When we describe something on the internet as having gone ‘viral’, what we mean is that it has spread very quickly and has had an extremely far reach (often global).
Generally speaking, the word ‘virus’ and its variants have negative connotations (even in computer terminology), but with regards to content this is not the case whatsoever. Producers of any sort of content (be that in a professional or a recreational capacity) want their work to spread across the internet like a virus – that’s the idea. The more people that see it, the better.
Content is a big part of what we do here at Neil Walker Digital, and maximum outreach is always our aim with anything we do. Ergo, we’ve decided to take a look at what makes a piece of content go viral and how it happens. We think there are a few key ingredients involved in the process and have listed them below.
Entertainment value
The reason many of us go on the internet in the first place – apart from buying things and what have you – is to entertain ourselves. Many of us who get the bus or train to and from work each day will barely look up from our phones for the entirety of either journey (if our battery’s not died by the time we’re on our way home, that is). There’s now so much content (quite literally) at our fingertips that we’re spoilt for choice.
Whilst we commute, some of us will catch up on the very recent goings-on in the worlds of politics, football or culture (or all of these), whilst others will choose to watch videos on YouTube or become lost in Twitter, Facebook and Instagram timelines. Every now and then you’ll spot a commuting Kindle-reader, and sometimes – sometimes – you’ll even see someone reading a real life book.
With all of these different digital and non-digital entertainment options to choose from, the competition for engaging content is fierce. The sort of content that goes viral simply shouts louder than the rest – it aggressively demands the attention of virtually everyone who comes across it.
Shareability
Social media is of course absolutely instrumental when it comes to a piece of content going viral. This is where it will be picked up and also where it will reach its various new audiences. So what makes a piece of content shareable exactly? Well, to put it bluntly: there are a number of boxes, and the more of them you tick, the more shareable it’ll be.
If content is relevant to a wide range of people – as opposed to being of interest to a fairly small and specific group – the more shareable it will be across various social media platforms. For example, if you were to compile a list of the dozen best coffee shops in the United Kingdom, this would be of interest to a much higher number of people than it would if it was about the dozen best coffee shops in, say, Manchester. This latter list would only really be relevant to people who either live in Manchester, visit the city frequently or are planning to visit quite soon. I wouldn’t read a rundown of Birmingham’s finest coffeehouses – because I never go there.
Relevance
I don’t mean relevance here in the same way I do in the above paragraph. Here I mean it in terms of whether or not it’s addressing current or recent issues. A piece of content which does – whether it’s a 2000-word blog post or a 20-second video clip – will stand a much better chance of going viral than one which isn’t.
Anniversary content is also great for going viral. What I mean by this is something which acknowledges the anniversary of an important or memorable event – and of course the more people this will be intriguing to, the better. A prime example would be this very Friday – June 6th – which marks the seventieth anniversary of the D-Day landings, which was a major turning point in the Second World War. I can remember the coverage it (quite rightly) got a decade ago when it was the sixtieth anniversary – specifically that week’s cover of TIME magazine. Now, this example is from a time at which the internet (as we know it today, anyway) was still in its infancy, so there wasn’t much going on in regards to viral online content. It’ll be interesting to see what happens this time round; I reckon there’ll be quite a lot of different types of content circulating about it online – like maybe a few never-before-seen photographs or something like that. Speaking of which…
Imagery
People find images inviting, there are no two ways about it. This can be in the form of photographs, drawings and, of course, video content. Part of the reason for this is that it’s linked to the entertainment value side of things I touched upon earlier – not to mention the fact that looking at images and watching videos requires next to no effort.
We’re all rather selective when it comes to content and how it’s laid out – a lot of us won’t read something if it seems overly long – or more to the point, if it isn’t broken up with interesting imagery and the like. And this is fair enough, I say.
This article from okdork.com states that posts with images are shared more on Twitter and Facebook than ones that aren’t. I’d also say this is the case with the tweet itself – if you attach an image to the tweet, you’ll not only take up more space on a person’s Twitter timeline, but you’ll immediately command more attention through the actual imagery.
Don’t just attach an image for the sake of it though – it needs to be highly relevant, and the more striking and emotive it is, the better.
Humour
One of the best ways to make your content appeal to a wide range of people is to make it amusing. We all like to laugh – especially on an otherwise mundane and uncomfortable commute, or during a boring lunchtime. Laughter is amusement and entertainment – it helps us get through the day.
Whether it’s a piece of writing or a video, a good level of humour will go a hell of a long way – especially if you can implement it as early as possible in the piece. Humour will not only draw people in, but it will keep them reading (or watching).
Controversy
Content which divides opinion or makes unflinchingly brash assertions can prove very successful when it comes to shareability and virality. A good rant – whether it’s in the form of words or a video – can be very enticing for a lot of us. We like to be shocked – and sometimes outraged – and so when we’re presented with content we think might disgust us, we’ll almost always read (or watch) it to find out if that’s the case.
Originality
Regurgitation is sadly something which is so commonplace in content marketing – pieces which say the same thing with slightly different wording and don’t try to offer a unique or alternative view.
Content that says something which hasn’t been said before is naturally attractive to readers and viewers. Similarly, telling people things that they didn’t know before has the same effect – we’re all naturally inquisitive and want to learn whatever we can, whenever we can.
A word (well, several hundred) on longform vs. shortform
There’s probably not been a blog post go by in recent weeks and months here on the Neil Walker Digital site that hasn’t at least mentioned longform content in some capacity. We’re massive on longform here – huge advocates. We think that it’s the future of content marketing and we’re not the only ones…
Longform content became experienced a massive surge in popularity when people started twigging onto the fact that Google ranks it much higher than shortform – as in, a 2000-word blog post about a certain topic will rank much better than a 400-word one about the same thing will. This is partly to do with the higher amount of keywords you will naturally use in a 2000-word piece, and also the higher level of detail.
So you might now be wondering what any of this longform business has to do with the ‘virality’ of a piece of content. Well, as the okdork.com article I linked to earlier explains (right near the beginning), longform content gets shared more than shortform does.
This may seem surprising given that we do consume so much content on the go – on our mobile devices – but nonetheless it would appear that the longer the content is, the better in terms of shareability. To be fair, the technology we have now means that we can browse the internet just as easily on mobile devices as we can on laptops and desktops now. Ergo, reading a long article on the bus isn’t very arduous at all for many of us these days, as we’re able to navigate easily and zoom in and out as we please.
There’s also the fact that a piece of longform content just looks more authoritative than a shortform piece – it contains more information, and information is power because that’s what the reader wants. If I’m presented with two different articles covering the same topic (one being longform and the other being shortform), more often than not I’ll go for the longer one.
Videos can also be categorised as longform or shortform – the former is anything over ten minutes and the latter is therefore anything under. This might be where things differ – it’s very arguable that shortform video content is more likely to go viral than longform video content is – unless the latter is done extremely well.
It would appear that both shortform and longform video content can go viral – it seems to depend mainly on the relevance and the shareability (like all other types of content, we should add). Take Vine videos for example – which are at the extreme end of the shortform category; they’re only six seconds long and must therefore get to the point right away. The vast majority of Vine videos are attempts at humour, which puts a massive tick in the shareability box as funny content appeals to almost everybody – as long it doesn’t cause particular offence.
Ending note: be interesting
This should of course go without saying, but a lot of content just makes up the numbers – it doesn’t really ‘say’ anything or explore. One of the best ways to ensure you get shared is to actually be interesting.
This is why we like longform content so much – not only does it do wonders in terms of SEO and rankings on Google, but it allows the writer to actually delve into a topic – much deeper than they could with a shortform piece. It allows for discussion, which is something any piece of content should aim to inspire.
Social media is unfathomably important in terms of virality – that’s how content is mainly distributed nowadays. We send each other links to articles directly over Twitter and Facebook, and many of us follow numerous media outlets and content-producers on social media so that we never miss anything they post.
Our thirst for entertaining and informative content is one which will never be quenched. We’ll always be looking for it, and as technology develops further and more platforms on which to find it emerge, we may find ourselves becoming thirstier still.
What do you think? What makes content viral? What factors make a piece of content appeal to you, personally, in the first place? Is there anything big that you think we’ve missed out? Please feel free to leave a comment in the section right below – we’d love to get the conversation rolling. Also, now might be a good time to ask you to share this on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the like…