Viral Content in the making…
Are you looking to get that ‘Viral’ tag on your content? Always trying to figure that out, every time you want to put out something? Well, there are some points which might, if not surely, take you there.
Now, what contributes to viral content? Let me list a couple (maybe more) of points for you.
1. Zeitgeist
What is Zeitgeist? In a simple term, it means to capture the energy or excitement that is present at a certain moment. That is, to use the hype, spirit, whatever you want to call it, of that moment in your content. Zeitgeist may make or break your expectation.
2. Timing
Timing is everything. You cannot get a content to go viral once the hype is all faded. Yes, there are exceptions but we are considering the normality, aren’t we. Waiting for the right moment & striking hard & striking fast will be a crucial part in this quest of yours.
3. Storytelling
Let’s get to the chase, if you are not able to tell a story in a way that people would be fixated over sharing it forward, you are not going to get it to go viral. The only way that I see you can get close to that is to try and make the best story you can, instead of worrying about making it go viral.
4. Relativity
‘Viral’ has different definitions for different people. For a common company, viral may mean a million views and corresponding engagement. But for someone like Casey Neistat, a million views is an everyday thing. Viral for him might be 10 million views. We have to define exactly how much ‘viral’ is viral for us. Expecting too much might discourage your efforts.
5. The Right Media & Context
Delivering the content to the right media is as important as creating the content. Fail to showcase it at the right place and your efforts go in vain. Make sure you understand the media you are shortlisting to share your content. They say if Content is King, Context is Queen.
Understand the context of every media and deliver accordingly.
6. Emotion
Emotions drive almost everything around us. Happiness, Frustration, Rage, Stress, etc are all emotions that can drive a content into the ‘Viral Zone’. Although creating content taking into consideration what emotions it will trigger is important, it shouldn’t limit your creativity. To be a bit blunt, you can also leverage the emotions to get better results but tread carefully.
Of course, there are a lot more things to it, but they are never ending. Now, sorry to kill the romance at the end, but, even after getting these things right, you may not get the desired results. I am not saying this is a sure shot recipe for hitting the virality because no one knows what goes viral and what doesn’t. It’s a variable.
But what can surely get you close to it every time is making so much of content and testing it against the audience, that you finally develop the knack of it. Lastly, it’s about the story and the way you narrate it. So only a cliché sentence like ‘practicing will make you perfect’ suits the scenario. Anyway, all the best!
Share your thoughts on making a viral content below, in the comments. Talk to you in the next one!