Why Do People Like, Comment, and Share on Facebook?

As a business, you want your Facebook fans and readers to engage with the content you post. When people engage, they indicate they are warming up to your brand, and that they think others will appreciate what you have posted. So your goal, your target, should be to get as many Likes, Comments, and Shares as possible.

Knowing why people engage with Facebook content will help you as you post to your page. Not surprisingly, research has shown that users actually have a physiological response as they browse Facebook content. They can be inspired, angered, warmed, affirmed, or challenged by what they see. By engaging through Liking, Commenting on, and/or Sharing content they gain a measure of personal satisfaction that does not occur when simply reading newspaper articles or advertisements, or watching television commercials. The opportunity to engage activates pleasure centers in the brain that may be unaffected through simply viewing alone.

Commenting on and Sharing content brings more personal satisfaction that just clicking the Like button, although Likes are certainly positive as well. So knowing why consumers Like, Comment, and Share can be very helpful as you seek to inspire them through your posts. Here are the reasons why, according to an infographic from Quicksprout:

Why Facebook Users Like Content

to provide positive feedback.
to affirm something about themselves
to express empathy
to get something in return

Why Facebook Users Comment

It’s more personally satisfying to Comment than to simply Like.
Because of the above, giving a Comment is a more powerful way to affirm others or, unfortunately, to negate others.
Commenting actually can relieve loneliness and make people connected.

Why Facebook Users Share

to enrich others with the things they find interesting, important, or funny
to let others know what they believe, who they really are, or what they know
to inform others of what they are doing
to recommend a product, service, cause, movie, book, etc.

Ok, so what do you do with this information? Here are some quick takeaways:

Mix up the content that you post on your funeral home page. Understand that only 20% of the information you post should be directly marketing your services.
People appreciate obituaries, but if that is all you share on your Facebook page, you most likely will not get much engagement. It may be counterintuitive for many people to offer a positive response to an obituary.
Do be afraid to tap into topics that affect people emotionally – topics that are spiritual, patriotic, family oriented, grief related, or heart warming.
Share a good deal of content that has nothing to do with death, grief, or the services you offer. People love trivia!
Recommend more products and services than only the ones you offer. This shows you have your readers’ general interests in mind (more than simply trying to gain their business).
Before posting content, consider your audience, and whether the net effect of your post will be to warm people up to your brand. Ask yourself “Will this image/video/text be inspiring, thought provoking, entertaining, or informative to the majority of our fans?”

Perhaps you find this material to be informative and helpful, but it may also be frustrating because you simply do not have the time or resources to give toward generating this kind of content on Facebook. If this is so, let the experts at DISRUPT Media help. At DISRUPT Media, we are dedicated to helping our funeral service clients who have decided to aggressively pursue an active presence in Facebook and other social media channels. We can craft a Facebook strategy tailored to your business using our exclusive four part FUNERAL Social Design Process. Our process is what enables DISRUPT Media to claim that we are the funeral profession’s only full-service social media management firm. Our clients who are a part of our FUNERAL Social Design Process are seeing an increase in post reach and engagement of over 300%. Go to http://funeralsocial.com to find out more about the services we offer.

About Author

Mark Thogmartin, VP of Business Development at DISRUPT Media

Dr. Mark Thogmartin is a life-long educator, working with students from Kindergarten through the doctoral level. He has degrees from the University of Kentucky, the Ohio State University, and Andrews University. Mark’s book, Teach a Child to Read with Children’s Books, has gained wide acceptance among reading tutors and parents who are teaching their children at home. In addition to assisting his son, Ryan, at DISRUPT Media as Vice President of Business Development, he works part-time as a mentor of doctoral students at Capella University. Mark and his wife Donna live in Millersport and are the parents of three adult sons and the grandparents of two beautiful granddaughters.