In viral marketing every thing is dependent on the content & strategy for amplification.
The recipe behind making anything go viral is an opportune mix of timing, audience targeting, distribution channels, amplification, seeding, and cross promotion on multiple platforms.
Velocity is something that can define the probability of any content to go viral = (views + articles + conversations + impressions) / time.
How to measure the quality of good content which can be used with amplification strategy to make it viral?
We all have gone through various jargons around content marketing but have you ever thought on measuring the effectiveness of a great content? What is a good or bad content? Skip this and go to the end of this post if you are simply interested in a checklist to gauge the content quality, else take this rapid-fire questions.Try answering them honestly in not more than 30 seconds:
- Value or Volume?
- Quality or Quantity?
- Twitter Trends or meaning full conversations?
In most of the cases, your answers will be 1) Value 2) Quality 3) meaningful conversations. Yes, you are right. Now how you respond to this questions which define the value or quality of any content.
What is the difference between Good Content vs Average Content?
or
How to measure the quality of the content?
Try to answer this question and think again on what makes us “like” the content on facebook or twitter? Why we bookmark any website? Why The Shawshank Redemption (or these other IMDB movies) has the highest consumer rating?
The answer to measuring the quality of content is “Why one should care.”
“Why one will care” is the phenomenon by virtue of which we can also define the quality & value of the content.
Here is the list of few checklist that you may consider while crafting the content & ensure the quality output.
- Does the “content” pass the “Why Should I Care” test?
- Does the “content” have any surprising elements?
- Is it differentiable from the competitor’s content?
- Does it offer mass appeal?
- Is it something that hasn’t been seen before?
- Is it able to be monitored and measured in real time?
If you can answer the above six questions then you can easily answer:
- whether your pitch is right or not
- whether your content will go viral or not (personally I hate the word ‘viral’)
- whether your consumers will love or ignore you
Having said that,
Content is still the king of marketing strategies of any organization. It could bring you a highly pumped up traffic and boost your post to a major extent. All you require is a finely edited and strategically processed words.
Here are few ways through which you could form your content in a very best manner as possible and gain yourself a mass appeal:
1. Get a trending topic…
The foremost thing content writer must take care is of the topic he/she is choosing to write on. You must be aware of the latest buzzing topic the people need to hear or learn about. If you would cover an irrelevant and an old topic to create your blog on…nobody might be interested in that. so choose your topic wisely.
2. Strong Headlines…
A good headline sparks interest and invites readers in.
- 80% of people will read your headlines.
- But only 20% of those people will read the rest of your content!
And that is why the headline is as important as the article or post itself. It needs to be catchy and attract people to read the text below!!
3. Make your content actionable…
What was the last blog post you wrote? Did it give readers advice on how they can apply the lessons right away?
The best content gives the user a sense of how to apply the information.When you write your blog post, give users tips on applying what you are offering them.
Why do people read non-fiction? To learn and become better. Help your readers do the same.
4. Be able to provide answers…
When people are reading a blog post they want an answer so they can gain knowledge. An additional tip here is: people don’t just want answers, they want answers fast. So make your content easy to scan so people can pick up the juicy, important bits quickly.
Read any title and subtitle of a non-fiction book or article. Ultimately, what it leaves the reader with is a question or a sense of curiosity. It is then the author’s job to deliver answers and have supporting information.
5. Make it more engaging…
We have to make it more engaging and thought provoking. Here are a few tips to help you write engaging content:
- Leave readers with questions: This doesn’t mean to have an incomplete post, but rather to include questions that make readers reflect on how they can implement the knowledge you provided.
- Have an important and promising introduction: Ever wondered how quickly people make judgments about blog posts? Most people probably decide within the first few sentences if the post is worth reading. Tell users why they should care and what you’ll be discussing in the blog post. Make them want to read it.
- People love stories:You can use an anecdote in your introduction or have a story woven into your blog post. Stories can also help clarify a point. When possible, add a story to your blog post. It will make it more engaging and may also help the reader learn.
- A final tip on this point: If you provide content that sparks a flurry of comments, the search engines will notice that your post is important and is being updated regularly. This is a great way to get the engines to come back to your site more frequently.
6. Communicate better by adding images and videos…
The best example we could relate to in today’s time is ‘Blockchain by Mohit Mamoria’’. If you refer to it he has skillfully inserted the self created images making his content look more engaging ,interactive and has added value to it, after all nobody wants blank paragraphs at all.
7. Write short and pointed content…
After all quality matters, not quantity.Don’t focus on word count. A longer blog post does not mean a better blog post. And often, keeping a blog post short is more difficult and actually takes more time than just writing as much as you can.
Just try to fill in your content with more accurate and precise information.
8. Share Your Content With Powerful Influencers
Getting influencers to share your content can give you just the boost you need to go viral. The hard part is getting on their radar.
There are two ways to get influencers to take notice of your content:
- Hope that they stumble upon it on their own
- Tell them about it
A lot of people take the first approach.
But if you want to increase the likelihood of getting influencers to discover your content, then you have to take a more proactive approach. That means reaching out and letting them know that you’ve just created an infographic, guide or blog post that you think they would appreciate. This process is called outreach marketing.
Outreach marketing is an art. Send out a poorly written unsolicited email and you risk being seen as just another spammer. The key is to start building relationships right now, not just when you publish a new piece of content. Your first interaction with an influencer shouldn’t be a link to your latest blog post. Start out by:
- Connecting with them through social media
- Sharing their content
- @Mentioning them in Tweets
- Linking to their content within your posts
- Sending out an email letting them know you find their content helpful
- Including them in a roundup post
Conclusion
Not every piece of content you create will go viral. In fact, most content doesn’t. But by taking these tips into consideration and implementing the strategies, you’ll increase the amount that your content gets shared and have a much better chance of going viral.
Have you ever had a piece of content go viral? Let us know what worked best for you in the comments.
