On Monday, we talked about how to reach more readers with our content. Virality is a very important element to reach more readers and attract the attention of potential loyal readers. However, it’s not easy to make people share our content.

I’m sure that if you have a blog or a website, you have asked yourself at some point, why people don’t push that ‘share button’? It’s not that difficult, right?

There are some actions that we can take to promote virality. Although we can’t never guarantee or forecast when a post is going to go viral online, we can help that happen.

10 tips to make your content go viral

1. Touch people.

If you want people to push the ‘share button’, you have to give them a reason to do so. People are more likely to share your content, if they can feel something when they read your content.

Positive emotions increase enormously the chances of your content go viral. How many times have we shared a video that made us laugh or even cry? A most of the times, this type of posts have been shared again for some of our friends. Well, that’s one of the keys.

If your content evokes a positive (or even a negative) emotion, people will have a good reason to share it with their friends.

2. Focus on the reader.

Again, people must be the core of our strategy. Ask yourself: why do I share content online?

Can you see a trend in these reasons? Normally people share content because that will make them seem funny/intelligent/helpful to the rest of their friends.

Imagine someone sharing your content out there. How do you think your content will influence on his/her image?

3. Be useful.

People are very busy. That’s a fact. They aren’t going to stop by and read your blog unless you’re offering something in exchange. They must be sure that the time that they invest in reading your content is going to be profitable.

That’s why you’re content must be valuable for them. Make sure that your that your audience learns something new with every piece of content that you publish.

4. Make it easy to share.

As I mentioned in my last post, the easier, the better. Make sure that you’re using social media buttons at the end of each post. Highlight those social media channels in which you think you’re content is more likely to be share.

5. Reach out.

Promote your content as much as possible, reuse content that you have already created to share it in different social media platforms and pay attention to the SEO of each post to rank higher in search engines.

Don’t be afraid to send emails with the link to your content to people that you think may be interested in it. I remember that I wrote this blog posts inspired in a client that asked a similar question. When I got it published, I send them an email to let them know that that could be helpful for them, and they really appreciated it and shared it in their social media platforms.

Also, try to use emotions when you share your content. Avoid publishing just the title of a blog post with the link. Try to ask question and let your audience know what you want them to do with that content.

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6. What’s going on out there?

We need to pay attention to what’s going on within our fields of expertise. If we can relate what we are talking about with something that’s hot and trendy, the content will be more likely to be shared.

Tip: I’m addicted to set Google alerts not to miss anything out. For example, you can set one for each category in your blog to be informed of news or trends in your industry. You’ll receive an email when a piece of news comes out.

You can also check the trends on social media (long live to the trend topics on Twitter!)

7. Again, make people want to share your content.

If you create a need of spreading your content, you’ll be promoting virality. It’s the case, for example, of contents in which people have to share X to get X, or get you offer an exclusive piece of information, only if people share a piece of your content. You’re offering something in exchange of something. It’s fair, right?

    8. Formatting.

Again, people are very busy when they navigate on the Internet and they have no time to waste.

Make sure that people can skim through your content. Use bold sentences and lists to make it easier for your audience.

    9. Length.

Some statistics shows that the length of the content influence on its virability. A blog posts that contain more than 1000 words is going to be more likely to go viral than a shorter one.

    10. Consistency.

Be consistent when you create content so people can know what to expect from you. If you publish content every Monday, people will get used to it and know that every Monday they’ll have something new to share in your website.

What about you? Have any of your posts gone viral on the Internet? Why do you think content go viral? I’d love to hear your opinions!

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