Hiring social media specialists or using an automated approach to getting your votes for your content is effective at getting content noticed and putting it in the path of opportunity for going viral. At this point, this process is more of a science than an art. Getting a true viral effect where many thousands of people begin sharing your content with others is more of an art than a science.
One of the first steps to building viral content campaign is to make sure you have the content page optimized for search engines (see the chapter on Search Engine Optimization). The next step is to use a syndicate of social media site. A syndicate, yours or someone else’s, works best to get the content noticed immediately. The social media sites point back to your blog or website where the content page resides. When a new piece of content is released by on a social media site and quickly gets 10-20 votes, the site will expose the content closer to the top of the their content listings, which gives it a chance to be noticed and draw other votes from people outside of the syndicate(s). Also, creating syndication campaigns on more than one social media site is more effective and provides more opportunity for the viral effect. Finally, if your content truly has viral potential, the viral effect will take on a life of its own.
Creating viral content is usually accidental. It is an art, not a science. There are some common threads in successful viral campaigns that include the style of writing, humor, notoriety of the author, general interest in the subject, timing and other factors. The viral effect is all about popularity. In terms of timing, think of the paintings of Van Gogh who died in poverty, but now his art is highly valued. This is just one aspect of the requirements for the viral effect. It is generally unpredictable, but you can time it with breaking news. The style of writing and humor associated with the content can also affect the viral effect. This can be translated into an entertainment value, but it is still more of an art. Other successful styles of writing may have no humor, but can contain very useful information. If you write in a style that is easily understood by most people, this is a good approach. Niche writing is also a good approach. If you can provide some small piece of information not available anywhere else, as opposed to presenting general people can get anywhere, this is better too. There are so many factors that can be explored that it is difficult to find the right combination that works for you.
I think the best approach is to test and retest your writing style and content branding to find what is working best, and then push to make a regular flow of content available. As you build your syndicate and readership, people come to expect it month after month and as your readership and notoriety grows, every piece of content you release has a bigger audience and a higher potential for the viral effect. The immediate goal is to get more people into your sales funnel process and build your list of contacts so you can close more sales.
From Teo's book:
Social Media Marketing and Syndication
The Evolution of Advertising
Copyright 2009 Grace Lee International Publishing
All rights reserved
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