Content that is so good, it’s being shared by millions of people across social media, is what we all strive for. And yet, your dream of creating content that goes viral, in reality, often looks like this: your posts and articles barely get a single share.
Creating shareable content is essential to achieving long-term success on social media – which ultimately helps you grow your following and client base.
While no one can guarantee your content will be a viral hit, what drives the sharing can generally fall into two major reasons: psychological (makes people think and feel a certain way), and social (how people look to others when they share it; validation).
So, what type of content is most likely to trigger the sharing?
When creating your content, keep in mind that it will need to resonate with your audience, and be as intellectually stimulating as aesthetically pleasing.
The following are the three categories that seem to get shared the most:
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Entertainment
Whether it’s amusement, surprise, pleasure, joy, hope, excitement, reflection or nostalgia, emotion is one of the main reasons why something goes viral – the more people feel, the more they share.
While it’s true that the more intense, the better – keep in mind that the majority of people prefer positive responses, and strong positive emotions typically get content shared and remembered.
For instance, videos that elicit a strong emotional response are twice as likely to be shared than the ones that are more moderate and conservative in their content, and those that provoke a strong positive response are 30% more likely to be shared than the ones provoking strong negative emotions.
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Utility/Value
Content that gets lots of engagement and shares from active users often includes how-to posts, tips, life hacks, quizzes, and picture lists.
People appreciate thoughtfulness and mindfulness more than purely promotional messages. Usefulness and value can be applied to social issues, health and wellbeing, etc.
Keywords like “learn”, “tips”, “tools”, where pertinent, help to inspire and generate more shares.
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Storytelling
Original creativity plays a big part in sharing, and through stories, you can have a long-term power to inspire, motivate, inform, and influence your audiences, and encourage sharing.
WARC’s prize for social strategy found that telling a story in a fresh, surprising or unexpected way was by far the most important factor (83%) in a campaign becoming a social ‘hit’.
The bottom line is, the content that gets the most shares is not the result of pure luck – it takes careful planning, insight and creativity.
In today’s super competitive market, are you creating the content that is easy to consume, adds value to the user, and reflects well on them when shared? Are you reaching large audiences with your social media, blogs, and email campaigns?
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