Viral content is the one everyone wants to create. This article is going to give you some important properties to be noted while creating content that might potentially go viral.
What is Content?
On the basic level, content is nothing but a bunch of words with a specific meaning that is used to describe a subject, dignified with a result or action. Here, the subject is described or marketed to let people know about it and to convince them with accepting it. With such importance and value vested in it, this content is prepared in ways that attract the human mind.
As a maker of puzzles makes an interesting puzzle, this is where a content maker starts finding intriguing ways to grab the audience’s attention. What is the foremost medium to get into a person’s mind? The answer is sensing. Whatever content may be, it can get into a person’s mind only if it pleases one of the senses, it may be either the eyes, the touch, the taste, or the sound, or the smell.
This base factor makes content a formless entity, letting it to be represented in various forms like images, words, audio, pictographs, animation, videos, etc. When these different forms are directed towards delivering the features of a subject, with a proper end notion, it is called content.
What is a Viral Content?
The primary reason a subject requires content is for the end result that the content can provide. In every possible scenario, the end result that the subject expects from the content is nothing but reaching a wider scale audience. That being said, the scale of audience that the content can grab attention from, is all that matters for a subject.
When this content garners widespread attention and keeps impressing more and more people along the way, it is called viral content. In the simplest expression, if a video is made to describe the features of popular cookware, it is just content. But if the content makes cookware popular, it is called viral content.
Thus, the scale of audience that content covers to let know of the subject, determines the range of its virality. If it is spoken about and gets excites people through any means, it’s viral!
How do you make Viral Content?
This is one question that has been raising again and again in the human mind since we evolved from primitive primates. Since then, the main reason to make viral content has been to receive much efficient productivity. Though this is the motto, this is the same thing that makes it tough to create viral content. This is because, when a person makes viral content, it creates a wave of originality in the minds of audiences and fellow competitors. This wave affects the thought process of both of these sections of people.
The audiences have seen something fresh and better, starting to feel that the content about other similar subjects/products is regular. This makes the minds of the competitors think of various other possibilities to lure the audiences back into their ideas.
These various possibilities are all that matter. Any of these various contents can work out, but at the same time, may not work out. Because, when it comes to virality, there isn’t a specific plan to follow. And you can’t innovate the previous examples.
This means that the more viral content that comes, the more the human mind gets immune to the ideas that come in the future. This is just like the Human Immune System. It fights the new virus or bacteria that enters us and stores its information in the form of antibodies so that the same virus or bacteria can’t mess with us in the future.
However, when a fresh virus comes, in, we are influenced by it. In the same way, the solution to make viral content is by breaking the Content Immune System (CIS), or what we name it for now.
What are the factors that make Viral Content?
So, when you start planning to make viral content, what are the factors that you have to look into? What are the blanks that you have to fill for the viral secret? The following are the 10 factors that you require to get your own outlook on how to make viral content:
Begin with a catchy headline
Let’s start with the start. The headline has to be simple, relatable, and catchy at the same time. This is the first point of getting the audience’s attention. When this is done properly, the audience gets ready to look into what you can offer them.
Keep it short
Once the reader moves his / her attention from the headline, all that they want to see is what you have to offer them through the content. Studies say that the attention span of the current generation lies within 18 to 30 seconds, which means that any content that you market, needs to be understandable in the meantime.
This can be followed by the visual media. While making readable content, it’d be appropriate to make content that is a 1 or 2-minute read so that more people look into it, making it viral. So, the prime idea lies in making the content crisp and engaging.
Search engine friendly
Preparing search engine-friendly content is as important as preparing audience-friendly content. Search engines like Google rank websites according to the measures that the crawlers provide them, and for this, the content needs to be original. This is because copied contents are pushed down the search lane.
As the crawlers got through all the aspects of your content, the specific words that are used in it, garner attention in the search engine’s search results. These are called keywords. When these keywords are unique and easily useable by the audience, your content easily receives the virality it requires.
Define your target audience
Before you start making the content for your subject, define the audience that you are going to attract. This is the most important part of making the content, and the proper content for the subject will make sure to hit virally. The subject may be a sports car, a piano, or a walking stick. Set the content as per the mindset of a youngster, a music lover, or a person making the best out of his / her old age.
Keep it Informative
Engaging content grabs the attention of the viewer sets out the message, but to make sure that the content gets viral, we need to know that it has an impact on the viewer even after the message is delivered. For this, the content has to be informative, so that people start discussing the content. This gives a high dose of virality that the context requires. Also, this information has to be from a genuine source.
For example, a post about an organic health drink will normally contain the features of the product, but if information about the world’s population suffering due to an unhealthy diet is also mentioned, the impact gains high momentum. Remember, people don’t need your content until they know why they should.
Get appropriate influencers
This is the next exciting part of making your content viral. Once your content is ready, get the best influencers to market your product. This is one of the simple and most effective ways to get virality for your content. Just remember to choose knowledgeable influencers with a good number of followers.
Presentation matters
If the content matters much, the presentation matters equally. The features of the product may not be interesting. Yet, the way in which you present it can change the way in which people perceive your product.
When people are bored of hearing election campaigns, aren’t film albums used instead of them? Make sure your content is fresh, understandable, appealing, and don’t forget to add your touch of originality to it! Once these checkboxes are ticked, your content is ready to grab the virality it needs.
Be Unconventional
Look at the whole concept in an unconventional way, and start delivering it in unconventional ways. People are bored and pass by convention as a part of their lifestyle. if you need to be viral, you definitely need to start working in an unconventional manner.
A simple black dot in the center of a large whiteboard garners much more attention than an essay describing the features of the new pen that you are introducing into the market. A poster on the wall is normally seen, but a poster on the floor is seen and spoken about at the same time. Which is nothing but the virality that we need.
Keep it interactive
Giving the human touch is all that consumers want in the technological era that we are living in. Make contents that are interactive and allows the participation of your customers. A poll, a reward, or a compliment, that you provide your audience, gives you a better scale of response.
Presence of mind
When preparing the content, change and updates are inevitable until the time of its release. Maybe you can update the content with a new perspective, a new idea, an interesting current affair, anything, etc. The aim is simple, to have genuine virality. With this thought in mind, it is also important to remember the CIS.
The idea that you used for your previous content wouldn’t have worked, but it’d work perfectly for the current content. A guerilla marketing strategy that an American organization used, can be adapted according to the Indian audience.
To understand the efficiency of this, the Content Immune System has to be understood properly as well.
Using a marketing style that a competitor implemented last year may not work properly as it isn’t fresh. But a simple content-based trick that a tech giant used before three decades may get you immense virality. This means that regional and time-based liberty/barriers stay in the path of our thought process. Seeing it as an obstacle or opportunity lies in our hands.
Conclusion
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Have a good day!