Just because you create and publish content doesn’t mean your prospects will share it. First and foremost, your content needs to be shareworthy.
Here’s the thing…
Your average person tends to have some “shareworthy capital” banked on social media, on their blogs and elsewhere. This means that if they share something with their friends that isn’t all that shareworthy, their friends are going to allow it… at first. Every person gets to share a few “duds” before their friends take notice. If someone shares too many “duds,” their friends may unfollow them.
What’s more, social media platforms (like Facebook) tend to figure out what users want to see, and then they deliver more of that type of content. And, likewise, the Facebook algorithm takes notice if a user isn’t viewing, liking, sharing or commenting on a particular type of content or a particular friend’s content.
In other words: if a user is sharing a lot of “dud” content that his friends aren’t interacting with, then eventually those friends will see less of that user’s content.
What this means is that your audience is acutely aware that they can’t share “duds” – even if you give them an incentive to do so – as that will waste their sharing/social media capital. While at one time people may have shared everything (we all remember the email forwards), smart users are much more selective today. They’re not going to pass everything along.
However, they really want to share truly shareworthy content. If they share something “cool” then they’ll bank more of this sharing/social media capital (meaning their friends will see and interact with more of their content). So, if you create content that rocks your user’s world in some way, they’re going to share it. And your content will go viral.
Ready to get started? Check that your content includes as many of the following characteristics as possible…
Is your content unique in some way?
If you’re sharing the same old stuff that everyone else is sharing, then your users have no incentive to pass it along. That’s why you need to provide something fresh for users.
Now, this doesn’t mean your content needs to be something that no one else has ever seen before, ever. What this means is that some component of it should be unique. For example:
- Include a new tip. Again, you don’t have to create an entirely new strategy – just one fresh tip will get people’s attention.
- Offer a new twist on an old method. If you’ve discovered a new use for a strategy or product, share it.
- Present content in a new way. A good way to do this is by creating a formula or system. For example, people generally used the same strategy for creating sales letters, but then someone came along and called it the AIDA formula.
- Coin a new phrase. For example, you’ve seen phrases like “The Google Slap.” The slap (losing rankings or getting banned) wasn’t something new. However, the terminology WAS new, which made people sit up and pay attention.
- Share a story, case study or something else personal. Even though someone else may share a case study or story, no two are alike. Yours will always be unique.
Next…
Is the content extraordinarily useful? Does it solve a problem?
When people see your content, you want them to pause for a moment and say “whoa!” or “wow!” to themselves. And when they actually put the information to work, they should be really impressed with how well it works.
In other words, your content needs to be really useful – some of your very best stuff. Even better is if it provides quick results for people, as then can put it to use and see how well it works immediately.
Is your content quick and easy to consume?
As I’ve said elsewhere, your audience has a short attention span. If they see that your content is long and/or difficult to consume, they probably won’t even bother starting to read or watch it. And this means you won’t get very many views, much less shares.
A good guideline is to create content that can be consumed and understood in just a few minutes. For example, keep your videos around three minutes (or less). Keep text-based content to less than 1000 words if possible, as the average reader can read about 200 words per minute.
Is the content presented in an aesthetically pleasing way?
First impressions count. If a prospect takes one look at your article, video or other content and it looks difficult to consume, the prospect won’t even bother.
For example, a lot of readers will simply give up on data-heavy content, as it takes too much energy to wade through it all. To make this content more aesthetically pleasing, easier to consume and easier to share, you can put it in the form of a high-quality graphic.
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Finally…
Does the content look professional?
Again, first impressions count. If your content is riddled with errors, your audience is going to put a low value on your content. And they’re not going to be in a hurry to click your links, share your content or take any sort of action.
Be sure your content makes a great first impression in terms of both design and polished content. Specifically:
- Hire a pro to proof your most important content. You can post a project on upwork.com to find a proofreader or search for a proofreader using Google.
- Hire a pro to make your content pretty. For example, hire a designer to create a design template that you can use for a cheat sheet.
Now the next component of creating viral content…
Keep Reading: How To Engage The Emotions
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