Sharing the Love on Skype
Sharing interesting content online has become the norm for many website users and Skype now wants a piece of the action. The team at Microsoft have released a new “share” button for Skype users they hope that web developers will start to install on websites. It will be very similar to other share buttons that Facebook, Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn already use.
It’s a smart move for Microsoft who would have seen the social media platforms, particularly Facebook and Twitter, use share buttons very successfully. MSN.com have of course, already jumped on-board where you can see the new Skype button up and running. The first time you wish to share something using this button, you’ll be prompted to login with a simple form. Once you are up and running, it’s all smooth sailing. You’ll be able to quickly share online content with your Skype connections.
I suspect other messaging apps will follow Skype and create their own sharing buttons. These new messaging app, sharing buttons will be used slightly differently to social media sharing buttons. Social media is often about broadcasting a message you wish to share, far and wide to all your connections. The Skype share button will be used when users want to share with a select few people. I can see it being used for special interest content that users may not want to share publicly but want to share it with those who share the same interests.
I suspect spammers will try to misuse this app by connecting to as many Skype users as they can so they can, then broadcast their own messages to their new found audience, but I don’t believe this will work too well since you can quickly block contacts in Skype. The button is going to work best for sharing other people’s content and that’s just the way I like it. If you’ve read my book, The Simple Manifesto, you’ll know I believe a lot of small business owners and entrepreneurs waste time in social media “building relationships” with very little to show for it. It’s my view that the secret for social media marketing is to have others doing the ‘sharing’ for you. While Skype isn’t really social media, the same principle applies so I’m in favour of the new Skype share button.
Share-ability is the New Relevance
Relationships online have become increasingly important for marketers but it’s not just about your own relationships. Building your own relationships online while helpful, can become overwhelming. It’s more effective to consider the relationship of those that you are already connected with and communicate with – let them do the reaching out for you. Build your relationships deep, not wide. Website users are increasingly connected online and want to interact with others online. The ability for them to share information is now influencing the content that marketers are producing. There is a shift in the blogging community. Bloggers are now spending more time considering the share-ability of what they publish. Where once they may have considered blogging more-so from an SEO standpoint and crammed keywords in poor quality content to try and attract traffic, now bloggers are considering how engaging the content will be. It’s good news for readers and it’s good for ethical content marketers too. No longer does producing junk content help dodgy marketers. Its all about producing great content, people want to read and share.
I tip my hat to Google, they have recognised the way people now interact online using social media and have evolved their search engine to take notice of this relevant data. Content shared through Skype and other messaging app’s may be something they will need to consider in the future too. They will need to consider how to measure and track this data so they can derive meaning from the information.
This is another win for those who produce and share high quality content. Looking at these changes from a marketing perspective, you can safely say relationships are becoming more important when it comes to online marketing. Those that publish good quality, interesting content are the big winners. Bring it on I say!
