Why social sharing is the world’s most awesome content marketing metric

The most important metric for any digital marketing effort is conversions. We all like money. But AFTER conversions, I have a radical idea of the most powerful metric for your content marketing: Social sharing.

Social sharing has been unfairly maligned as a “vanity metric” but I think it’s critical for most businesses because it drives the right behavior in a marketing department. Let’s dive into the majesty of social sharing today.

The business benefits of social sharing

There are three extraordinary benefits of social sharing (which simply means that somebody is sharing your content on their own social media channels):

First, when people share your content, they are making a statement to the world that they support whatever the content is about. In a virtual way, they’re standing up and saying “this means something to me, and I want it to mean something to you.”

In other words, the act of social sharing represents organic advocacy, and my friends, that is certainly the best marketing you could ever hope for.

The second big advantage is that people react to what is shared on social media. More than 75 percent of adults say their purchases are influenced by what they see…