How do you create a viral content? Content creators are always trying to figure out the secret formula for going viral, but it seems like no one way guarantees success. Fortunately, you can increase your chances of a successful campaign with these different tips and tricks that we've gathered from recently successful campaigns.

 

What is viral marketing?

1. Use humour or emotion in your content as these emotions elicit more emotional response than logical arguments
2. Tailor your content or campaign to a particular target audience
3. Make a creative, unique, and memorable visual to stand out
4. Shareability Is Key
5. Timing Matters
6. Repurpose existing content from a new angle
7. Effective Headlines – Don't Give It All Away
8. Know Your Audience 

 

What Is Viral Marketing?

Viral marketing is about creating content with the goal that it will be shared amongst a wide audience. In other words, you want people to share your content with their friends, family members, and followers on social media. The most significant advantages of viral marketing include increased brand awareness, more organic traffic to your website or physical store, and higher conversions.

People have long tried to understand what type of content goes viral and what doesn't. Is there "a science" behind vitality? Some use surveys that ask people to explain what made them share an article or video and why to help figure out what these commonalities might be. Recent surveys show that 66% of people are more likely to share content that includes humour - just below news content, which tops the list at 72%. While there is no agreed-upon definition of what makes a specific piece of content viral, some practices seem to increase the chances. 

 

Below are some tips from campaigns that went viral.

 

 

Use humour or emotion in your content as these emotions elicit more emotional response than logical arguments:

Research shows thatthe best way to get people engaged with content is by creating something funny, emotional, or otherwise engaging. This makes sense - if you're watching a video on Facebook in your feed, for example, what emotion(s) does it elicit? You might be feeling happy because someone has a funny dog; you might be feeling sad because someone had an emotional story to tell that made them cry. When something moves you at an emotional level, you'll be more likely to share it with others. 

Who, for example, has not seen the video "Charlie bit my finger"? Posted in 2007, it soon became YouTube'smost-watched video of all time, viewed by hundreds of millions of people before the publisher pulled it off the platform and turned it into an NFT (non-fungible token) earlier this year. You can still find other copies on YouTube. It is a short, funny, and sweet video showing the adorable antics of a charming toddler and his brother. 

 

 

Tailor your content or campaign to a particular target audience

That was a video, but what about other forms of content such as posts? How to make a post go viral? Its essential to tailor your content for a particular audience. This is something that marketers have been doing since the dawn of time. You might have heard the saying,"you can't please everyone". That is true in marketing as well. You must cater your campaign or content for a specific audience. For example, if you're trying to get parents on social media interested in buying something, instead of posting about how great the product is and why they should buy it - which will probably fall on deaf ears - focus on the content and campaign around things that parents are interested in, like how it will make their lives easier.

 

 

Make a creative, unique, and memorable visual to stand out

Your content must stand out and be unique in some way to go viral. Every day, people are bombarded with content. You must be different from them and create something memorable. There are countless viral content examples; butone of the most successful viral campaigns was Dove's "Real Beauty Sketches" campaign, released in April 2013, on YouTube. In short, the video is about how a forensic artist sketches two strangers and then asks them to describe what they look like. The second person is always given the more positive sketch, showcasing their strengths and beauty. The first person's sketch often has some flaws or weaknesses added that emphasize self-doubt or insecurity about appearance. 

With nearly 70 million views, this campaign not only went viral but arguably also helped change perceptions and attitudes about beauty around the world - a goal of Dove's for years as it has traditionally focused on creating products specifically marketed toward women with more "natural," un-airbrushed images of models.

 

 

Shareability Is Key

Your content or campaign will go viral if it's shareable. What does this mean? It means people need to be able to share your content with others on social media platforms quickly and easily by clicking a few buttons. If you want to know, for example, how to make your content go viral on Instagram, you might want to make your video shorter than one minute. You might also want to use popular hashtags to make it more shareable. You don't want your viewers to have to do too much work before they can share it. 

 

 

Timing Matters

Timely content is also essential. If your content or campaign is posted at the wrong time, such as a Monday morning, when people are still waking up and getting ready for work, it might go unnoticed. You might also want to avoid posting your content during significant events like the Oscars, a sporting event or any other time when there will be a lot of competition for people's attention. 

 

 

Repurpose existing content from a new angle

Repurposing existing content from a new angle is another way to make it go viral. You could, for example, take a funny video or meme and create something new with it. The most creative person doing this is perhaps TikTok's most-followed user Khabane "Khaby" Lame, who simply points out with a silent gesture how so-called "life hack" videos on social media are anything but life hacks. He has tens of millions of followers.

 

 

Effective Headlines – Don't Give It All Away

Headlines are an essential part of any content, as they are the first thing that people will see and typically make up a large percentage of what is read. You don't want to give away too much in your headline - you need to leave some details for readers who might be interested but not sure yet whether or not they should invest their time reading your post.

 

 

Know Your Audience 

How do you make social media content viral? One way is by knowing your audience and what their interests are. What do they like to share with others? You must learn about your audience and understand what they are passionate about. Know what they like and dislike on social media. Know where to find them online - on social media or in forums, for example - and how often you should be posting content based on the size of your audience. Leverage great tools such as Google Trends to find out what people are most interested in right now. Finally,don't forget to sign upfor Google Alerts to stay up to date with all the latest trends in your industry and jump on any opportunity to provide relevant and timely content.

 

Summary

Now, how do things go viral? There is no one answer to this question, but we hope that the tips above will provide some direction for your campaign. Keep in mind that we might never fully understand, for instance, what exactly made 50 million people like a simple brown egg on Instagram, beating the world record held by Kylie Jenner at 18 million likes.

Affiliate marketing is not an easy business to get into, but if you follow the steps outlined above and research where to start, it can be rewarding in terms of increased revenue. You need to remember no matter what you do; there will always be challenges. There are no shortcuts in this business, so it's important not to get discouraged and stay committed. Tackling those challenges one at a time and use the right publisher tools such as:

• RevSocial
• RevLinks
• RevEmbed
• RevAds

you can make affiliate marketing a profitable business that you are proud of. With RevSocial, for example, you can turn your social media account into a money-making machine in minutes. It allows you to search and find deals that pay you a commission. Once you do that, just post them to your social media account to get paid. RevSocial will take care of the rest. And if you want to monetise content on your website instantly, RevLinks will do that for you.