Viral Content

Can you plan for viral content? Viral content used to always seem resemble things that have gotten on weird news or the $10,000 winner in America’s Home Videos. But with the advent of social media we can now prepare plans for viral content.

What contributes to people sharing the content they consumer online?

Social Media Explorer says that the goal of every content marketer is to have his or her information shares across digital channels by their audience. This is easier said than done.

Johan Berger, an assistant professor or marketing at the Wharton School of Business, specializes in discovering what makes ideas and products go viral. According to Berger, positive content is more viral than negative content. Which is strange when the reason we watch the news is negative news. We all love sensationalism, but I guess sneezing pandas are better than a bloody protest. Berger also says that content that evokes high arousal emotions, either positive or negative, are more viral. Again, we can talk about Miley Cyrus. Her videos evoke emotions on us. Disgust, hate, rage, amusement, love. Whichever the emotion is, she has us talking.

Moz also has great tips to help your content go viral. They say Pinterest is very effective for infographic marketing. I have to agree, Pinterest is amazing at sharing content. Once someone pins it the rest of his or her followers will see it. What is great now is that most sites allow for Pinterest sharing. Let’s not forget Twitter. This social media outlet is also great that content spreads like virus when it is tagged correctly.

Moz also points out that female authors tend to go viral more often. Yay me! But the best way is to become viral is to use humor.