• Mark Bellew
• April 17, 2017
• Comment(s) | (Disabled)
• Posted 4 years ago

Every company engaged in online marketing and particularly social media marketing wants that golden nugget of a video or other content that goes viral - but there's no switch...

Social Media Needs Your Attention!

Viral Content Doesn’t Grow On Trees

The Old Spice Man. Whatever it is the fox says. Gangnam style. The Dollar Shave Club video that made men everywhere ask themselves, “why are razor blades so expensive?” Viral content is effective because it’s funny, it stands out, it makes an emotional connection and most of all, it makes us want to share with other people. The secret to viral content is creating something people will nag their friends and family to watch or read (and they won’t take no for an answer).

So we’ve established that you want viral content. Great, so do we. So does everybody else who does any sort of marketing. Viral content is an extremely coveted digital asset. But it shouldn’t be used to measure the success or failure of your social media and content marketing efforts.

The fact is, without a pre-existing community, only the best 0.1% of content goes viral. If you write a blog post right now, chances are it would only have a 1 in 1000 shot of going viral. If you’re automatically expecting that you’ll spend a few hours on a post and it’ll somehow go viral, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.

With viral content, you can’t be results oriented. What you can do is pay more attention to detail with your content and social strategies. Doing the little things that make your content more shareable might not send it viral, but an uptick in shares is certainly a step in the right direction. And a few months down the road as your community gathers and grows around your content, you’ve suddenly improved your overall digital strategy and increased your chances of creating something viral.

Plant A Seed And Help It Bloom

Think about your content as a seed and social media as the soil. When you start creating content and sharing it on social media, you are essentially planting a seed. Most seeds don’t bloom in an hour or even a week, and they don’t reach their fully blossomed state for much longer. Likewise, your content (as a whole) won’t begin to show the fruits of its loom for quite a while. The only certainty is that if you don’t water and care for your plant, it won’t grow. If you aren’t giving your content creation and social presence the attention and care they need to be effective, they won’t grow and mature the way you want them to. But if you trust that your hard work will pay off, you’ll eventually have a fully-grown content plant surrounded by rich social media soil!

How To Maximise Your Social Media Presence

Tips For Creating More Shareable Content

Not sure how to properly get the most out of the content you’re creating and sharing? Start with these simple tips for making your content more shareable and you’ll be on your way to maximizing your social presence:

• Learn to listen: sometimes, silence is golden. When you meet a new group of people, it’s often best to do more watching and listening before you open up. Social media is the same way. Joining more conversations than you start and listening more than you talk is a good way to get a sense of the social niche you hope to join.
• Stay active: even if you only dedicate 10 focused minutes a day to social media, it’ll make a huge difference. Checking in once every few days isn’t an option - you’ll get lost in the noise. Make a point to contribute every single day, especially when you’re just starting out.
• Strive for engagement: the whole point of social media is to engage with other people in your industry. Think of it as one big, never-ending conference and don’t let the opportunity to network and engage go to waste. Nobody bites.

This piece only scratches the surface of the things you should do to bolster your social media presence and give your content a greater chance of going viral. We will post more on this and other social media topics in future but in the meantime, for further information and guidance on your social media and content marketing strategies, please get in touch!