For content to be efficient enough to stand out on social media, marketers need to be truly skillful. With millions of posts vying for attention every minute, simply producing quality content won’t suffice.
Marketers need to understand what resonates with their audience and hope that competitors’ content doesn’t resonate more.
Or is there a secret to going viral?
Connecting With the Audience at a Deeper Level
The biggest secret to crafting viral content lies in understanding the audience. “Understanding” transcends the knowledge of metrics. Demographics don’t help much when it comes to resonating; marketers need to be skillful at grasping the emotions, interests, and pain points of the audience.
Typically, the trick is in engagement. Brands that engage with their followers through comments, direct messages, polls, and similar get to grasp the overlaying sentiment behind the text.
The next step is to dive deeper into conversations taking place in the target niche. What do followers of your and similar brands care about? What keeps them up at night? Understanding these nuances will help marketers tailor their content to address these emotions.
Obviously, the audience comprises many different personalities. Each of them has their own preferences and pain points. That’s why it is recommended to create personas based on individual interactions. The key here is to identify traits that define different audience segments.
E.g., one persona could represent the busy parent looking for quick tips whereas another one might be a student looking for specific guidelines. Creating different content for different personas is the right way to go viral.
Embrace Storytelling
Storytelling is one of the most effective tools in the context of social media. Human beings naturally connect with stories. A compelling narrative is bound to evoke emotions and inspire action. It’s up to the marketer to decide which emotions to target.
There’s one tricky part here: choosing the right storytelling format. E.g., video content is typically well received as it combines visuals and sound to create an immersive experience. However, not any video material will do. Marketers need to weave the nuances of their audience into their storytelling.
A masterfully crafted video story can build suspense, make viewers laugh, or even be a tear-jerker. Marketers should think about the main arc; the story needs to have a beginning, middle, and end. The content needs to keep viewers engaged until the very last moment.
There’s another way to use storytelling: rely on user-generated content for help. The finest of marketers know that encouraging their followers to share their own stories related to the brand is a perfect strategy to ensure content goes viral. What’s more, this strategy builds community around the brand, which naturally increases content shareability.
Mind the Timing
The timing of the posts can dramatically impact their reach. In addition to paying attention to when to post new content, it is also critical that marketers be aware of trending topics, upcoming events, and seasonal trends. Any happening that entices the masses can help your posts make use of this engagement.
Experimenting with different posting times is recommended. This can help marketers observe when the audience is most active. Analytics tools that track engagement metrics can be particularly helpful. Make use of them — a small adjustment in timing can lead to significant changes in the content’s performance.
Make Use of Trending Topics and Memes
Keeping an eye on trending topics and memes is critical for content to go viral. Social media is dynamic; trends emerge rapidly. Thankfully, there are many tools and platforms that track trends in real-time.
Marketers should learn the art of adapting their content fast. Incorporating trending topics can increase posts’ visibility dramatically. However, it’s important to be thoughtful: simply forcing a trend even if it doesn’t align with the brand is a huge no-go. It’s a good idea to use popular hashtags to increase content’s discoverability.
However, make sure to be authentic; put a unique spin on the content so that it aligns with your brand’s mission and vision while also paying respect to the trending topic.
Brainstorm Visuals
Visuals play a crucial role in social media marketing. In addition to captivating videos, exquisite graphics, and vibrant images can draw users in. In fact, if they don’t stand out, users will simply keep scrolling down.
It’s paramount that marketers invest time in creating high-quality visuals that align with their brand identity. This is best done by brainstorming the aesthetics of your content. Colors, fonts, and styles should be consistent to boost brand recognition.
Blend storytelling with eye-catching visuals to ensure your content goes viral. The success of platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels has established short-form video content as the ruling king of marketing. In other words, a typical social media consumer has the attention span of a goldfish, so it is critical to grab their attention within the first few seconds.
For this to happen, marketers need to be both bold and creative and come up with a perfect strategy to deliver the message in a way that’s visually stimulating.
Virality Is a Modern Lifestyle
Going viral has become an obsession of sorts and, as such, a lifestyle for many social media consumers. Marketers need to learn to understand their audience and use storytelling and vibrant visuals to grab their attention.
The moral of the story is to aim for building relationships not chasing numbers. Content needs to be consistent and authentic in order to go viral.