Every day when you wake up and check your cell phone you find millions of posts. These contents, at a certain time, acquire such high significance, called by experts as “Viral Content”.

You also realize that the content has been shared by millions of people and you certainly say it has gone viral. But do you know what it means and what the ingredients are for its creation?

If you don’t know it doesn’t matter, in this post I’m going to tell you what a “viral content” is and how you can create it

According to Wikipedia, viral marketing refers to marketing techniques used to attempt to exploit social networks and other electronic means.

The purpose of this strategy is to produce exponential increases in brand awareness through viral self-replication processes analogous to the expansion of a computer virus.

Seth Godin describes Viral Marketing as “an idea that spreads, and as it spreads, it’s helping you promote your business or cause”.

So, we can then describe viral content as that information, image, video, or downloadable, which is disseminated massively through the web or social media through an effective viral marketing strategy.

As you can see, content is practically the foundation of developing a powerful and real viral marketing strategy. Without content, you honestly wouldn’t achieve anything.

Now that you know it’s viral content, you’ve wondered how to achieve that “virality” in your marketing campaigns? I did, and that’s why I decided to investigate the steps that need to be taken to perform a successful Viral Content. And I want to share it with you.

Use Emotions

The writer of the book “Contagious”, Jonah Berger, indicates that one of the key factors for content to go viral is through the use of emotions.

The goal of this strategy is to generate a reaction in your audience that involves awakening their positive feelings mostly, beyond the negative ones.

It is known that positive emotions such as joy, inspiration, hope, sympathy, and love can provoke in users the empathy to share your content. In this way, the different affective states and lived experiences can be identified.

A fantastic case about the power of emotions in viral content is the campaign launched by Barbie in 2015. In this campaign, the brand conveys a very clear message: “You can be whatever you want.”

This powerful campaign received 23,523,287 views on Youtube since it was published, and has been shared nearly 3.6 million times as explained by the Washington Post. That’s great, isn’t it?

Without a doubt, it is an excellent example of viral content on the Internet and the wide reach that this strategy can have in the public worldwide.

You’ll wonder how they did it? Well, in the campaign you can see how a group of girls take on the role of adults, working as veterinarians, teachers, executives, doctors and even football coaches. Each strives to develop its occupation in a convincing and responsible way.

At the end of the video, you can see a girl playing with the brand’s products by letting her imagination run wild. And the following text reads: “When a girl plays with Barbie imagines everything she can become”

The piece reveals that all girls can achieve all their dreams if they propose. Clearly, they are incentivizing to play with their products.

In addition, they manage to awaken emotions such as empathy and inspiration, resulting in a total connection with their audience, which triggers virality and identification of the female target.

Learn How to Differentiate

From Ancient Greece to the poignant Greek Tragedies, to the Hollywood film era, it is almost common to see similar stories, which are based on unforgettable plays by the acclaimed Shakespeare, or iconic books such as Cervantes’ Quixote.

But what allows you to create viral content is the differentiating approach, which should not only focus on what, but also how.

A Trigger Element

Successful viral content has an element that is indispensable to detonate in the memory of the audience the memory of the brand.

Another example here is Mcdonalds and Coca Cola. Both brands are extremely famous in the world and trigger in the audience the imperious desire to consume their products at the same time. A Coke and a Big Mac.

If you go to the nearest Mcdonalds in your area, you’ll see that Coca Cola advertising invites you to enjoy the burger with the bubbling soda. The two products together trigger that feeling of pleasure and taste.

The Perfect Potion to Drive Viral Content

There are many strategies and they all depend on you and your marketing team. For example, with Inbound Marketing you can work in a methodological way, fulfilling each step until you reach the goal.

However, virality can depend on other factors such as the originality of your story, how you delve deeper into it, and the added value you offer your audience.

Of course, as I mentioned above emotions are relevant and always make a significant impact on users, because it allows people to connect and identify more with your product or brand.

The Public Strengthens Viral Content

This means that for viral content to position itself, the strategy must be based on an initiative that gives visibility to the product or service.

The public makes the brand “autopublique” without paying too much in advertising or investing large sums of money in campaigns.

Your audience is your main ambassador, so think carefully about how your product can charge for public space at no such high cost.

Conclusion

Creating a Viral Content requires a lot of marketing experience, to get to know up close the potential customers who are looking to direct each piece or material.

But also, it takes cunning and creativity. Knowing the theory is not enough for content to fly and reach millions of visits and shares. We need the constant practice and research of what the greats do and how they do it.