How to Create Viral Content

We are living in the age of the content consumer. There is more demand than ever for engaging content that adds value, teaches, and entertains.

This is great news for content creators: for those looking to capture attention, it is ever-present in the digital sphere, waiting to be reeled in.

But How to dependably creating viral content and building a highly engaged following you can sell to?

Jonah Berger, an assistant professor of marketing at the Wharton School of Business who specializes in discovering what makes ideas and products go viral, recently wrote a research paper called: “What Makes Online Content Go Viral?”. In it, there are insights that you absolutely can’t overlook.

Here’s the highlights:

1. Positive content is more viral than negative content.

Positive uplifting content always gets shared. Remember, there’s a lot of unhappy people in the world, and while there are different reasons for being unhappy, content that is uplifting and inspirational helps people get out of their rut… even if it’s only for a few seconds.

2. Content that evoked high arousal emotions—positive or negative—is more viral than content without emotion.

(What’s a high-arousal emotion? Think awe, anger, anxiety, joy, lust, surprise or anything related to the fear of loss)

3. Practically useful content get’s shared.

(That makes sense, right? People like sharing practically useful content to help out their fans and friends)

But I want to focus on no. 2 and 3:

It is my experience that f you’re looking to generate traffic for business purposes, you’re better off focusing on practically useful content that activates high arousal emotions.

When you write an article, you must go through your content, figure out the next actions you want people to take, and finish your article with a section that tells people those next action steps.

It seems so simple, but it’s powerful.

Psychologists have long known that people are bad at applying broad concepts to their own lives. It’s why people know the 80/20 rule, but rarely implement it in their lives and business.

And that’s why this simple “next action” section is so great. You show your readers exactly how to use the content you gave them in their lives. And what happens? They use it… get results… and remember you for it.

What’s a high-arousal emotion?

For starters, a high arousal emotion can be either positive or negative (both types work).

But this is where things get a little more complicated. While it’s simple to activate these emotions, it’s not easy. You’ve got to think about which emotion you want to target, and hit it perfectly.

Let’s use some example:

Anxiety

People hate anxiety. What creates anxiety? If you’re writing content that talks about potentially losing out on something, that’s one way. People hate losing things they have.

Fear

Fear is one of the biggest motivators on Earth. It targets the reptilian brain, and people can’t resist but take action when motivated with fear.

What’s an example of fear? You can make people worry that they’re making mistakes they’re unaware of. You can also target the fear of loss (aka limited quantities).

I hope you find this useful and I will be posting more about this topic in the future.

To your online success,

Robert Dokhani