By: Stacey
Roberts
The longer I
blog, the more I hear of bloggers trying to go viral.
I’m sure on top
of posting consistently, using social media strategically, and generally
providing interesting, useful, and inspiring content on the internet, it would
be a little help if that content was seen by as many people as possible. Even
better if those people hang around and provide ongoing traffic. Going viral
wouldn’t hurt, right?
While it won’t
happen to everyone, and it’s almost impossible to force, there’s no doubt going
viral can be useful when you can get it. Viral posts usually have similar
threads in common, so you’re bound to give your post a little push if you can
ensure it contains this combination of essentials:
1. Reach out
and touch somebody
The one aspect
that always appears in viral content is its ability to invoke an emotion in the
reader.
No emotion?
No sharing!
In addition to
that, the most shared content is said to be content that evokes a strong positive emotional
response. So yeah anger and indignation will get people sharing (outrage is
also good!), apparently what works best is the warm and fuzzies. A 2010 study of the New York Times “most
emailed” list found the articles that were shared often tended to fall into one
of four categories: awe-inspiring, emotional, positive,
or surprising.
Recently, two professors studying the motivations of virality came
to the conclusion that while content is shared for ultimately many reasons,
it’s emotional reactions that tend to drive the most shares. In addition to
that, content that makes your heart race is more likely to go viral. Written
anything that powerful yet?!
In the article,
they say “Content that makes readers or viewers feel a positive emotion like
awe or wonder is more likely to take off online than content that makes people
feel sad or angry, though causing some emotion is far better than inspiring
none at all.”
Have a think
about how you can get your message across. Is there a personal story you can
share? Is there a humanist spin you can put on it? How can you really create
your post with “resonating with the reader” in mind?
Viral content is
compelling, interesting, funny, moving, and if you’ve really hit the jackpot
– the next item on our
list!
2. Be useful
. . .
To read the rest
of the post, click here:
~*~
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