Joe Starling's Blog: 4 Effective Ways to Create Viral Content

ways to create viral content

When you hit the publish button on your content, do you immediately start obsessing over your share counts?

David Leonhardt of The Happy Guy Writing Services obsesses over his content marketing reach, and he’s not ashamed to admit it. He also thinks that you should start paying attention to your reach as well.

Why? Because when more people share your content, you’ll see higher percentages of website traffic, leads and sales.

And when it comes to viral content marketing, David Leonhardt definitely knows what he’s talking about. Together with his group of writers, Leonhardt has years of professional freelance experience writing everything from blog posts to books to screenplays.

In a recent post for SEMrush, a company that specializes in digital marketing data, Leonhardt shares his unique time-tested insights into content marketing success.

Effective Ways to Increase the Reach of Your Content Marketing

In his post, “4.5 ways to help your content go viral,” Leonhardt states. “Increasing your content’s social media reach can be done in many ways. In fact, it should be done in many ways.”

Below are key recommendations for ways to ways to create viral content:

1. Create and Publish Content that People Want to Share

Of course, it’s important that you share content that provides valuable information to your audience. But don’t be afraid to share inspirational, cute, and even shocking content either — people love it.

2. Grow and Nurture a Loyal Audience

Having large followings on as many of the popular social media channels as possible, along with having a large email subscriber list, goes a long way when it comes to extending your reach.

2.5. Consider “Borrowing” Someone Else’s Fans

Although it’s better to have your own fans, you shouldn’t forget other important audiences. Some content creators hire social media influencers. Creators also network with one another to share each other’s content.

3. Make it Easy for Readers to Share Your Content from Your Blog

Be sure to include social sharing buttons on your blog posts. This makes sharing content a cinch for your readers.

4. When it Comes to Images, Size Really Does Matter

People more often share posts with images because they see them as more attractive than those with plain text. But simply plopping an image into a text won’t necessarily lead to more shares. Using images that are the right size and clearly visible is a must.

According to Leonhardt, the optimal image size varies from platform to platform. “[A] smaller picture will show up fuzzy when the site automatically enlarges it, and the shape is important because some of the image could get cut off if in the incorrect aspect.”

The infographic below via MakeaWebsiteHub offers a great “cheat sheet.” This guide will help you create visual content that’s the right size for each social media platform.