It’s every advertisers’ or marketers’ dream to get their posts seen by millions of people. Such exposure drives growth for your brand and helps it stand out on social platforms.
We Are Social found that the total number of social media users worldwide is 3.48 billion. Out of these, nearly 3.26 billion of them use social media on mobile devices. Reaching each of these users may be impossible. But you could get close by combining your social media marketing strategy with a strong viral content strategy.
By tapping into factors that can make content go viral, you can generate infectious interactions. And even though there is no guarantee that every post you write will go viral, there are some strategies that can effectively make content go viral.
Before we can delve into those strategies, let’s look at what makes content go viral.
What is Viral Content?
Viral content describes the content that attracts a lot of attention and spreads quickly across the internet. Some of the characteristics of viral posts include content that evokes emotion, awe, or laughter. If your content is also valuable with an educational, entertaining, or informative side, then it’s likely to get more shares.
People will also share content if it helps them define who they are to others or helps them stay connected with others. They might also share content about the causes they support and that makes them feel involved.
Now that you know the key elements that can make a post go viral, let’s look at the ways through which you can craft a viral strategy for your posts.
Create a Viral Strategy for Your Social Media Posts With These Tips
Viral content increases your brand’s popularity and helps you get loads of new website visits too. However, viral posts are rare.
BuzzSumo analyzed 130,000 Medium posts and found that 50% of them had less than 43 shares. Very few posts got more than 1,000 shares.
It’s also not possible to figure out if your posts will go viral and you can’t force them to do so. You can, however, leverage the key factors behind viral content to improve the chances of your success. Here are some ways you can do that:
1. Get to Know Your Audience Better
Understanding your target audience better helps you create content that convinces them to share it. Create buyer personas based on the different segments of your target audience. You can do this based on their demographics, social behavior, psychological characteristics, and content preferences.
Understand what makes them buy a product and why they share content online. This can help you create and publish content that they’ll be more likely to share.
For example, NatGeo’s #PlanetOrPlastic campaign caught the world’s attention by featuring a plastic bag that looked like an iceberg. The image raised awareness about the plastic problem, especially the plastic in our oceans.
We depend on plastic. Now, we’re drowning in it. https://t.co/UQWzo4xLm4 #PlanetOrPlastic pic.twitter.com/ax6TBOASpq
— National Geographic Magazine (@NatGeoMag) May 16, 2018
The content triggered their audience’s emotional reactions. The issue of plastics is a huge problem affecting the entire planet. By targeting people who care about the environment, NatGeo was able to get many shares. They also inspired lots of user-generated content and increased their engagement through the campaign.
2. Write Great Content
Give people a reason to share your content. Understand their pain points, concerns, and interests, and then post content that satisfies these needs. Use your content to entertain, engage, and target consumer emotions. Remember to start with a great headline and end your content with a strong call-to-action (CTA).
The content that you offer could also lead to instant gratification. Such forms of content include funny memes and videos or topics people care about deeply. Offer unique value through your content, and you will most likely get high engagement and reach from your posts.
You could share breaking news, viral quizzes, or inspirational content too. Stories of people helping others (heartwarming stories) and research findings can also go viral. This study, conducted by MIT Northwestern University, for example, went viral.
Some people will share this type of content for fun, while others may appreciate the value of the research. They will also tag their siblings and friends who will most likely share the story on their accounts too.
To understand what kind of content you should post for your audience, use analytics from social media monitoring platforms. Check out what made a certain post get the most engagement.
What was the headline? What about the content? Was it a heartwarming or inspirational story? Use the insights to create interactive and immersive content that personalizes the experience for the reader.
3. Use Visuals
The visual elements of your content can play a big role in determining whether your followers will click on your content or scroll down to the next social update. Due to this, nearly 80% of marketers use visual images, while 63% of them use video for their social media marketing efforts.
Marketers are turning to visuals due to their high ROI. According to Wyzowl, 83% of marketers who use video get good ROI.
However, for this content to go viral, it has to be compelling enough to generate shares. Social media automation tools can come in handy in such a situation. With the right tools, you can find images and videos people want to see and share them on your platforms at the right time.
Besides deciding on what image or video to use, consider the color pallets, fonts, and keywords that communicate your message better. Some of the tools you can use include:
Cortex – It helps you find images, hashtags, and videos that resonate well with your target audience. It uses the latest available data online to uncover patterns from your posts and those of your competitors. You then get recommendations on the best visuals and when to post them.
Stackla – This platform helps you discover compelling visual content that can help you go viral. It scouts the internet for authentic user-generated content that resonates with your audience. Based on the content performance patterns, it recommends great visual content to you.
Animoto – It helps you create stunning videos even without any past video-making experience. You can drag-and-drop images and video clips to one of its many templates. After that, you just need to adjust the fonts, colors, music, and other components to suit your needs or match your branding.
4. Use Influencers
Influencer marketing can help make your post go viral. Influencers can expand your reach, boost your follower count, and increase engagement on your content too.
For this to work, you need to find influencers that your audience follows or those with content that resonates with your audience.
Influencers have huge followings and an audience that trusts them. You can leverage this attention to increase your brand reach. All you need to do is reach out to them and pitch your plan to work with them. The content they share must, however, be relevant to your brand and resonate with your audience’s needs.
For example, Gucci’s collaborated with Kai, from K-pop band EXO, and made him the first Korean Global Ambassador of the brand. The collaboration made headlines, and the hashtag #GucciGlobalAmbassador_Kai trended for a long time.
In Paris for the #GucciSS19 show, #Kai from @weareoneEXO in a #GucciCruise19 velvet jacket with contrast detail, check printed dress shirt over a striped T-shirt, laced denim and #GucciFlashtrek sneakers with removable crystals. #AlessandroMichele #mfw #pfw pic.twitter.com/VpKSqHnKyl
— gucci (@gucci) October 2, 2018
The collaboration meant that most of the posts that featured Gucci and Kai went viral as fans shared photos of an influencer they love.
Conclusion
It’s not easy creating viral content, but these tips will give your content the best shot. Remember, you need to create content that your audience loves and drives them to share and engage. For this, you must understand your target audience and create stellar content.
Make sure you incorporate visuals into your viral content marketing strategy to increase your chances of going viral. You can also partner with influencers to boost your reach and help your content go viral.
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Source: promotionworld