From 'Gangnam Style' to 'Charlie Bit My Finger', Over the last 10 years, viral digital content has taken center stage in mainstream pop culture. “Going viral” just once can dramatically increase traffic to your website and generate an elevated level of brand awareness across a wide stream audience. But what does “viral” mean and how do you achieve it?
Understanding Viral Content
Viral content is online content that achieves high awareness due to shares and exposure on social media, websites, news outlets, and search engines. Viral content speaks to people convincingly, so they are enticed to continue sharing it. Viral marketing is an approach designed to get others to share your product and/or information for you. The nature of viral content means that it isn’t a paid promotion, which means you will only reap the benefits if it is truly powerful content.
7 Reasons Content Goes Viral
The secret to going viral is understanding what makes content become sensational in the first place. After all, only .1% of articles get 50 % of sharing. Take some time and think about the characteristics that set content apart from the crowd. There are some key characteristics that set high-performing content apart from regular content, but doing some research by evaluating real examples of viral content is the best way to gain a more in-depth understanding. If you want to achieve a high reach, your content needs to be high caliber in the eyes of your audience. These characteristics take time to develop, but will greatly increase your chances of going viral. Your content will spread like wildfire if you can encompass these elements in a unique way that is true to your brand.
1. Easily Shareable
Viral content should make it easy for your audience to reshare with others. Make sure your content contains clear calls to action and share buttons that make it simple for people to repost and relay your content to their families and friends.
2. Relevant
Think about your target audience and their needs, interests, and values. You want your content to resonate with them. When your content is highly relatable and relevant it is more likely to drive engagement. Unsurprisingly, a big part of achieving that viral status is knowing your audience.
3. Timely
Ideal timing depends on the habits and routines of your target audience. Look at the analytics on your current topics and figure out when and why your audience is most interactive with your content.
4. Unexpected
You want your content to stand out against other content because otherwise, your content will just be another fish in the endless sea of content. Viral content often catches the viewer by surprise. Sharing an unusual perspective, plot twist, or even a unique format gives your audience something that they haven’t seen anywhere else.
5. Emotionally Charged
Content that elicits awe, joy, or surprise is 28% more likely to go viral. Viral content usually evokes strong emotions. Establishing an emotional connection with the viewer not only drives their interaction with your content but also helps to drive future engagement.
6. High Quality
Capture the viewer's attention and hold their interest. Use strong and colorful visuals to catch the eye of your audience. Viral content is well-produced, with high-quality visuals, sound, and writing that captivates your audience.
7. Authentic
Viral content is usually content that feels authentic and genuine. Make sure your content shows your audience who you are. When you can develop an authentic voice, you show the audience the one-of-a-kind personality of your company.
3 Ways to Increase Your Chances of Going Viral
Viral content provides the kind of exposure that money simply can’t buy. Investing in a creative strategy and putting the time and effort into viral content will put you ahead of your competitors. Working on creating viral content complements the other aspects of your marketing strategy. You shouldn’t think of it as a replacement for your traditional strategies, but rather an addition. Going viral is all about finding new ways to gain your audiences’ interest, the inbound way. These 3 tips will not only benefit you on your journey to going viral but also throughout your other content efforts.
1. Get Input
Ask your audience what is important to them when they are looking to make a purchase. If you want to get even more specific, ask for some distinct examples of content that has been engaging to them. Ask who their favorite users are on different channels and research their content to determine what sets them apart.
2. Focus on Trending Topics
Ride the wave of popularity. You want to create your content around a topic that’s blowing up and viral content often taps into current events or trends, capitalizing on the buzz and excitement surrounding a particular topic or moment. Looking for a simple way to find growing topics? Google Trends and For You Pages are excellent places to start for inspiration.
3 Get Straight to the Point
People only read about 28% of a blog post (kudos to those of you who see this!). So if you want your post to go viral, no matter what type of content it is, you need to hook readers fast. Your audience wants you to get straight to the point. That’s why highly-practical content is 34% more likely to go viral. On top of that, studies found that short sentences boosted content readability by 58%. List posts often receive the most shares because they are something that doesn't require too much effort by the audience.
The secret to going viral is to incorporate all these elements into your content creation process and focus on what your audience wants to see, not just what you want to create. By incorporating these key characteristics into your content, you can increase the likelihood that your content will go viral and reach a wider audience. However, keep in mind that there is no guaranteed formula for creating viral content. Your success will depend on a variety of factors, like timing, luck, and audience response.
