As a content marketer, your primary focus is to attract as many people as possible. You also want to make sure your content is widely shared on social media. Viral content plays a critical role in growing your audience, subscribers and generating sales.
But it’s easier said than done. You need to go beyond writing interesting content and focus on what will get people to act. Know what makes content go viral.
Here’s how you can tap into the desire to share from your audience:
1. Write Amazingly Powerful Headlines
Headlines are your first opportunity to draw in the reader. They give you a chance to impress. Writing a catchy headline no doubt influences the decision to click on your content. A good headline should arouse the curiosity of your readers.
An analysis of 1 million blog headlines by CoSchedule shows the importance of selecting words for your headline carefully. This gives you a chance to deliberately focus on words that add value to your headline.
2. Create Ridiculously Good Content
Having a killer headline is not enough. You must deliver what it promises in the body of the article. Create content worthy of your readers’ time by investing in research. Give them something that will compel them to come back for more.
Creating valuable content attracts social shares and increases web traffic. Moreover, you win people’s trust as an authority and strengthen your brand.
3. Focus on Positive Emotions
When your content can spark an emotional reaction, people are likely to share it. A study by the University of Pennsylvania on what makes online content viral, confirms the linkage between virality and psychological arousal.
According to the study, readers are more likely to share content that evokes emotion. However, using negative emotions is likely to cause outrage which can be bad for your brand. As such, avoid it.
4. Include The Relevant Images
Research shows that including images in your content gives you 94% more views than if you don’t. Moreover, readers are 80% more likely to read if you use colorful images.
Therefore, consider including illustrations, photographs or infographics. It is even better when you can create images that compliment your content directly. These generate 3 times more engagement than posts without images.
5. Write Long Form Content
It is a common misconception that shorter articles get more social shares. On the contrary, an analysis of 912 million blog posts by BuzzSumo between October 2017 and October 2018 revealed long-form content averagely generates 56% more social shares.
Therefore, for more shares, write content that is longer than 2,000 words.
It’s not enough to write a new blog post every day. It’s the quality that counts. When you craft brilliant, insightful content, you can rest assured that it will go viral. When your content is shared, establish yourself an expert in your industry.