Why Is It Called Viral?
This type of content is like a virus: it covers many people on the web. Here are the main signs of viral content:
It is universal and interesting to many people, not just your subscribers. It is well made. The article is so lively and interesting, the photos are so professional, the video is so unusual and funny that people immediately distribute it. It touches people and differs from the usual content.
Jonah Berger, an American expert in viral marketing, analyzed 7,000 articles that were published in the New York Times. He identified six key factors that influence virality:
Social Currency
According to Berger, if we find some new, unique, and very useful content, we willingly share it. The author believes that the factor of innovation and boasting works here. People who find interesting content want to stand out from the crowd, showing that they are the cutting edge researchers and owners of unique content. Therefore, our task is to work all the time on such content that will allow our readers to form such an image.
Triggers
Jonah’s trigger means the association of content with your activities that is constantly in the focus of the target audience. In other words, if you are doing content marketing, then you need to create the content that people will like, and when they think about content marketing, they will remember you.
Emotions
Everything is simple here – content that makes the reader interested motivates them to share it. Content can evoke any emotions: anger, joy, shock, happiness, sympathy, hate – but the main thing is to catch on!
Public
Following the results of the famous Dr. Cialdini’s book “The Psychology of Influence,” people tend to repeat the actions of other people. Therefore, if your content starts collecting likes, reposts, and comments, other people will also willingly join it.
Practical Value
If people have found the answer to their question or were able to solve their problem with the help of your content, they willingly share it.
Stories
We like to exchange stories and impress other people with them. So, if your content has an interesting story – it will soon become viral. Now you know what makes the content really viral. Now, let’s proceed to the practical tips of creating effective link baits.
What Are Link Baits and How to Create Them?
Link Bait is a piece of content created for users able to share your link. Link bait is any content that is specifically designed for people to repost through social channels and post external links on their blogs or websites. A well-designed and distributed link bait can be an effective form of link building that can dramatically increase your site’s traffic. It’s about more than just writing blog posts. Linkbait creation is about making persuasive traffic that will make your readers think and link back to you. It’s more than just writing. This is more than just distributing information. This is more than just wit. Typically, knowledge works great in link building. If you know some things that many other people do not have, write about them, post the content, and attract a crowd. But that’s only a part of it. You must fulfill all the above criteria to make good bait. As for the content form, we suggest you pay attention to the following:
Breaking News
Breaking news is bait for modern times. If you are a source or provider of breaking content, there are high chances that you will get links to your article! However, you should remember that the lifecycle of breaking news is fast and furious. The window of opportunity for user engagement is short. So, engaging in conversation on trending topics on Twitter or Facebook is the most effective way to attract your audience.
“How to” Content
Content that answers the question “How to?” is very attractive for users. This category includes all kinds of guides that describe the process from A to Z. For example, “How to take pictures for Instagram: Guides for dummies” – such articles are always in demand among users.
Interview With Experts
There are opinion leaders in every industry – people who have thousands of followers, fans, readers, subscribers. Any information about them is always in demand: people anticipate it, read it with pleasure, and share it with friends. Therefore, interviewing an opinion leader or an expert in the industry is a great way to attract the attention of the target audience, since the experts themselves willingly share interviews with their readers.
Reviews
Writing reviews is another good way to reach your target audience. People often look for recommendations on what to read, buy, watch, where to go, and what to do. The Internet is so overwhelmed with senseless content that people have to read several reviews before deciding to buy something. Using this tip, you can easily accumulate a target audience around your resource.
Helpful Tips
Tips are loved by everyone. You’ve probably read articles with headlines that begin with “7 Ways to,” “5 Tips,” or “15 Tools.” These articles have the magical feature of attracting readers. It would seem that the Internet is full of such articles and readers are annoyed by them. But practice shows that useful tips are one of the best types of content for driving traffic. Now, you have all the tools in your hands to create viral traffic. Share your own experience and results in comments.
