrained in our way of life as we share food with neighbors, donate to charities that help people, and pay taxes to governments who build infrastructure and programs to deliver assistance for people who need everything from health services to military protection.
 
Sharing takes on an entirely additional meaning in the digital age. With Facebook or Twitter many folks “like” or “share” photos, videos, or articles they enjoy or agree with. We want our friends to know our entertainment preferences, philosophies or political opinions. And we hope our friends will like the things we enjoy or ideas we prefer.
 
As an author, “sharing” has an even more profound meaning. You see, new and relatively unknown authors don’t have either the budgets or publicity heft of more established writers. So, we use social media to economically spread the word about our stories and the activities we undertake to help make more readers aware of our books.
 
When you ‘like’ one of our posts, it’s very gratifying. We put lots of time and effort into researching articles and building memes we think will be of interest. But it is even more powerful when you choose to share one of our posts – especially posts that publicize author events or public appearances. Why is that even more important for us?
 
Your ‘shares’ help us to get our word out to not only you but to your friends as well. Even more important, your friends often like the same things as you and they let their friends know. So when you share an event somewhere, your friends in that area will appreciate you making them aware of an activity you support. They often attend such events because they value your opinion and suggestion.
 
Every share also helps us grow our Facebook algorithms -those mysterious technology powers that determine which messages you and your friends can see. Surveys show our social media contacts actually see about a quarter of our posts. The rest fall off into a cyber void rarely to be seen again. When you ’share’ a post -particularly when you also make a short personal comment to accompany the post - these algorithms are usually pleased and deliver more of your shared posts to more of your contacts!
 
More people see our messages. More people act on your suggestions. And more people become acquainted with our names, our books, and our activities to promote book sales. As authors, we thank you for every “like.” We thank you with even more gratitude every time you share a post with your friends. You truly have an awesome power to help us succeed!

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