Quick Tips For Making Viral Worthy Content

What makes a single piece of content go viral? Well, several factors contribute to this happening. Some people, however, manage to produce content that goes viral consistently - think Niel Patel and Gary Vee. 

So what is it that they employ to get such a reaction from readers? 

Let's take a look. 

Photo by Daria Nepriakhina on Unsplash

Positive Over Negative

When it comes to content, things that make people feel good are more likely to be shared than things that make people feel bad (political content to the side for now). When the content pushes at what makes people inspired, happy, or have a sense of awe, those are winners. However, fear, sadness and loss can still hit home and get plenty of traction too. 

It is often the case that people need to see happy content. Consider that most news articles are about wars, destruction, global warming and messy politics. Over time these have an impact on people, so little pops of happiness in your content does wonders for the consumer - and they want to share that. It is called a psychological trigger, and it is a topic worth exploring more. 

High-emotions that trigger content shares:

• Awe

• Anger

• Worry

• Fear

• Shock

• Joy

Useful

Content always needs to have a purpose. If you look at some adverts for things like cars, they are working your emotional response - and in the end, there is an advert. Written content needs to have value to it; people can use it to support their own written content. Have statistics that relate to the niche you are discussion, relevant images or an infographic. 

If your content is for a business, finance or similar field, then you need to offer useful content, that tackles a problem and provides a solution. 

And strangely enough, simply using the term 'keep reading', will keep a reader on the page. 

Actionable

As well as provoking emotions, and being useful in some context, it would help if you gave people the tools to do what you are talking about. For example, when you say 'you should create some interesting headlines' you can go on to say 'HubSpot has a tool to generate 250 titles that you can download and store'. Giving the reader everything, they need to put your work into action.

Easy Of Share

You need to make your content as easy to share as possible. So, on your website, you ideally will have a range of social media buttons that make it simple for the reader to click and share. Incorporate the option tweet key phrases (a plugin called TweetThis is excellent, but others may work with your theme better). 

Length

When you consider videos, then 30 seconds or less is the sweet spot. It means people can watch it quickly, and you can stay on the message the whole time. And, 30 seconds is a lot longer than you think too. Of course, video length can change according to some social media networks. Check here to see the suggested length according to the mayor social media networks.

For written content, it depends on the style. For lists, you can bullet point and use supporting links to get your point across, but for guides, you'd ideally like 500+ words. 

Wording

There are some words that when used in the heading will see more readers. Provoking readers with words like 'mistakes you're making in your SEO', or 'Things you don't know about XYZ'. Most people like to believe that they don't make mistakes, and they don't have knowledge gaps. Other words that work well are Amazing, Awe-Inspiring, Shocking, Proven, Extreme, Killer, Actionable. 

Visual

When you have finished putting together your article, you should create images using Photoshop, Canva, or whatever your preference is. Consider if you can create an infographic with highlights and facts from the article. Images, videos and gifs help build a full picture and can break up the text for the reader. 

Once you have written your amazing piece of content, you need to make sure that you do your utmost to promote it while it is fresh. Consider a drip-feed campaign to keep it running through the year too. And, finally, make sure that you can add to your content in the future, and ensure the links and statics are up to date. 

To learn more on how to make viral content, here is a good resource. It provides a list of power words that you can use to capture the reaction of readers. Please check it.

I hope you learned something from this post. If you have any comment, please feel free post it.