13 Ways To Become A Viral Content Writer

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Let’s confess: It is the dream of many a blogger or content maker to create that ‘masterpiece’ that is clicked, shared, and liked by thousands and even millions!

And many a time it is not that one isn’t a good content maker; but somehow the ‘magic formula’ – that places all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together to create enough buzz in the virtual world – seems missing. Oh! For that bliss of virality!

But hold on; there are many experienced, successful content creators out there who have weathered the storm and been gracious enough to dissect those factors, and following their cues might bring in a world of difference in the manner we present our content to the world.

And voila! Before we know, in the world of content clamoring, our write-ups, videos, podcasts or posts have grabbed the attention of quite an enviable number of viewers for that ultimate blissful sensation of finally having hit the ‘viral jackpot’!

So how do we make your content viral?

The following are 13 strategies that have time and again come in handy in the quest for creating viral content:

1. The Aesthetics
2. The art of communication
3. In-depth knowledge
4. Psychological approach
5. Have a target audience
6. Be specific and purposeful while creating content
7. The timing
8. Establish connections
9. Acknowledge contributions
10. Intrigue with catchy headlines and be unique in your narrative
11. Have prominent share buttons
12. Conduct basic keyword search
13. Be consistent

The aesthetics:

It’s human nature to seek that which is endearing to the eye! Therefore everything – right from the type of font, its size, colour palette to the pictures and videos – used in creating your content matters. The following are certain tips to enhance aesthetics:

• Beyond a shadow of doubt, people get bored with too much of text. Interpose your text with attractive images. If you could use photos from personal clicks, that would be more awesome and realistic.
• Use infographics. A single infographic is worth a hundred words. The gist of your message is very easily comprehended that way.
• Highlight relevant points with a different font type, size or italics. If you wish to use a different colour scheme to arrest the reader’s attention to a specific statement that you consider important, you may do so.
• Consider giving an audiovisual treat with interesting video clippings. Just make sure that the clippings are not too long and distracting. If you create your own videos, it’s a sure shot idea to enhance your reach!
• Overall, try to keep sentences simple and understandable, and enhance heavy content with alluring pictures and videos.

The art of communication:

Even if you don’t exactly know the person who’s reading or viewing your content, be assured that you are nevertheless communicating with words that you write or speak! And that’s exactly why it is important that your content feels relatable. To create viral content, your language must manage to strike a chord with the readers.

Using the first person and second person narrative alternately would definitely make the content seem like a conversation between you and the reader. It is one of the easiest methods to make the readers feel like they belong in the thread of topic discussion that you have put up. They would instantly try to relate your content to their own life experiences. Who knows!? You might actually be giving them ideas to get out of probable dilemmas that they face at the workplace or mundane daily lives.

And in the course of reading your content, if it really seems like you have thrown some light in the darkness of their confusion, they wouldn’t just be using your ideas for their own good, but would even be happy to share it with like-minded people they know. what better way to turn viral than having your write-up shared by one, and then by two people and then by four and eight and sixteen…and before you know, your content has had an exponential reach!

Additionally, you may include interactive resources like quizzes or questionnaires or simply ask your readers to share their memories or stories related to the content you have written and make sure to respond to them accordingly.

In-depth knowledge:

It goes without saying that bloggers and content makers ought to be quite adept at the topics they put forth on different platforms. Even if you are hired by any firm as a content writer, have a thorough study of the firm you are working for, even their pros and cons, the kinds of services they render and the like.

Only if you have sound knowledge will you be able to have a good command over your content. Or else, it would seem quite shallow which puts you in poor light as a blogger or content maker.

And if people happen to ask questions in the ‘comments’ section, you need to give sensible answers for which in-depth knowledge is inevitable.

Also, there are readers who look forward to well-researched descriptive write-ups. Long form content has lately witnessed a rise in demand. There’s much less competition in the long form category, which gives an increased possibility for your content to turn viral if you make it explanatory and wholesome.

So rather than creating too short and shallow content, it is highly recommended to create quite an illustrative one!

Psychological approach:

Managing to evoke emotions in your readers or viewers is a sure short cut to viral success or for any accomplishment in the creative world, for that matter!

We might brag a lot about being technologically-dependent and time constrained, but at the end of the day, it all comes down to how much we all are emotionally driven to create or live the kind of lives we envision.

If your content happens to trigger some sense of positivity like awe, wonder, joy or humor or allays someone’s negative emotions like fear, anxiety or sadness, then you really are a gifted content creator! Try to inculcate more of positivity in a world that is already wrought with uncertainties and distressful times!

Emotions are always contagious! Any content that stimulates the feelings of the reader/viewer and is perceived as practically useful coerces him to click on the ‘like, comment and share’ buttons. You can certainly vouch on this psychological approach to create content that goes viral in no time!

Have a target audience:

It is unrealistic for a content creator to dream of satisfying all types of audience. That doesn’t happen often!

You can choose the kind of audience you wish to address – for example, first-time mothers or newly-wed wives, college-going students or any particular professional group, or you could even address your local community of book lovers or trekkers….

Once you decide the type of audience you wish to relate to, try to visualize the kind of content your readers would be curious to know or discuss. And then, give them what they want!

At the end of a particular write-up or podcast, you may ask the opinions of your reader/viewer/listener and gather ideas from their feedback for your next content and thereby create a wonderful line of creative matter that overall provide a 360 degree perspective of the specific subject that your blog or website deals with!

Be specific and purposeful while creating content:

Being “Jack of all trades and Master of none” is not exactly a recommended proposition in the field of content making, especially considering the fact that there’s never a dearth of content in the internet.

So, it would be wiser to stick on to some specific subject that you feel confident enough to place on content platforms.

For example, if your website deals with “health”, we all know that it is a very huge subject that deals with physical, mental and emotional aspects. Taking just the physical health into consideration, we still have different systems in the human body like the respiratory system, digestive system, nervous system and a lot more and under each system there are countless disease conditions that you could keep writing about!

Whereas if you try to channelize your blogs or videos to just a particular functioning system or only about mental wellness, your audience gets to experience a lot more specificity. Also, this helps you create content that is ‘to-the-point’ and caters to the nuances of the topic of your choice.

To create viral content, it is important that it isn’t merely fact-based. No one reads content for facts or statistics. On the other hand, people would be cajoled into following you and reading more of your posts or viewing more of your videos if the content you create happens to

• provide practical solutions,
• make circumstances or situations seem manageable,
• and thereby enhance the reader/viewer’s life or perspective in some way

The timing:

When the first wave of COVID-19 swept over Wuhan in China, the world knew practically nothing about this new species of virus that was wreaking total mayhem in China.

Every imaginable news and health website was scampering to collect data and create content on this novel coronavirus.

We all know how everyone was frantically searching for information on COVID 19.

Likewise, every time a celebrity or well-known person commits suicide out of depression, there’s a sudden surge on searches related to mental health or reasons for suicidal tendencies or methods to manage those conditions.

What I mean to say is this: if you create content on a topic that is relevant at a particular point of time, chances are that your content will very quickly pick on interest, on a rampant scale!

Try to grab such opportunities to create a quick following and thereafter all we have to do is to keep our followers steadily satiated with information and interesting content in our subsequent blogs or podcasts or videos!

Establish connections:

Reach out to family, friends, acquaintances, colleagues regarding your posts. Put them up on social media – facebook, instagram, tumblr etc. for all your virtual friends to see.

If there are any communities or groups on social media related to the topic that you have written about, be a member of such groups and put up your content on those platforms, if allowed.

For eg, if there’s a book-lovers’ FB group that you are a member of, and your blog happens to be about any particular author or book, you might as well share your content with such a relatable audience who would then go on to spread the word!

Acknowledge contributions:

While creating content, we might borrow concepts mentioned in well-known books or quoted by other writers or famous personalities. There’s obviously no harm in doing so. In fact, it enhances the credibility of our content too!

But never forget to give due credit to people who have shared their ideas and do not hesitate to mention their identities. Be courteous enough to acknowledge contributions even if it be from a fellow blogger or reader or social influencer.

When properly acknowledged, these very same people would share your content on their personal social media accounts and thereby a relationship of trust is built between the content writer and the reader or viewer. Trust is very important in creating viral content!

Intrigue your audience with catchy headlines and be unique with your narrative:

“10 ways to keep your man”, ��20 ways to let go” and so many similar catchy phrases instantly allure you to click and read. Lists still rule the roost; so you might as well try this trick!

You might have written a very informative or useful blog, but for want of an attention-grabbing title, you’re sure to lose out in this rat race of content writing.

Not to forget, the internet is notorious for clickbaits that rely only on enticing headlines to attract visitors to sub-standard content. It would be hugely unfair on your part as a content writer if you don’t use captivating headlines to lead readers to something that you have created with so much of research and passion!

Create your own style of narrative or storytelling to engage the readers. Use anecdotes, humor, and satire – whatever suits your comfort and style – and celebrate your uniqueness!

Have prominent share buttons:

Try to prominently place share buttons of social networks like an FB share button or a click to tweet. Make it easy for the readers to share your content. Place it in strategic locations that do not miss being noticed by your readers.

You may use hashtags to spread the word!

Conduct basic keyword search:

Before you create content, it’s wise to do some keyword research so as to optimize your content. This helps you to create the kind of material that your target audience seeks.

The most commonly referenced tool in this area is the Google Adwords Keyword Planner. Once you type in the keyword you get information about average monthly searches for that particular keyword, the number of competitors bidding for the same, global monthly searches, local monthly searches which are specific to a country or language and approximate cost-per-click if you were to bid on the keyword.

It is preferable to pick a keyword phrase that consists of four or five words to enhance your reachability.

Be consistent:

As a beginner in the field of content making, it would take quite some time and effort to create your niche in the virtual world. But the more you persevere in learning the tricks of the trade, the brighter your prospects turn out with the passage of time.

It is important not to lose heart and keep creating content that you consider worth sharing with the world. And link your content effectively! The steady followers that you have created, even if they be few, deserve your attention especially when they put up queries or comments.

Also, try to reframe or restructure your old blogs or videos and update them especially in the context of some newfound piece of information or recent incidents that put certain issues in sudden spotlight.

Summing up:

To make your content viral, take care to couple your efforts on subject research and strategic measures with multiple formats of content presentation like blogging, infographics, social media posts, webinars, quizzes/tools, ebooks, podcasting, videos, slideshare presentations etc.

Choose formats that work best for you, use them to your advantage and let the world know that you’re worth the time that readers/viewers invest. And then your audience will spread the word that you are definitely a content maker of substance!

FAQs:

1.What is the difference between content marketing and viral marketing?

The term ‘content marketing’ is used when you go about sharing information, perspectives or entertainment in a consumable format as in blog articles, social media posts, webinars and the like. It usually aims at a specific type of audience and presents ‘on point’ content that caters to the needs and enjoyment of that particular audience. It tries to build trust and readership or viewership in the long run with its consistency and quality put forth.

Viral marketing doesn’t really ‘focus’ on a specific type of audience. It has a more general outlook as it tries to market its product or brand to literally everyone on the internet. It eyes on quick, short-term benefits.

2. Mention some content marketing tools?

Here are some amazing tools that help you create beautiful content:

BuzzSumo – helps you analyse topics. What’s more, you just have to type in the topic you wish to create content on, and BuzzSumo suggests the kind of format you ought to consider to facilitate the kind of medium that suits your topic. For example, if you wish to present some content on dance, any sensible person would say that it’s better to create a video on dance rather than write an article about it! BuzzSumo also helps you find influencers who would be interested to share your content.

Tweriod – lets you know when is the best time of the day to send tweets.

Canva – a very useful tool that helps create images that your readers would keep staring at! Explore the different layouts and templates and tons of other options to create fabulous images.

SEMRush – helps in search marketing. Gives a peek into keywords your competitors are presently using and helps you come up with those keywords that they might not know about yet!

HootSuite – helps manage social media posts ahead of time, and based on their peak engagement hours

Grammarly – A great tool to analyse spelling and grammar errors and make appropriate rectifications, and thus comes in handy in proofreading.

Invideo – helps create amazing videos for marketing. You needn’t have prior experience with video editing and you can still find this tool simple to create great videos.

WordPress – this is the most widely used Content Marketing System in the world. It lets you host and build websites. Easy to use and gives you a very pleaant experience!

Apart from the tools mentioned above, there are many others like Yoast, Ahrefs, HubSpot, Google Docs, Airstory, Kred etc. each of which you can explore on your own and choose from.

3.What are some common viral marketing tools?

Beginners in content making can rely on community forums across the web for viral marketing. Just create a forum and build your very own community from scratch or join one that already exists.

Make use of common platforms that you are aware of like Instagram, Tumblr, Tout etc. or try out exclusive marketing tools like Gleam, ViralSweep, Heyo, Entice, TrendSpottr, OpenLinkProfiler, LinkTrackr etc. to generate leads on your posts or videosand have an analysis of the competition in the world of content making.

4.How frequently should I put up my content?

Have a systematic approach when it comes to the question of how frequently you put up new posts or YouTube videos.

For example, if you have a blogging website, fix two or three days of the week to present new content like on every Tuesday and Friday of the week or so. That way, your followers know when to look forward to your posts, videos or podcasts.

5. What is more preferable – single format of content presentation or multiple formats?

Up to you! The important thing is, choose a format that you feel most comfortable for your creative flow. And if possible, incorporate 2 or 3 formats to convey the message.

For example, if you wish to write a travel blog on Munnar hillstation, apart from the description of the place and tips on how to get there and where to stay, include a short video clipping of Munnar that would reveal the real beauty of the place before the eyes of the reader/viewer. And they would be more enticed to visit the place and follow your blogs!

Once you have garnered enough traction in a single format, you may consider branching out to other formats like podcasts or webinars. Do not experiment with too many formats which would leave you with little scope to excel in any particular one!

 

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