Perhaps the Holy Grail of the SEO and content marketing game is to get a piece of content to go viral be it an article or a video. Of course, basic marketing 101 will tell you that you want what you have to sell to get seen by the greatest number of people possible. The challenge, however, is how to do this. Here are some strategies that, if used consistently, will produce content that has the potential to go viral every single time.
The first thing you really need to do consistently is to get people fired up. You must motivate them to action, to sharing the content and urging others to do so too. To do that, you need to stir their emotions to the point where they must act. Your content, your video, must invoke raw emotion on the part of the reader or the viewer. Make them laugh. Make them cry. Make them think or discover true awe. Make them share.- If your content can bring added value to someone’s life, if it can have practical and positive applications to someone’s day to day life, it will get shared. People like to share self help and infographics because they want to be of some benefit to their friends and loved ones.
- If you can’t write, hire someone who can. Viral content, at least in written form, is highly readable and has an easy flow and construction. You may think this is easy to do. If you think that, hire a professional writer.
- Your title is everything. If your title or headline doesn’t want them to read further or to view the video, you have lost them and wasted your valuable time. There are over 300 action, or power, words that you can use to make that title or headline leap at the reader or the viewer. Words that will make them want to know what you know.
- They must trust you and consider you credible. If not you will never find viral heaven. Backing up what you say or show with research and sustainable information will build your credibility. Also, visuals are important everywhere. Content is shared five times more often if there is an accompanying visual.
- Finally, don’t post your content at two in the morning. Do your research on the social media sites. Find out when their traffic is at its highest and then that is when you send out your potentially viral content.
-Written by Kevin Sawyer
