How to Create a Viral Post in Social Media
Article guest-authored by Craig Robinson, an online writer for Qwaya, a Facebook ad campaign tool. Craig writes different topics about social media tips and strategies.
To go viral on the Internet is to have a piece of your content explode in popularity, getting passed around from person to person and from site to site. A great meme, a funny video clip, a facepalm-worthy story – these are all very common viral posts online.
Can a Facebook post go viral for you? The short answer is obviously yes, with the longer answer being, “Yes, but it’s a little more difficult than posting a picture of a fat guy falling down.”
Tips for Constructing and Releasing a Viral Post
Get Your Timing Right
With the time decay issues of EdgeRank, and the nature of Facebook’s social climate that sees thousands of posts a minute, it’s important that you get your timing right if you’re hoping to go viral. You could release an awesome post, but if it’s not picking up steam right away, the odds of it going viral from the shelf are slim to none. To give your post an extra boost you could always make it into a sponsored story. If it becomes popular, it can carry on spreading virally.
Create a Winning Status
A Facebook status provides you a great opportunity to live in someone’s News Feed and to quickly and easily be shared and passed along until you go viral. Of course, this requires a compelling, entertaining status. So think about asking relevant questions, posting entertaining news quips, and other attention-grabbing topics that will entice engagement from your audience.
Add Enough Value
Any social media marketing strategy should include adding a lot of value. People want to know that there’s something in it for them worth more than what they’re putting in. This is easy to quantify with a tangible product, but not so much so with basic social material. So think about “value” as solving a problem, such as instructional or how-to material. Think of value as different contests, breaking news, warnings, information, etc; make yourself an authority on an issue.
Promote Your Post
One of the best things about Facebook is that it’s easy to target the right audience with your material so that you have better odds of going viral. For instance, you can turn any page post into an effective, targeted ad using the Promoted Post feature. Just select the option, fill in your criteria, and launch your new post, sending it out to a wide range of people.
Conduct Yourself Properly
While this could have been—and perhaps should have been—tip number-one, it’s the last tip on the list so that it hopefully stands out in your memory. You see, the best way to create a viral post is to be a popular, trustworthy, transparent brand. So conducting yourself properly on Facebook and being an informative, open, problem-solving brand will help you to turn a lot of your posts into viral posts – maybe even through organic means and not paid sponsorship.
A viral post doesn’t have to explode with the fervor and appeal of “Gangnam Style,” nor does it have to make the five-o’clock news or any influential lists. Going viral is all about having your post make the rounds through social media, and this can happen quickly, often, and can happen for anyone willing to put in the effort.
Published on: July 16, 2013