The Myth of Your Content Going Viral....

Viral subjects happen by contacts that have access to large amounts of traffic.

Thie video below is a perfect example of how viral works.

Their gofundme page has made $2,311,237 for a $2 million goal. On average 81,839 payed $28.41.

Anyways, my point here is, each person on their own brought a lot of traffic to make the project viral.

In a lot of cases, viral content is pushed by pr and media people and nowhere near as organic as it seems.

It's nearly always a 1 to many approach that makes things go viral.

If you know your niche/market there is something that you can do to enhance your chance of catchability - know the media.

Study your niches media and see what goes viral and which journalist (nearly always) or blogger is pushing them.

Make a swipe file of the stories they produce so you get a feel of what interest thems. When it's time to release your content you write it with the sole purpose of getting the journalists interest.

At the same time look and see where they are getting their stories from.

Journalist, especially on Twitter, don't tend to follow a lot of people. The ones they do tend to be other journalists and bloggers they read.

Think of the main journalist as tier 1 and these other journalists and bloggers as tier 2.

The secret is to get your content in front of the tier 2 people and use your own list/friends/family to make it appear to be getting momentum at tier 2.

You are then left with the job of repeatedly drawing the tier 1 journalists attention to a blog he already knows/likes/trusts.

It's not a guarantee of success but I've had some really silly stories go viral thanks to this method.

One thing I would also note is these viral posts are really like a 24 hour cold, give it a week or two and no one has it and no one talks about it.

The stuff that goes viral most often generally has nothing to do with marketing - Think "Charlie Bit My Finger" or "Gangnam Style".

I agree. When I hear marketers say "make your content go viral" I cringe a bit. Having content go viral depends on other people, so you really can't make it go viral as it's beyond your control.


You can do things that increase the chances of your content going viral, but to go viral your content must be seen by folks/sites that have a large audience and want to share your content.

When you are trying to ideate around a concept that might lead to viral success, consider the type of content that will engage an audience emotionally.
Like a firewood needs a spark to become a blaze, content needs a catalyst in order to reach millions, and there are a variety of ways to do this across paid, earned and owned channels. Consider reaching out to targeted influencers, partnering with a content producer and their built-in audience or purchase targeted Google ad buys.

I would think that content that triggers the emotions would go viral. I've noticed that content with videos that made me laugh or cry have been viral. I wonder what other ways would help content go viral.

I was just reading an article that talked about the research of Jonah Berger, an assistant professor of marketing at the Wharton School of Business who specializes in discovering what makes ideas and products go viral. He recently co-authored a research paper with Katy Milkman called "What Makes Online Content Go Viral?" This article talks about their findings:
https://socialtriggers.com/craft-contagious-content/

I agree something going viral doesn't usually happen because you shared something with one of their friends.

Just a matter of semantics, really. It seems that some people define "viral" as reaching a large number of people quickly, whereas the original definition was more centered on the idea of people passing content to others, regardless of speed. Urban legends can often reach huge numbers, even though typically that happens very gradually.

Sure, it obviously helps if the initial push comes from large publisher(s). But technically, to be considered a viral behavior, content needs to get passed around, and that can happen no matter how large or small the initial "sneeze". The other main factor in the equation is how "catchy" the content is; when it triggers strong emotions, people are more likely to share it. So is it possible that a small sneeze spreads something that's very contagious? Sure, but admittedly, it's not as likely to reach as many people as something that already starts out with a huge audience.

I agree. But I also think, a fair bit of luck is involved, there are ways to just be randomly pickedup by a celebrity if you post in enough places, and that content can go viral.

In the old days of print, before the internet existed, "going viral" meant getting a million sales of a book within 72 hours of publication.

In the wee days of the internet, it still meant the same thing, only now it was getting a million views in the first 72 hours of going live.

Going viral, is a medical term which means quite literally: "A fast spreading virus, infecting a million or more people within 72 hours of first infection"

I can't see how the meaning has changed - it hasn't. Going viral still means the same thing it always has: "1 million infections (sales/views) within the first 72 hours" only this and nothing more. You can't go viral over time. After 72 hour, the time to reach viral has ended. The only thing that has changed is people simply being too stupid to open up a dictionary and find out what words mean, so spread urban myths instead of actual definitions. After the Bible, the Webster's Dictionary is the top selling book in the world, but you wouldn't know it the way the general public has no clue what anything means.

I believe what marketing can offer is to extend your resource on platforms where there are real exposure. On the other hand, some content really goes viral naturally because it has something, or interesting enough to catch people's attention.

I would rather a piece of content get steady views over time rather than a big blast of visitors all at once.

For instance, let's say I take my time and make a really good video and post it to YouTube.

Instead of it going "viral" and getting a million views in a few days and then having it drop off to next to nothing, I would rather have my video get 500 views a day for an indefinite amount of time.

I have several videos that get between 200-500 views every day and it really makes for a very solid traffic flow. Those videos have been producing opt-ins on "autopilot" for me for a long time.

Produce antibiotic resistant content!

Robert,

To me at least, content going "viral" is something people talk about and some marketers proclaim they can control, but really there is no standard definition of what "going viral" really entails - is there?

Who really knows how many eyeballs see your content? Who tracks that and who counts the number? We're really talking about comparative "guesses" as to what "going viral" means, aren't we?

A niche marketer that posts to his blog might typically get 5 responses on average to a particular post. Then one day, out of the blue and for no apparent reason, he receives 50 responses. He thinks, "this post must have gone viral!" Did it really? Or did one reader in the niche simply like his post and recommended it to his followers who then viewed it and responded? Who knows? Who is counting?

I think, as others have stated, you have very little control over your content going "viral" (whatever that means) once it is released.

Certainly, you can get good at SEO, crafting compelling titles, distributing your content in key places, etc . . . but I don't consider those actions as "making your content go viral" . . . they're just smart marketing.

Ultimately, it's your audience that decides what content is heavily viewed. And personally, I don't think the "magic million" views are even necessary for success. In a small, specific niche what really matters is that your defined audience consumes your content. That could mean only a few hundred ever see it. So what? As long as you get your content in front of the people that want what your business offers, who cares that your content doesn't go viral?

Just my thoughts,

Steve

Below are the things that enhance the possibility that your content to go viral:

• Positive content goes viral more than negative content.
• Emotional content is more likely to go viral.
• Practical or useful content is more likely to go viral.
• Luck.

That TIME Article is absolutely correct

I do Podcasts for myself and others. I also promote the vids.

When I would promote posting links on my FB wall or asking people to share, nothing happened.

Nothing happened when I joined random FB groups and posted there.

I achieved VIRAL SUCCESS with the videos when I picked the RIGHT niche-specific groups.

Viral success = All about the DISTRIBUTION NETWORK because it is the CREDIBILITY of the network that people trust!

Hi warriors,

that is the problem with most of the wordpress curation tools, zemanta, or plugins who send my wordpress post to my social channels and such crap.

I think most people like you warriors not need them, with them you can find related content that you can insert your wordpress post- but you grow up other people or you grow up the plugin developer- but you not grow up your own with this.

You and I have the problem to find a way or find tools/plugins who are spread your own content over the web- I have not found such a solution.

Yes advertise paying platforms like outbrain and that bullscxy@@t

It can not be that the only solutions are to find journalists on twitter, magazines or whatever who accept your content to share it to thousands of people.

Or like buzzfeed, you perhaps get many shares on your article you wrote on buzzfeed, but you not get traffic to your site or get any of those shares to sign up on your squeeze page- it only helps grow up the buzzfeed website, not you.

That is the problem, I not have found tools/ or plugins who do that for me.

Does any of you warriors have an idea?


marco005