Three Techniques for Creating Viral Content.

This is Your Golden Ticket to Free Advertising 

Creating consistent content on social media helps build trust, customer relationships and social proof as a brand. Investing time into creating quality content is essential to building your brand but creating viral content is what gets you recognised for little to no money at all. Who wouldn’t want that? 

Viral content is literally your golden ticket to free advertising. 

‘Word-of-mouth’ has been a phenomenon since before the internet era and it’s helped business’ spread ideas and products faster than the speed of sound. The most important thing we have to understand is that all our decisions stem from our emotional approach to things. Whether it makes you sad, happy, angry, surprised, sympathetic, our choices are emotion-triggered and this includes sharing content. 

With a news feed full of mundane content, you want to be the company that makes people stop scrolling and push that share button. The biggest question of all? How do we do it? We wish the answer to this question were easy but if it were, everybody would create viral content every single day. So we’ve got the next best thing. 

The Top 3 Ingredients That Create Viral Content:

1. WOW FACTOR

Example: Positive Bodypaint Illusion

Watch the Bodypaint Ad by clicking this link. 

This is content that blows people away and truly surprises them. Video and storytelling are recommended when trying to achieve the ‘WOW’ effect. Anytime you have an incredible video you should lead with the ‘WOW’ factor within those first three seconds.

When you blow people away, people will share it with their friends to share what they’ve just discovered.
If a story is thrilling and it resonates with the reader, it will be shared. It’s as simple as that.

The secret is to give value while you blow them away. Teach them something or make them realise something they didn’t know before. The example below is a perfect example of this, with the use of optical illusion and body paint.

2. MYSTERY

Example: A New Discovery! The 5th Force of nature.

Watch the full video by clicking this link. 

This technique cuts to the core of human experience. The idea is to get people thinking outside their comfort zone. You want to play on the human need to complete incomplete things.

The curiosity gap is a real thing. Giving someone the sense that there is something to be discovered once they click on your content is uniquely fascinating. Do not confuse this with clickbait. You want to give the audience exactly what you say you will otherwise this can damage your ‘reputation’ online.

Give them something awesome at the end of their click.

#Tip: Include in your copywriting words like “Unlocked” “Scientists just discovered this” “This single thing will transform…”

3. EMPATHY

Example: This Baby Elephant’s Not Giving Up – The Dodo

Click this link to see the video. 

Humans hold the ability to have emotional intelligence. We all identify with someone’s emotions. The ability to identify with people in specific ways is what sells.

You want to be able to empathise with the person on the other end of the click and they need to be able to empathise with you. You should target their pain points but don’t be too general about it, you want to be creative and nail it right down to the specifics because specificity SELLS. 

You don’t want to talk about your product, you want to create content that your avatar would be interested in instead. You want to find a way through content to identify with your audience. When people identify themselves with your brand, they become interested in what your product is and will click, engage and share. 

To gain virality think about how you can identify with people. Emotion-triggered content is how you gain virality. Blow them away, give them the adventure to figure out a mystery or simply make them feel empathetic. Throughout all your content, one-factor remains effective in all these separate ingredients and that’s the power of value. People always want to learn something new.