The world of social media is not only big, but it is also brutal. Between some 4.4 million blog posts vying for the dear old spot on Google’s first page and over a billion hours of videos consumed on YouTube daily, it is a blood bath out there. The quickest and easiest way to success for many is to go viral.
But getting viral and standing out from such a dense crowd is not easy. There is no secret sauce here. There are, however, a few tried and tested ways that can tip the odds in your favor.
Below is our list of some killer tips that, with persistence, will make you go viral sooner than you might imagine.
Our Top Tips to Help You Go Viral and Propel Your MSP or any business
Let’s start with your blog posts. Blogs can be a great asset for any content creator. They effectively announce you as an authority figure in any industry and drive traffic to your business.
But it is not enough to own a blog. For your blog to be effective and capture your targeted reader’s attention, it must first resonate with them. In short, your blogs must be truly transformational for your audience before they can go viral to transform your own life.
As a content creator and writer, you must be willing to uncover the real YOU-the one that wants to make a difference.
You must put yourself out there, make bold decisions and get out of your comfort zone. Success doesn’t come easy. Most viral influencers you know have only clinched that status after walking on their fair share of pins and needles.
Do not worry- nobody is asking you to pull a swanky transition type on TikTok. Here’s what you can do instead to put some spark in your otherwise great content that is lying dormant for no reason.
1. Create Great Content
Before you post your content, put yourself in the reader’s position. Is it the kind of content that can stop you in your tracks and make you spend the fifteen precious minutes of your life that you know you’re not getting back? If it truly appears like a worth-read to you, chances are, others will see it the same way.
Another way to create virality is by posting daily. Post lots of high-quality blogs and videos on your chosen platforms. Many aspiring influencers start fresh with an energetic burst of regular posts. Still, the zeal soon dies down in the absence of the instant gratification that seemingly comes from going viral.
These novice creators do not realize that most viral posts result from a long and persistent effort to grab the audience’s attention. On average, building a successful blog takes anywhere from 2-4 years.
Your job is to keep up the good work. Eventually, the algorithm will do its magic. Do not feel disheartened. Buckle up your shoes and know that you probably have a mile to walk before seeing any light.
2. Work on Your Headlines
Believe it or not, the first few seconds a reader comes across your headlines are the most decisive for your blog. Only two of every eight headlines read are blessed with a click-through. Most readers will only look at a headline to decide if the post is worth reading.
Veteran writers and content marketers have a few tricks up their sleeves when crafting eye-catching content. Here’s what we have seen trending so far.
- Headlines that feature odd numbers do better than those that do not.
For some reason, we humans are drawn to specificity. Use that in your posts. Try something like My Top 7 Comfort Foods for Lazy Days.
- If you do not have a list of some kind, try posing your headline as a question.
Questions can be intriguing, especially when there are no obvious answers. Curiosity kills the cat, or in your case, the reader. Just make sure that the question is not leading. A leading question makes the upcoming content obvious. For example, ‘Do you procrastinate often?’ is a leading question.
Procrastinators know well enough that they do. Frame your question in a way that may pique their interest.
“Why do you procrastinate even though you tell yourself you won’t?”
Your question must be framed to excite curiosity.
- When nothing else works, a little controversy does.
No publicity is bad publicity. Sure, you may turn a few heads, catch a few haters, and lock some finger-pointers, but all that is part of a blogger’s or influencer’s baggage. However, be careful. For most people, the goal is to be famous and not notorious for constantly offending people. What we’re telling you to do is to have a little personality and go with it. Nothing wrong with having an honest opinion.
In the very end, there are some automated headline-generating tools if you’re totally strapped for ideas.
3. Hop on existing trends.
Why reinvent the wheel when there is one already spinning the social axis? It is easier to hop on the bandwagon so why not try it?
Remember that there has to be a fine balance between the trendy and the original. Doing the same thing as thousands of others will land you nowhere. At the same time, publishing great content around a super original and obscure niche may not be everyone’s cup of tea.
Surf all social media. Find content that is trending and then put your original spin on it. Sites like Netflix, TikTok, and Twitter are loaded with trending content. Use it to your advantage.
4. Do not underestimate the power of social media.
It is rare for a blog or a video post to go viral on social media without much effort. Most viral posts are the result of constant sharing and reshaping. If you believe your content is top-class but has failed to garner attention, do not give up on it.
Share it on as many social media platforms as you can manage. Once you have curated your content, post it to
- YouTube (if applicable)
- Yahoo Buzz
Just because something didn’t work out the first time, don’t think it will inevitably fail the second time too. Keep trying until you hit success.
5. SEO is Your Friend
As a rule of thumb, we first write for the audience and then optimize for search engines. Put another way, the content you post must have value, with the focus being your targeted audience instead of the search engine algorithm.
Remember, all search engines ultimately reward valuable content. If your post is based on a trending theme, addresses the pain points of your readers, is not overly didactic, and has just the right number of targeted keywords, Google will eventually pick it up. The key, as stated earlier, is persistence alongside quality.
We recommend that you have a basic working knowledge of SEO, and no, we do not mean keyword stuffing. There’s a lot to master when it comes to search engine optimization. Google keeps revising the algorithm, so familiarizing yourself with the revised SEO specifications may be a good place to start.
6. Make Your Content Visually Appealing
Speaking of SEO, a survey revealed that blog posts with videos and images do better than their imageless counterparts. Between 51% and 80% of businesses use visuals to promote their content.
Including a little video snippet of your workout routine, your 7-step nighttime skincare, or your train of cute little Pomeranians may instantly boost the popularity of your posts. Similarly, use appealing and organic photos to catch your readers’ attention. Most of us are viscerally visual creatures. So leverage this phenomenon as much as you can.
Another tool to bring your content to life is text-to-speech software . You can create podcasts and embed them in your blogs. Trust us; the smallest details can go a long way in driving blog traffic and helping the content go viral.
7. Engage with a Story
In her book, How to Write Compelling Sales Letter and Copywriting for the Web, copywriting guru Angie T. Lee emphasizes the power of telling a backstory. According to Angie, the number one mistake writers make while creating content is getting too caught up in the technical details.
In the words of Angie, do not turn your readers into a user’s manual. Create a casual backstory to your post, product, or whatever you wish to share with the world.
To make your posts go viral, you must earn the trust of your audience. You can do this by making your content easy to read, engaging them with an everyday story that most of us can relate to, and being upfront about your own struggles.
The more authentic sounding your blog, the better it has a shot of going viral with the public.
8. Leverage Popular Brand Heroes
There are a few tropes expert writers love to exploit when trying to create viral content. A rags-to-riches story is one of them. People love to hear about relatable folks who were able to make their dreams happen. Another popular trope among writers is using a brand hero.
People love to speculate about their favorites. Imagine you are an android fanatic. Do you not think a headline such as “Another Call of Duty Fiasco! Why is there a child in combat?” will manage to stop you dead in the tracks? At the very least, you will go over the headline twice!
9. Avoid clickbait; use real emotion.
Never promise your audience what you cannot deliver. You can never create a large audience or a wide reach by using phony, clickbaity material. You readers are not impressionable little hobbledehoys. They can smell bogus content from a mile.
Once you lose the trust of your audience, it’s nearly impossible to gain it back. Do not appeal to anyone’s baser instinct to lure them in. instead, try to create a genuine connection with your readers and viewers.
Act as their guide, mentor, and friend. In the long run, the genuine connections you make along the way will help you grow as a blogger, an influencer, a business owner, and a person.
10. Create good content before you engineer virality rather than the other way around.
It is usually easier to make great content go viral by following popular growth hacks than take a viral idea and create content around it. Regarding blogging, other than headlines, it is important to create immaculate hooks.
In a writer’s language, a hook is the opening statement of your blog or a video message that aims to introduce the topic while grabbing your audience’s attention.
Below are a few popular tips for creating great hooks.
- Introduce a quick stat. (According to research, 80% of people will write their names if asked to doodle something with a new pen)
- Pose a self-reflective question. (Why is it time to take accountability for all the uncrossed to-dos on your list?)
- Drop a short story. Make it as concise and to the point as possible.
- Put forth some challenge. (I bet you cannot surf the internet for more than two hours without scrolling your socials. Or are you the exceptional 5%)
And our final tip: Learn as you go and have fun.
Do not get too caught up in adhering to the rules and zapping the fun out of things in the process. When it comes to virality, there are very few rules set in stone anyway.
The important thing is to have fun with the content you create. If curating your content starts appearing like a burden at any point, you better believe the vibe will trickle down to your audience. Do not take things too seriously, and learn to let yourself loose.
With every mistake you make, there’s an opportunity to learn and grow from it. Do not shy away from creating unconventional and powerful messages. With the right blend of grit, flow, and a bit of luck, you’ll get your desired results.
If you want to learn how to use blogging as a part of larger MSP marketing strategy then checkout our MSP marketing strategy.