A few months ago I was thinking aloud about e-cards and how they still have not replaced paper greeting cards in my affections.

“Perhaps when it comes to personal messages, a little effort is appreciated? We need the web to limit us, sometimes.”

Today I was reminded of my Tweets by stumbling across Angel Anderson’s Slideshare deck, in which she writes about Facebook’s frictionless sharing. As she points out:

“Without friction, sharing loses its meaning”

Recently, Charlie Watts from the Rolling Stones has been talking about the changes in the music industry, and treasuring music:

“I’d swap things: a cymbal for a certain record … Then I’d go to Ray’s Jazz Shop. That’s when it was in New Oxford Street, in the basement of Collet’s. God bless him! He was green, he was never allowed to see daylight, they used to keep him in the cellar. And then I’d sell the record and go and buy the cymbal back.”
…
“When I was what you’d call a young musician, jazz was very fashionable. It was very hip to know there was a new Miles Davis album out. Now no one knows what records come out. Especially me! Because of this thing [gestures at my iPhone recording the interview, with the inference that it is somehow the devil’s work] … But in those days … an album: you kept it, you treasured it.”

Perhaps, what I am saying is this:

Getting others to share your content is getting easier. It’s becoming widespread behaviour.

But getting people to value your content, perhaps even to value it enough that it influences their behaviour is as difficult as it has ever been.

One way of differentiating your content is: Cost. The expression of these costs could be the hook you are looking for.

See also
Why people share content