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Viral Content: 6 ways to create viral and evergreen content

There are many tips to remind you of the importance of creating compelling content and stimulating thinking and emotions to engage your audience. However, there are not many definitive instructions telling us exactly what to do. We know that quality must always be ahead of quantity, but exactly how do we create content that is likely to spread in the first place?

There are some tips for you.

While elements like great writing and expert knowledge help, the thing that determines the value and spread of content is the subject itself. It is not uncommon for content marketers to be so overwhelmed with the creation of so many blog posts that they rush into the topic selection process. Instead, choosing the right topic for the content should come from proper research and a clear understanding of why your post is important and what it can offer to your audience.

So how can you create posts that are both viral and evergreen, which will extend the content’s lifetime and bring you more results?

In a recent SEMrush online seminar, I discussed 6 effective strategies to provide value to content, while Kathryn Aragon, Ross Simmonds and Justin Champion presented their insights on how you create content that helps people and make them want to share it.

Content:

  1. Resolve the problem of the target audience
  2. Find simple solutions to common problems
  3. Break a legend (Bust a Myth)
  4. Combining Multiple Themes (Mashup)
  5. Find small but passionate groups on this topic
  6. Visualize the status before and after

 

5 techniques to help you discover new topics

  • Get started with your Top Content
  • Subscribe to trending topics (Trending Topics)
  • Leveraging comment marketing (Comment Marketing)
  • Run some experiments
  • Purposeful content.

What is viral content?

Viral Content is a term for content that spreads quickly and widely from person to person over the online network, content that can be a social media post such as an article, image or video recorded that attract users and make them irresistible and can’t help to share it on their social page.

A classic example of viral content, often in the form of videos or images with one or two lines of text.

Spreading content can be anything, but it usually meets some of the following criteria:

  • Creation
  • Entertainment
  • Precious
  • Stimulating Thinking

Although most of the viral content you see may belong to funny YouTube videos, cute panda images or controversial posts, blog content can and often gets viral. Blog posts are most likely spread when they are useful and valuable to the audience. When writing blog posts for your business, using stories to entertain and connect with the community is a good start, and it can also help create thought-provoking content that keeps readers wondering. expensive and want more.

Now, let’s look at the 6 strategies we have used to help come up with content ideas worth spreading.

  1. Resolve the problem of the target audience

One of the best ways to create content that adds value is to provide a solution to one of the most common or annoying issues for your audience. Understand the pain of the audience that will appear here, as this will allow you to identify what they are struggling with and offer solutions that they can reach. This will ask you to put yourself in the shoes of your readers, something that all content marketers should do from the start.

Ideally, when you are solving a problem, your content must be both detailed and actionable. Readers should understand the content of the steps you have described to perform them. Your content should also offer new answers to existing questions instead of just rehearsing similar questions.

Do you need some help to come up with specific ideas to solve a problem or give a solution? We will cover the end of this post in depth, but here are a few places to get started:

  • Check out what colleagues and customers are discussing in your industry by visiting online forums and discussion groups.
  • Look through your customer support log.
  • Reach out through social media and ask customers directly the topics they want to see or need help with.
  1. Find simple solutions to common problems

Sometimes our readers have solutions, but those solutions are not always ideal. This gives you the opportunity to create content to share quick hacks for common issues that your audience is facing. Maybe instead of telling them how to install the code on each page of the site copy you have, for example, you can show them a plugin that does it all at once.

Simple solutions are always helpful – who does not want to solve problems faster and simpler? This is why DIY videos on YouTube with the most views are videos that show the easiest solutions, even for common tasks. If you do not believe us, search Google for “T-shirt folding” and be prepared to see how many views and interactions some videos have received.

 

  1. Bust a Myth

Legend is common in all industries, and as an expert, you have the opportunity to break a myth to bring education and entertainment to your audience. This content can be interesting, if you can make it appealing, you will gain an advantage when you want it to spread.

In addition to making content more interesting for the educational purpose of your audience, this technique is also a great way to increase your engagement. After all, myths can spark a lot of debate and cause a lot of questions to be asked, giving you plenty of opportunities to create and engage in discussions with your target audience and colleagues.

Make sure your article Break the legend can come under criticism. In the case of Venngage, we created an infographic about myths for thousands of years that received a lot of backlash from readers who did not agree with the claims made.

Of course, as a result, there are a lot of comments and discussions that lead to more social media attention for the article in question. You can use specific examples and stories, along with statistics, logic, and science, to create a post that makes people trustworthy and interesting. This will earn you new backlinks and more shares, while helping you build an aspect of thought leadership.

  1. Combining Multiple Themes (Mashup)

Evergreen Content has the distinct advantage of being relevant for a much longer period of time, but trending topics have great search and engagement benefits. You can make the best of both worlds by creating a post that combines evergreen topics with some of the hottest trending topics that people are talking about.

An example of how to do this would be to provide tips on how to accomplish the task while using the characters of a popular drama or movie or as an example or lead into the story. You can also use trending news stories to create viral content, like using your business PR crisis to write about customer service or brand reputation. Anything that is relevant is likely to be shared in larger numbers immediately, so this is a great strategy to attract new potential customers and users who have not yet explored your brand.

  1. Find small groups that are passionate about the same topic

People want to participate in Subculture, they can be extremely passionate about them. That’s part of the reason why memes are so popular and why Reddit has a multitude of subreddits dedicated to specialized discussion topics. That is also why Universal has Harry Potter World and Disney expanding the Star Wars theme park.

People like to participate in the Niches they belong to, so if you can create content that attracts users to engage in these subcategories, they are willing and enthusiastic to share that content. Appropriate specific content will be shared and enjoyed more by certain groups. As a result, your article may get more shares than the general content even if it does not appeal to people.

  1. Visualize the status before and after

Writing good ads means that you should always be able to simply indicate a state of pre-condition (when your audience has not yet discovered your brand or product) into a state after they use your product and see the results. Before this webinar, for example, you might be struggling to create content that gets a lot of shares. In the future, you can see that your participation and shares have increased significantly.

To have a clear understanding of the position of the audience in the previous state, think about what a day in their life is like and how they feel about it. What problems cause them a headache? For example, as an accounting software business, you can not only make their billing system more seamless, but also release them from a task that keeps them away from other jobs or from their families.

Once you fully understand the leads in the “first” and where you want them to “later”, you can track the journey between the two states a little easier. This method of creating content is within the framework of optimizing customer value and extremely effective when it comes to creating content that appeals to the needs of the audience. Use these concepts to create topics and use the language that will appeal to most of your readers.

5 techniques to help you discover new topics

Now you have six different content strategies and types that you can use to create more engagement and sharing, making your content viral. But we do have some other techniques to help you explore specific topics to write about.

Here is what the webinar experts (webinars) have to say

From your Top Content

Ross shared that one of the most effective ways to find great ideas for new content is to look back at what you have done, and look at the top content you have created is a good place to start. This also applies to content from other brands that you find audience feedback.

Look at what content gets the most shares, upvotes or comments. What specific topics and types of content are being most involved? How can you provide something new in discussions?

Go to your audience. Take a look in Facebook Groups, LinkedIn Groups and even Reddit to see what people are talking about, what they are sharing and what questions they have. You will get a much clearer idea of ​​exactly what your audience wants to see.

Subscribe to the trend topic (Trending Topics)

Kathryn shared that tracking trending topics is a solid strategy to help launch new ideas for content. See what people are saying in the topics of trending posts, and instead of responding there, you can even create a full piece of content as feedback.

Trending topics can also provide the opportunity to share content that you created in the past or to resubmit that content a little before sharing again.

Leveraging comment marketing (Comment Marketing)

Justin uses a lot of online marketing comments to help identify the discussion topics. He will follow the topic on social media and then listen very carefully. In addition to creating new topics to write based on the questions and discussions taking place there, it also provides opportunities to build thought leadership and form connections with members of the target audience. Sometimes you can provide a link to your site when it fully answers someone’s question.

That being said, Justin reminds us not to do this too often; like he mentioned in the webinar, you do not want to be that guy at the party everyone avoids because he always sells something.

Run some experiments

All good marketing requires a bit of trial and error, and content marketing is no exception. You should not be afraid to experiment; instead, take action. You should find ways to incorporate content experiments into your overall growth strategy. Check out different types of content (including video, audio, graphics and more) and various niche topics in your industry. This is the only way to really see what works and what does not give your exact audience.

The content has purpose

Content reproduction is a great way to create a larger amount of content that your audience loves and that is the strategy that Justin uses himself to maintain the scale of work he creates.

Because it can be difficult to create great content regularly, reuse can help you get the most out of your top-performing work. This can take different forms, but it usually means you can turn an infographic into a blog post or a blog post into a YouTube video. You can also encourage users to ask questions in the comments section of your blog and then answer them in Facebook Live.

If you know your audience likes and responds well to a certain topic, take all that you can out of it before removing it or you could have a great waste of opportunity.

I am ready to create viral content. So where to start?

Like all great marketing campaigns, creating successful viral content requires some intensive planning and research. Get to know your audience and once you do, you can choose a topic that best addresses their problems and give them new ideas.

Know that when you actually create content, your work will not end. It is up to you to distribute your content in ways that will allow it to reach your target audience. In many cases, great content is never shared or spread just because it is not properly distributed. As mentioned, 20% of the hard work is spent on writing and creating content; more than 80% of the reason part of the content will be viral based on delivery methods.

Many people prefer one-to-one communication, so brands can reach their customers using Facebook Groups, LinkedIn Groups or Facebook Messenger. They can also use social media and email marketing campaigns to increase the number of content viewers when it launches. Diversify the platforms you are sharing content with, as some people love Facebook but others may prefer Snapchat or Instagram.

Be creative and help your audience find your content so they can take it from there and do the rest of the work for you to distribute and spread your content.

Conclusion

While there are many factors that can affect whether or not content is viral, understanding your audience will help you organize things the way you want. Being able to identify your audience’s problems and provide them with solutions that are both simple and useful, while engaging in their specific interests, will provide the kind of value they need. Your audience is always first, and Content Marketing is no exception.

See also Infographic: 6 Content Viral & Evergreen strategies

Bizzvn wishes you have the Viral Content!

Nadya Khoja

 

Viral Content: 6 ways to create viral and evergreen content

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