Creating a viral content can seem overwhelming for a complete newbie, but it is possible. We can define viral content as a piece of material that manages to get a lot of attention in a quick time. As a publisher, you have an opportunity to get a lot of eyeballs from your targeted audience and retain a lot of them via your viral content.
Image Source: HubSpot
Above is the content distribution channel, as per the survey. In this article, we will discuss how you can lure people into sharing your information in various content distribution channels.
Before creating viral content, you need to find out what your targeted audience mostly shares types of content in your niche. You should remember that you aim to get your site out to your potential customers, not everyone unless you are running some entertainment site.
Here are some of the ways to find viral content in your niche:
Feedly is a highly popular news aggregator application. You can view all the top-performing articles from your favorite sites via Feedly.
Feedly enables you to check out favorite posts by your industry/niche/topic. It is also possible to get organized results.
The second way to find viral content is via Reddit. It is a social bookmarking tool that not only helps you get a lot of traffic but will also give you a hint on what type of content will generate traffic to your site. From the past few years, Reddit is experiencing explosive growth.
Image Source: Statista
You can search for keywords and subscribe to popular users for gaining insights on what is trending.
One important thing you need to do while searching for content is to filter it by sorting by posts from the past day, month, or hour.
Another great site that will help you find trending content is Buzzsumo. It is a favorite tool that lets you analyze what content performs best. All you need to do is search for the topic or keyword to get the result like this.
Keep in mind that you can sort the content by various factors like language, country, date, publisher size, word count, and so on. The big corporations, such as Expedia, IBM, Yahoo, and so on also use Buzzsumo.
Google Trends is a tool that allows you to find trends in Google Searches. Google Search alone can give you a hint on what is trending. It processes billions of searches each day.
You can see the popularity of the keyword over time and can compare it to a similar keyword. For instance, “vlog” vs. “blog.” It is also possible to check out the recent trending searches.
Ahrefs is one of the dominating SAAS companies in an SEO space. However, you need to pay $99 per month to get access to its service. You will get more value than what you pay for Ahrefs.
Among many features of Ahrefs like keyword explorer, backlink tracking, and more, content explorer is one of them. The only task for you is to enter the keyword, and Ahrefs will come up with all the statistics regarding the keyword.
The above list mentions some of the most reliable tools for finding viral content. Many others are in the market, but these are the most popular ones.
Viral content is only a part of a broad content marketing strategy. If you want to develop an effective content marketing strategy, you can opt for top content marketing courses online. A well-designed content marketing course will give you a strong foundation that you can rely on that will allow you to be a better content strategist. It will help you better understand and apply the knowledge that you can get from random articles.
Let’s get back to the nitty-gritty of this article.
After checking out the types of viral content that exist in your niche, it is a time to come up with similar material that your audience will love to share. Here are some of the tips that can help you come up with viral content:
Many people stay away from sharing their opinions due to a fear of offending people. However, that is the thing that you need to get a cult-like following. You cannot please everyone, but you can resonate with a specific group of audience that would heartily agree with you.
For instance, you can observe how quickly some hardcore supporters of a specific political party shares their leader’s controversial opinion. At first, give a warning that it might offend some group of people. After that, pick a piece of news and create a controversial content that a specific group of people would love to share.
How many times have you come across posts that promise thing in the same dull manner as these:
The people are less likely to share these articles or even read it. You need to offer an “Aha moment” to your users to make them share your content. I’m not asking you to reinvent the wheel, but write an article from a different angle or perspective. Here is one example:
Image Source: Backlinko
The chances of your audience sharing your site depend a lot on timing. Understand the concept of the persuasion slide from the image below.
Image Source: Fast Company
You cannot ask for a favor immediately with your readers. At first, you need to make them nudge and agree with you. You should structure your article in a way that you resonate with them early and then keep on increasing their interest and your influence with the flow. After giving enough value, give them a strong reason to share the content.
For instance, you make them happy, sad, feel frustrated, gain unique insight, and so on with your article and then ask them for a small favor, and, i.e., sharing your content.
Your readers are more likely to share visual content. Here are the types of visuals that are shared the most by internet users.
Image Source: Jeff Bullas
Your first task is to structure your valuable article at first with the use of headlines, bullet points, highlighted phrases, and so on. After that, you should use a reasonable number of visuals in your article that is likely to motivate your users to share the post. Make use of social sharing plugins to make the task easier for your readers.
Solve problems and reach out
At first, you need to list out some of the significant problems that are making your audience wake up at night. Right after that, you should do your research and come up with an article that solves the problem. Make sure that your tips are actionable, not a complicated theory. You should create a list of tips and arrange it attractively.
No one will land on your page if they do not know that it exists. Your job is to promote your article on social media platforms and reach out to influencers that are likely to share the content. Do not be pushy, while reaching out to the influencer. Personalize your message and gently ask them to go through your content and share it with your audience.
It will be excellent for your brand if you manage to get some pieces of your content viral. However, you may lose authority overnight if you spread wrong information. You need to make sure that you are producing a legit piece of content if you are planning to create material for making it viral.
Keeping all the benefits of viral content, you should not always make it your sole strategy. You do not need to produce viral content every single time to build authority on the internet. Keep viral content as one of the tactics, not your only strategy. If you follow the tips that I’ve mentioned, you will have a better chance of coming up with viral content.
I hope this article has helped you out. In case you want to add some more value to this article, do not hesitate and comment below. I would love to read and respond to your comment.
