Teens are surprisingly quiet on social media. In fact, though almost all teens are on social media, more than a third say they post nothing on social media at all. When they do post, they’re usually posting personal content: pictures of friends, family, pets, personal events and achievements.



A larger percentage of teens, however, are happy to share content that others post, if it seems interesting, funny, or relevant. And the range of content they share is much broader. It may be anything from celebrity gossip to life hacks to silly videos. Perhaps not surprisingly, females are significantly more eager to share content than males, though about a third of males share content on virtually every subject.



For middle schoolers, posting and sharing is almost always personal – though younger teens are also interested in life hacks and other personally useful content. As they get older, however, teens’ social media interests expand. Older teens are increasingly posting about topics of universal interest, such as music, fashion, travel, food, and style. Many are even posting about their opinions on these topics and more.



For some teens, sharing content is a way to build community around personal interests. For a smaller number, it’s a way to start making some money online through affiliate advertising and related monetization tools. In fact, many teens say they’re interested in making money online – though few know quite how to get started.

Content sharing is, of course, the key to creating “viral” posts that reach many thousands of teens. To encourage content sharing, organizations may wish to consider a few of these strategies:



-Focus on reaching females, who are far more likely than males to share content.

-Reach out to older teens, who are starting to engage with and share content about non-personal topics that interest them or seem important, funny, or useful.

-Choose topics that are already of interest to teens. Friend, hobbies, music, and fashion top the list – so it makes sense to come up with creative ways to link your posts to one or more of these topics.

-Invite teens to engage with your content. “Likes” are always nice, but genuine conversations are ideal – and will attract more eyes.

-Offer teens the opportunity to make some money by sharing posts on certain platforms or in specific ways.

-Consider employing teens as social media interns with specific assignments for creating and sharing content.



As you consider ways to tap into teen social sharing as a marketing tool, it’s important to recognize that teens are no longer children. While funny content is great, avoid speaking down to teens or asking them to engage in activities that waste their time or are age-inappropriate.