Content Marketing: Creating Viral-Worthy Posts

Let us now find out what makes a post viral-worthy and really drives traffic, creates engagement, and boosts brand awareness.

Understanding viral marketing

Viral marketing is defined as being those pieces of content that get spread virally through word-of-mouth, mostly on social media platforms. A viral post would not require two or three people sharing it; instead, it will be shared by thousands, if not millions, because it deeply resonates with the users, thus sparking many conversations and encouraging users to share with others.

To create viral-worthy content, you must first understand the elements that create virality:

Emotional response: Content that creates an emotional response, whether humor, surprise, awe, or even anger, is more likely to be shared. Emotional content is much more capable of igniting a conversation and promoting social sharing.

Relevance: Relevance means current trends, timely topics, or issues of importance to your audience. The two will draw engagement and sharing.
Shareability: The easier it is to share content-whether visually attractive, thought-provoking, or genuinely informative-the higher the chances of it going viral. Simply put, the greater the ease with which others can share your post with their network, the greater the likelihood that it will go viral.

importance of a Robust Content Strategy

Creating viral content requires a well-defined content strategy. Your content strategy should build the ideal structure for your brand messaging, goals, and general types of content you’d like to create. Here are the elements that should make up a strong content strategy:

Set Your Goals: What are you trying to achieve by creating the content? More traffic? More awareness for your brand? More and higher-quality engagement? Get the answers to these questions in order for the objectives to direct the content development process.

Know Your Audience: One of the most instrumental things for the creation of viral content is the understanding of your audience. Who are they? What are their pain points, preferences, and interests? To achieve this milestone, conduct some audience research where you define the characteristics of your audience such as demographics, psychographics, age, location, lifestyle, and interests. The more you align your content with the preferences of your audience, the higher the chances for it to become viral.
Be Consistent: Establish a content calendar that can create regular content, improve your effectiveness, and diversify your content types within the interest of your audience and their needs-a mixture of blog posts, videos, infographics, etc.

Different Content Formats: Different content formats resonate with different audiences. For social media, videos tend to do best on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, while written content (such as blog posts) can be shared through email newsletters or on websites. Try other formats to see what works best for your target audience.

Engagement Mechanism

Engagement is vital in the making of viral content. Your content needs to prompt action on the part of readers-be it sharing, commenting, liking, or tagging. Here are some engagement techniques for increasing any content shareability:

a. Attention-grabbing headlines

Your headline is the first thing users notice when they come across your content and plays an important part of whether a user will click on your content. Get clicks with viral-worthy posts by generating curiosity, asking questions, or promising some substantial value. Try one of these headline formulas:

List headlines: “10 Ways to Boost Your Social Media Engagement”
How-to headlines: “How to Create A Viral Post In 5 Easy Steps”
Problem-solving headlines: “Struggling With Low Engagement? Use These Tips”
The aim should be for the reader to have the insatiable urge to click and know more.

b. Create Emotionally Charged Content

As pointed out before, viral content triggers an emotional response. People share stuff that resonates with them in an emotionally charged way. Whether you want to elicit laughter, empathy, nostalgia, or sheer wonder, make sure your posts are capable of doing just that. Emotional content is not just limited to something negative-positive hope and awe also encourage people to share.

Humor: A funny meme, video, or a humorous commentary can encourage people to share it with their family and friends.
Inspiration: Uplifting stories or motivational quotes get shared the most on social platforms, including Instagram or Pinterest.
Shock value: Unexpected or provocative content can create a major stir and discussion. However, just take care that you do not cross boundaries that could hurt the sensibility of your audience.

c. Include the Element of Interaction

Interactive content works wonders to boost engagement and push shares. When you directly involve your audience, you make it much more likely for other users to share the posts. Here are a few methods of generating an interactive experience:

Polls & Quizzes: People are simply interested in how their answers compare with others. Create quizzes or polls that are light-hearted, informative, or something that reveals something about the user’s personality.
Contests & Giveaways: A prize at stake increases participation.

Spreading Through Influencers
Influencers with massive audiences and engagement offer a vast opportunity to promote your content. Influencers support the credibility of a brand and help it gain attention fast.

Choose the Right Influencers: Make sure the influencers you choose have audiences similar to your target market. The more relevant the following of the influencer, the better the chances are that your content will go viral.
Collaborate on Content: Create co-branded content that utilizes the influencer’s personality and reach. Examples include interviews, product reviews, and exclusive behind-the-scenes content.
Optimize for Shareability
Creating remarkable content is fundamental, as is optimizing it for shareability. This is how you are going to make your content shareable:

Social Media Buttons: Add social media sharing buttons to your blog posts, videos, and more for streamlined dissemination.
Optimized Images and Graphics: Ensure your images are attractive, well-made, and formatted appropriately for each platform. Catchy visuals encourage sharing.
Timing and Frequency: If you want to maximize your post’s chances of going viral, when you post has everything to do with it. You can use scheduling tools like Hootsuite or Buffer to post when people are most active. Be sure to analyze other posts to find the best time for people to engage.

Measure and Refine Your Content Strategy
After your content goes live and gathers popularity, measuring its performance is vital. Use analytic tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, or Twitter Analytics to keep track of how each post is performing. Keep an eye on metrics like:

Engagement rate: Are people liking, commenting on, and sharing your content
Traffic: Are your posts bringing traffic back to your site or getting sign-ups for the product?
Shares: How often is your content being shared across other social media platforms?