1.3 (2) “If you liked it, pass it around”
Another tool for getting more people to visit the newspapers’ website is the “share” tool.
This example comes from reuters.com. If after having read an article someone decides that more people should read it, it’s enough to click on one of the icons. By encouraging the readers to bookmark the article on del.icio.us or share it with friends on Facebook, Reuters is increasing the chances that the article will be reached by a wider audience. The good old email function is still there but thanks to those tools sharing is made even easier than that.
Reuters is not the only news provider which has realized the potential of the sharing tool. This is a screen shot of NYTimes.com also using the sharing option.
The British tabloid The Sun is not behind either:
Even the much smaller fish know the rules of the game. The Greenwich Time is also trying to direct more people to the website:
The share tool is not only a tool for increasing money flows. People enjoy forwarding interesting articles to their friends but people are also lazy. It takes more effort to copy an URL address and send it by email than to click on the Facebook button of the share tool. In this way newspapers are doing a favour to themselves (possibility of increasing coverage) and to the readers (ease and fun of sharing information).
