The question I keep coming back to lately.
This is something I’ve mentioned from time to time in my teaching and consulting over the years, but it’s come up more often recently: is it shareable?
Not “will people read it.”
Not even “will people click it.”
Would someone actually forward this, post it, or bring it up to a friend?
Good communication gives value without asking for anything in return. That’s what earns you the right to make an ask later and actually get a response. But “value” is a vague word. It’s easy to claim and hard to measure. Shareability is the test that makes it concrete. If something is worth sharing, it’s worth sending. If it isn’t, you’ve probably just added to the pile.
I’m working with a faith-based professional organization right now that has a summit coming up this fall. The easy version of that email writes itself: it’s happening, here’s the date, please register. Nobody is forwarding that to a friend. So instead we’ve been asking what we could say about this event that would actually be worth passing along, whether or not the person receiving it ever plans to attend.
I’m also working with a spiritual director who’s rethinking her emails and social posts the same way. Instead of listing her services, she’s sharing some of what she’d actually offer someone she was working with directly. It builds trust and shows her expertise without asking for anything, and when someone shares it, she gets new followers without having to chase them down.
So here’s what I’d encourage you to do this week. Go back through your last few emails, your social posts, your website’s blog, even the print pieces you paid good money for. For each one, ask if someone would actually share it. Forward it. Pass it on to a friend.
If the answer is no, you’ve got a gap. Keep sending things nobody wants to pass along and eventually people stop opening your emails, following your accounts, or reading what you print. That drop-off doesn’t announce itself. It just happens. It may have already happened.
More on this next week.
In the meantime, go disrupt something,
Christen
