The risk of passing a message along

When we tell our story, the ultimate result is when people pass our message along. But let’s face it: Passing anything along is kind of a risk for our audience.

Think about yourself. When, for example, you recommend something to someone, you’re extending your credibility to the thing that you recommend. That’s why we recommend only things that we feel comfortable with ourselves.

It doesn’t stop there. We intuitively understand that, ultimately, the person who asked for our opinion needs to be happy with the thing we recommended to them. And so, we put one extra layer of carefulness on top of our recommendation. Because what if they don’t like it, right?

It would be a threat to our status.

On the other hand, the more someone can be sure that the thing they pass along will boost their status, the more likely they are to actually pass it along.

Will it boost your audience’s status when they pass your message along?