Creating Shareable Content Language

What You’ll Learn

You’ll learn to write content that readers feel compelled to share because it expresses something they believe but couldn’t articulate, establishes their identity in a group, or provides social currency through novelty and insight. Shareable content multiplies your Words That Win effectiveness by converting individual readers into advocates, with shared content generating 8x more engagement than unshared content on average.

Key Concepts

Research from the Wharton School of Business, integrated into Words That Win methodology, shows that content gets shared when it carries one of three psychological currencies: identity currency (it says something about who the sharer is), social currency (it makes the sharer look smart or informed), or emotional currency (it triggers awe, inspiration, or righteous anger). Words That Win creators strategically embed one of these currencies into key sentences, making the content feel quote-worthy and share-worthy before readers finish reading. The language must feel authentic to how readers actually talk, avoiding corporate jargon that feels inauthentic when shared.

• The Identity Assertion Language: Write statements that readers want to publicly agree with because agreement broadcasts their values or status: “Real entrepreneurs don’t follow trends—they create them.” Readers share these statements because sharing represents a vote for their own identity, and social networks reward identity statements with engagement and affirmation.
• The Myth-Busting Language: Overturn conventional wisdom using specific facts: “Everyone says ‘fail fast,’ but research shows the companies that won grew by failing slowly and learning deeply.” Myth-busting language triggers the awe emotion (discovery of something larger than previously understood) and provides social currency by making sharers appear knowledgeable and contrarian.
• The Unexpected Truth Language: State obvious truths in ways that feel freshly discovered: “Your competitors aren’t your problem. Your inability to see what your customers actually need is your problem.” This language triggers the ‘aha’ moment, and readers share it because it makes them look thoughtful and self-aware to their network.
• The Emotional Validation Language: Name unspoken struggles that readers experience: “You’re not lazy because you procrastinate on marketing. You procrastinate because the marketing tactics you’ve learned feel dishonest.” Sharing emotional validation language makes readers feel less alone and signals to their network that they care about authentic human experience.

Practical Application

Identify 5-7 core beliefs your target audience holds but struggles to articulate to others. Write a single sentence for each belief using the Identity Assertion or Myth-Busting frameworks, then embed these sentences strategically throughout your content as breakout quotes or highlighted text. Measure shares by tracking which quoted sentences generate the highest social media engagement over 2 weeks.