Solid, engaging content is no longer just a trend, it is a powerful tool that when created and executed effectively, can transform an online business. A single blog post can generate thousands of views and comments; commentators who have the potential to become customers. Viral content is invaluable, and pursuing it is more important than ever.
There aren’t exact steps to guarantee virality, but there are techniques to maximize your chances. here are 5 of the most powerful ones to help you create viral content for your company.
#1 Engage and involve your audience
Viral content is engaging. Readers should feel compelled to share our ideas. Whether they’re sharing, critiquing, or promoting the post to friends and colleagues, audiences get involved when content is engaging.
Your content must focus on adding value to your audience’s experience. This is why marketing must first and foremost be audience-focused. And that means writing for the reader, not your business. With this simple rule, you’re on your way to viral content.
#2 Interview industry leaders
Interviewing internal C-level execs or industry leaders is one of the best ways to create valuable content. Industry leaders cover popular, relevant, and interesting topics, making their content more authoritative. And with authority a company can gain trust – and with trust, a company gains more customers.
It’s also possible to leverage your interviewee’s reach to promote your own content. The influencer may share it with their own community if you include them in your blog.
#3 Make use of online monitoring tools
The wealth of powerful online tools that monitor social media and trending topics save time, which means there’s no need to hire someone to monitor social media full-time. Alltop and WhattheTrend are two popular tools designed to help with identifying trending topics:
- Alltop works by collecting the web’s most popular content, and then organizes it into industry-specific feeds. This keeps you updated on what’s trending and is a great resource for creating viral content. You can even submit a post to Alltop and they will add it to their directory.
- WhattheTrend analyzes Twitter’s trending hashtags, and lists the most popular topics into categories for different countries, regions and industries. Moreover, its algorithms make it possible to identify popular topics from last month, last week and even the last 24 hours –perfect for capitalizing on emerging topics.
#4 Keep on the pulse of trending topics
One of the key success factors in viral content marketing is the ability to identify trending topics. If you’ve identified a trending topic, you can leverage it by creating a tailor-made post to continue its momentum and catch the wave of virality.
When you monitor social media, you can discover the most popular topics and trends within your industry. For example, you might come across a trending topic like ‘#ContentMarketingWorld’ – a large content marketing event coming up September, 2017. You can write a content piece and arm it with this tag to capitalize on its popularity. Here are a few sample content titles:
- ‘How to Write Your Own Epic Content Marketing’
- ‘5 Ways to Implement a Content Marketing Plan’
- ‘How Storytelling Can Change the Way you Sell’’
By sharing these pieces and accompanying them with the #ContentMarketingWorld hashtag, you increase the chances of thousands of people viewing and potentially contributing to making your post go viral.
#5 Don’t be afraid to create a little controversy
Controversy makes daily life more interesting. Some people agree with a certain sentiment, while others strongly disagree. This generates a huge amount of feedback and sharing. If your post is controversial, your readers will comment and share it with their colleagues. Some will even write their own responses. A controversial post can create enough buzz and catapult it into virality.
A post on Business Grow, ‘Content Shock,’ garnered attention on content marketing and how the practice isn’t the future of B2B selling.
Viral posts are the pinnacle of success for top marketers. This is why it’s important to continuously produce content. B2B companies that blogged 11+ times per month had almost 3X more traffic than those blogging 0-1 times per month. Just keep in mind that content has to be invaluable. Create a content hub and serve as an expert in your industry, while putting yourself out there using the above techniques. You could be well on your way to exposing more customers to your online business.