Every website has contents that want to go viral. As the online space gets overpopulated with ads, content marketing has become one of the most effective ways for brands to differentiate themselves. There are some that can create viral content every single time while most can't. What do these people have that others don't? The answer is, they can create something that is contagious.
Since the creation of mass media and the internet's social media, people can engage directly with their target audience and customers, without relying on coverage by the news media. However, in the same way, the internet has also changed the standards of a successful campaign. Since the audience for the internet is the entire world, marketers hope they can create content that spreads beyond their targeted audience. However, viral marketing isn't as easy. And creating a contagious content that can spread like wildfire is not an easy task.
Below are the common ways you can do to make you contents more contagious than ever.
Originality
Creating something new that no one else have done is one obvious thing. The audience always like new things, and creating an original content is the first to consider. However, being original on the internet is often ignored. Since the beginning of the internet, everything can be copied and pasted, and posted to other places. But if you can somehow able to write compelling and attractive content that have never been written in other places, you have the highest chance to create a viral content that will spread by itself.
Originality is important for internet marketing. After you get the idea for your new content, there are several things to keep in mind.
First, consider you audience. People want to see new things. Using unoriginal content is likely to overwhelm the people who have seen it elsewhere. Even if the source for the copied content is not available, it isn't hard to find the original, thanks to the tools available and search engines. Second, even if unoriginal content starts to spread, you will more likely to upset the original creator. Especially if he/she don't take credits for it. This could lead to embarrassment, and also legal issues.
Content writing may be difficult for small business owners because they need to devote their time and resources in creating new original content, but if they want to use viral marketing, originality is an absolute necessity.
Be Human, Be Yourself
Ever look for an art of print piece because of its writer? Most if not all written/drawn product have characters. And that character comes from the creator. To create something that can describe you best is to create something from your own heart and mind.
Know what you like so you can have less pressure to worry about. The more you know about a subject, the more fluent you will be able to write, the easier you can create a compelling content.
Contents are meant for humans. To target people, you should first start to write as a human. You can include humor or your point-of-view regarding the subject you are writing. Adding humor and your view to the subject will influence your character into your content. And if you can create an attractive content, you will spread your characterized content to the world, and be memorable. Unless you want to be a ghostwriter instead.
Being human also means that you should share both your thoughts and emotions. Be confident on yourself. Content that evoked high arousal emotions - positive or negative - is more viral than content without emotion. high-arousal emotion include anything from anger, anxiety, awe, joy, lust, happiness to fear. To put that emotion to your content, you've got to think about which emotion you want to target, and hit it perfectly.
Find Your Audience
The Internet is huge. And if that is not big enough, it's growing at an astonishing rate that finding your audience can be more difficult overtime. As a content marketer, you should now how to reach your intended viewers to have your content go viral.
One of the way is to learn how to use marketing channel to decide which is best suited for a particular audience. For example, women account for more than 80 percent of Pinterest's audience. So it's not an ideal place to market men's hobby. Though there may be a few women who would buy such a product for their loved ones, but the content wouldn't spread virally because of the audience mismatch. Similarly, marketers looking to reach minorities or more urban demographics may want to use Twitter more readily than Facebook, based on data from usage habits of these target audiences. Finding the right marketing channel is beyond social media. Depending on the industry and the nature of the products being sold, whole new windows of opportunity may arise that could offer amazing results.
Be Useful
We all like for people to see how smart we are. And on the internet where everyone can be your audience, the last thing you want is to make a fool out of yourself because of being stupid. Besides that, people also like the feeling as if they are part of a community. People really appreciate when others value their opinions or thoughts.
By knowing this fact, you should give the influence that your audience is smart. By doing this, you can create contagious content that people will share. People will be more likely to share you content if they know your content will help them look knowledgeable in the subject.
The Element of Surprise
People like being surprised. And anything that surprises them, easily catch their attention. Content that has the element of surprise normally provides lesser-known information that is relevant to the users. Surprising content usually has a twist at the end as well, in order to keep users interested and willing to share this piece of content.
Content with the surprise element usually gets loads of shares because of its shock value. Users gain value from content like this due to the unique information provided; they'll then want to share this with their friends in order to inform or even impress them.
After you have the elements of surprise, update your site/blog as soon as possible so your content can reach your audience faster. You can also seek them in prime times so your content can engage your audience at the moment they want the most.
Keep Experimenting
There is no best solution for a specific problem on the internet. This is because the internet is a growing trend, and everything can change instantly.
There are a lot of individual tricks and tips that marketers can use to make their content more share-worthy. But in the end, these three keys are essential to any strategy for viral marketing. Marketers should experiment with these factors to see what works best for their audience.
After you know what method is best for you, you shouldn't just stop there. Keep yourself updated with the current trends and experiment new ways to deliver your content. Easier, faster and better.