5 Steps for Social Media. Go Viral! Get Tons of Traffic
Sure, many businesses have already made a fortune with Social Media; yet, most of them never went viral. Today, we are in an exciting social era with new potential we have not seen before. So, then, why not you?
Social Media Misconceptions
What do you think are the biggest misconceptions about why things go viral on social media?
- Our research revealed that the primary reasons people feel certain content or media go viral are entirely random, blind luck, just chance, or happenstance.
- People otherwise say it must be those adorable cat pictures or these fantastic dogs that can miraculously do skateboard tricks that drive things to go viral.
- Indeed, a good anecdote; some cats and dogs cause things to go popular, but that does not tell us anything about why most of what makes something go viral.
Going Viral? Social Shares Are a Must!
Neil Patel also researched a few different studies to find five key elements that help influence social shares:
- Curiosity
- Amazement
- Interest
- Astonishment
- Uncertainty
Tons of New Online Traffic – Are You Ready?
There are tremendous social reasons and specific steps you can do to stack the odds for going viral and getting tons of traffic;
There are immense implications if your social media goes viral and translating that success into huge profits. And that statement begs some questions:
- Once you receive tons of traffic, how prepared are you to convert it into actionable business?
- What calls to actions are placed on your website or marketing material to drive sales?
- Do you have any landing pages set up to drive traffic to for specific reasons?
- How do you optimize for the highest conversion ratios?
- How do you keep the top of the funnel leads engaged?
- Are you automating any of your social media or email management?
- What are five things you could do now to improve sales and build better relationships?
Do not be overwhelmed; we can provide a free social media audit
Dissolve Friction Behind Social Media Failure Myths
First, we would feel remised if we did not cover a few things that can paralyze a company to take action, and the most dangerous one is a false belief about social media and their chances for success.
If Social Media has not been the optimal money-making vehicle nor an enhanced client relationship building resource for your organization, we encourage you to read on.
We highlight this point because false social media impressions potentially close the door to all social media opportunities; thus, all possibility/probability for social success.
- Ask yourself, have you tried everything? Consider how absurd and impossible it is to have tried everything.
- The Social Media Campaigns you ran and tested in the past, what were those results?
- Did you plan for and adequately execute a compelling social media campaign?
- Were Social Media Campaigns managed with excellence?
- Did you ever run a Remarketing Campaign to aid your Social Media Campaign success?
We can address these topics the merit they deserve and provide best practices, but you may undoubtedly visit our blog to do so.
Social Media Victorious Invite.
We invite you to remain open-minded as it allows companies to act and participate in social media and win. We feel it is all entity’s sovereign right to attain the level of success they wish.
Social Media plays an integral part in the victory for countless brands and companies.
How to Prepare for Social Media?
All businesses should regularly attend social media events, social workshops, social training, and become active within their social media community.
Running a Social Listening Strategy beholds significant benefits, such as ensuring proper dissemination of your brand’s data knowledge, Key Performance Indications (KPIs), and protecting your brand identity, brand reputation, and your brand presence or your Unique Selling Points (USPs).
When the New York Times analyzed why their readers were sharing content, they found people share:
- Valuable and entertaining content to change opinions or encourage action.
- Content that helps define who they are and what they care about.
- Information that helps them stay in touch with people and maintain relationships.
- Content that helps them feel involved in the world.
- Content that supports causes or brands they care about.
Their article provides relevant insight, and we encourage you to leverage it to craft even better content. Yet, online people are just scanning a blog, an article, a web page, and focusing on the headlines. If a catches their attention, then they will read the content. According to Forbes research, 58% of all online content read in its entirety
How to Stand in the Social Media Limelight
There should be several running custom-tailored social managed campaigns; social practices must be preplanned, created, deployed, and consistently and ubiquitously promoted within your footprint.
Companies are likely to be progressively rewarded as businesses refine their social strategies, procedures, and campaigns.
There are many contributing complex factors for a successful social media operation. Social Media is a calculated science and as well as a creative art form.
If a company outsources its social media to us, we take full account and responsibility for our client’s results.
The Elements of Excellent Social Media.
Suppose a company would like to embark upon and create their successful Social Media. The best place to start is with a comprehensive social media audit. It is the process of reviewing what is working and what is also failing.
We should warn you this a social audit painful, tedious, and emotional process. If a company wants a candid look at their Social Media, they should outsource their Social Media Audit. Social Media Channels are all improved as a result too.
The intention must be to curate great social media that compels your audience to engage and share your content and media and ensuring the right social assets are firmly in place.
Logically, the next step is to plan out and determine the optimal social strategies carefully. Social planning selects the right steps and plans out the timely execution with the best techniques’ foresight.
Connect to Your Audience and Attract Attention!
Consider this: all social media success and effort hinge on correctly identifying and delivering social media content to your target audience.
Knowing how to find and attract your target market’s attention requires a whole set of specialized skills that are all necessary for the real success of social media campaigns.
Connect Your Readers To Others.
- All social media efforts must provide immense value in meaningful social media posts, stories, news, updates, and reposts. The ultimate goal is to entice your prospects to act according to business objectives and buy.
- Above all, your social media campaigns should compel them to engage with comments passionately, mentions, shares, and champion your products, services, and brand, thereby collectively making your social media go viral.
- Many companies do exceedingly well with Social Media; in doing so, they establish a profitable and additional revenue stream with brand loyalty.
Should We Hire an Agency to do our Social Media?
- An outstanding choice for many organizations is outsourcing their social media to a digital marketing agency with a proven track record and a portfolio of social media client success.
- Suppose a company finds that they do not have the in-house talent or lost that talent to a competitor. In that case, they should carefully consider outsourcing social media, as it is an excellent decision.
- Suppose Social Media is not the core competency of a business. In that case, it makes fiscal sense to hire a social media agency or, better yet, a digital marketing agency because it offers tremendous social media management value with more options, features, and competitive pricing.
Why is The Potential of Social Media Underestimated?
Nevertheless, some enterprises underestimate social media value altogether and believe their industry would never do well as their social media experience has proven it does not work.
We can not underscore that it is not practical or valid for any business not to do Social Media, regardless of industry, business model, business culture, or present and previous circumstances.
We feel it is most discouraging to discover a company’s belief system is unwavering about their failed Social Media endeavors.
How is it possible to measure all the potential opportunities and profits if a company is not taking Social Media seriously or not managing it well?
- As we outline our framework for the five main steps for why and how to make things catch on in social media, we must emphasize the overarching decision of which social platforms and social channels are selected.
- These selections will ultimately determine the degree of success or failure. Even if two businesses are in the same business segment, every business is different; therefore, carefully and correctly choosing which social platforms and social channels are likely to produce massive results in the long-term.
What Factors Ensure Social Media Success?
Every company can indeed be very successful in social media. It depends on your industry, business model, culture, what products or services offerings.
These are all crucial factors for ensuring success with Social Media:
- Social Management
- Social Planning
- Social Listening
- Social Campaigns
- Social Strategy
- Social Marketing
- Social Advertising
Still, the degree and the rate of social media success depends on other factors:
- Social Budget
- Social Index
- Social Score
- Social Outsourcing
- Social Behavior
- Social Content
- Social Assets
- Social Apps
- Social Relationships
- Social Partnering
- Social Influencers
- Social Sharing
- Social Mentions
- Social Followers
- Social Subscribers
- Social Likes
As we describe this social phenomenon of making your Social Media go viral, the details will unravel core social behaviors that most businesses can leverage and apply.
Social Media Content That Offers the Greatest Value.
- Infographics
- Interactive Content
- Content With Images
- List Posts
- Newsworthy Content
- Content that evokes emotions
What Makes Social Media So Beneficial?
We want to preface all this by saying the potential exists for any business that practices these techniques consistently will realize varying degrees of success. Numerous companies experience quantum leaps in their social success efforts.
To clarify, savvy marketers and advertisers leverage advanced techniques, strategies, and campaigns we discuss with varying degrees.
- We emphasize that you must go across all the appropriate social channels with tailored social media campaigns. Contrary to mainstream belief, any company can have a successful social media program.
- We do not want to belabor the point, but Social Media is a profitable relationship-building business for all businesses regardless of the industry or business sector.
- Some marketers monetize incredibly well and achieve many other incredible results, including brand longevity and brand loyalty, with more client wallet share.
Those who understand their evolving target market’s social behavior and how that changes their business to adjust to the user/buyer/customer needs and desires will consistently do the best.
We consider these five critical steps to drive followers, subscribers, fans, and business profits.
5 Steps for How to Get Social Media to Go Viral
- Social currency
- Triggers
- Emotion
- Public
- Stories
Our direct research efforts, social media surveys, and the research we uncovered with notable peer-reviewed publishing or white papers are quite conclusive.
We are exceedingly confident that we have our pulse on what is involved in Social Media success or making Social Media go viral.
Social Media is so alluring, addicting, and the perfect medium to build the ideal client relationships that can also be extremely profitable.
- First, we wanted to address the significant role, and critical impact social currency has, especially within the scope of social media marketing.
- Social currency is all about people talking about themselves or circumstances surrounding events they directly experienced, or how their company has.
- We infer this is a direct attempt to be recognized, validated, and the hope their social post is well-received, praised and shared throughout the social media community.
- Now, that brings us to social triggers. They are generally centered around the notion of whatever is on the top of their mind, or the tongue’s tip is what they will write and post on social media.
- It’s an impulsive decision with a polarized emotional charge that ignites these types of social posts.
- As it turns out, we are much more zealous in our writing, especially the more emotionally charged we become.
- Now, that should make perfect sense as most people deeply care about injustice.
- Simultaneously, many others seem to gravitate towards drama because its stories can mesmerize the reader and be unforgettable.
- The more we feel psychologically aroused, the greater the probability of passing something related to the public and tremendous effort to share it with as many people as possible.
- We share stories, or stories with narratives wrapped up often in drama.
- It brings significant meaning to a brand and humanizes people and companies. Plus, we are so much better at remembering stories than any other form.
- The details of a company telling a social story interwoven into their product features and benefits. If done correctly, this makes the facts and figures of that social story unforgettable.
- That is extremely powerful and incredibly contagious, compelling readers and followers to share, comment, and place mentions.
Why is News Contagious and a Catchy Social Media Strategy?
- Here is what we feel is especially noteworthy. We carefully observed and studied social analytical behavior on most social platforms. Suppose businesses think they will align with their local social community and clients’ sentiments. In that case, they are more likely to act promptly by sharing a new story on social media or repurposing relevant content for Social Media.
- The more often a relevant industry news story is shared publicly with its customers, the more significant the likelihood they will imitate its practical value. There is a direct, measurable result of passing on pertinent information, especially when we deem it is for the most significant purpose of helping others.
- Furthermore, suppose they discovered a news story that offers an excellent opportunity for their organization’s clients and does not on the surface appear that they can monetize; instead, the post is providing real value. In that case, they will undoubtedly feel their social repost or share will indeed help more people to see their position and take advantage of its advice.
- If a company reposts a social news story or shared news posts as they feel they are doing the right regardless of whether they did not author the content, there can be that illusion. Hence, their intention may also be to inform their social community or clients to avoid an impending mistake, smart business.
How Fear Contributes to Social Media Going Viral
- To summon another analogy, let say a company intentionally posted a fear-mongering doomsday warning to their industry of a dramatic downturn in business. Indeed, that post may go viral, especially if backed up with reputable facts, peer-reviewed data, and trustworthy third-party sources.
- If their doomsday social post proves to be true in time, then that entity becomes an authoritative source within their industry and a trusted thought leader in their field of expertise
- For many reasons, people or companies tend to share polarized and emotionally charged stories. There is an art to storytelling depending on the social media platform, but we feel most connected to stories. If it resonates with us, we will champion their cause by sharing, buying, or getting involved.
- Some companies get stuck because they say well, hold on, our product isn’t naturally emotional.
- Or they may feel our product isn’t naturally remarkable well; therefore, we can’t do anything about it.
- We are here to show both companies and individuals that anyone can craft contagious content without having the right or perfect product. As another option, outsourcing content marketing is a potent strategy. Consider how many authors of books have ghostwriters?
Write for Scanners
Nielsen’s research found that 79% of people scan web pages. That begs the question: If most readers already prefer skimming, why wouldn’t you want to make it an easy, enjoyable, and efficient process for them?
Scannable web pages contain the following elements:
- Highlighting: Bold, italicized, colored, or hyperlinked text stands outs,
- Subheads: Clear, concise subheads will immediately tell scanners what they need to know
- Bullets: Nothing breaks up text (and information), and bullet points and numbered lists do.
- Whitespace: It organizes your text, giving it a more scannable and manageable appearance.
- Single-point paragraphs. Online readers — especially if they are researching a product or service
How to Master Social Sharing
We have to think in the construct of what makes people talk about products and services, and what makes them feel compelled to share content. If we build that into our products or even within our messages, any product can be remarkable, and likewise, any service can feel emotional.
If you think about what makes people feel emotion or what makes them think something is unique. Again, that is what to build into a product or service.
What makes us talk about and share things? We curate the content that we’re building in your products’ features, which creates viral user growth.
It doesn’t take a huge marketing budget, nor it doesn’t take a marketing genius. Albeit, some incredibly smart marketers do think about this. What it takes is understanding the psychology behind social transmission.
Why User-Generated Content is Powerful
User-generated content (UGC) often generates these massive page views numbers in the viral neighborhood. It is interesting how many companies with much larger budgets and many more resources at their disposal would die to have those results.
The question becomes, what can companies learn from that? We think companies, and often the largest brands, feel it’s about the right advertising or creating a slick message and putting it out there, as long as it is very persuasive.
People Love Authenticity
We feel it’s more about being open, being authentic, letting consumers create their content but
also creating ads that build an understanding of why people talk about and share things. It is not as if people want to share something that looks like an ad.
Indeed, consumers don’t want to look like they’re a walking advertisement for a company. But, they will share engaging content, mostly if that content happens to relate to a brand. The caveat is the more something is branded, the more it looks like an ad. Fewer people are going to be willing to talk about it and share it.
We think what is needed to design content is like a Trojan horse. There is an exterior to it that’s exciting or remarkable because it has social currency and practical value. But inside, you hide the brand and the benefits, so along the way, they are learning about this brand.
Case in point, if a well-recognized brand placed an ad and said buy this widget or purchase this service, it is fantastic, and you will love it; then, people would not share that with others because it seems like an ad. It is not a highly branded piece of content that people are interested in watching. But that is not just online.
How Brands use Unique Advertising Techniques
- It also happens offline. Starbucks, is that a coffee shop? They are selling expensive coffee. What could be in this coffee to make it worth it? We could talk about which beans they have selected, and they grind their coffee beans just before brewing their coffee.
- Or perhaps we could talk about the combination of ingredients they mix or the great coffee names that are a part of their creative marketing. That is not the full picture, nor the reason they can sell such expensive coffee for which people seem all too happy to pay for it.
- Many coffee shops have emulated their practices and processes, yet, they can not sell their coffee as costly as Starbucks does. Here is the difference: Starbucks is a brand. Also, they are laser-focused on the customer experience.
- Starbucks is arguably selling you a moment of bliss and peace where you can sit down with a great book or your laptop or take in the ambiance and mingle with a group of friends. But again, people do not want to seem like a walking advertisement for Starbucks, but they do love talking about their unique products along the way, and that means by definition, they talk about the brand.
How to Social Advertise and Still Get Social Shares
Ultimately, we think it is about understanding what consumers like to talk about and then attaching your brand or idea to a story they want to share. The purpose of this article is to show you how to raise your figurative social viral batting average.
Benefits of Advertising Through Social Media Include:
These results are according to research we did on the most effective types of advertising in 2020
- Grow your sales and your fanbase.
- Use customer-generated content for ads (which perform better, too!).
- Better target net new and returning customers (so you waste less money).
- A/B test on the fly, using platform analytics to determine winners.
These are the best places to invest your ad money right now.
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What Guarantees are in Social Media Viral Success?
- Can we guarantee you’ll be the next Gangnam Style with a billion views? No. Likewise, no one can guarantee that, but we can ensure that it will raise consumers’ likelihood of talking about and sharing your ideas and content.
- If a person on average tells one person, we can increase it to If half the people are talking about your product, we can improve it by 60%. We have evidence-based principles that show why people talk about and share.
- Yes, there is some blind luck to get a billion views. Still, you can’t mathematically put something together to guarantee that you’ll get that many social views, as there is a snowball phenomenon effect on the web, and no one has the science behind that.
- But we can ensure that more people will talk about your brand or more people will share your idea or relevant content if you understand the evolving social behavior for why people talk and share and ultimately buy.
SEO Social Media – Word-of-Mouth Advertising?
We would recommend to businesses and organizations to advertise as indeed, it’s one way to encourage
word-of-mouth. But also think about why people will talk about and share your ads once they’ve happened.
Yet, ads are not as persuasive as hearing about it from a friend or a colleague or someone you know that a product is right.
Ninety percent of people believe that what their friends say, only about 30% of people believe what ads say. So it’s much less likely to think what ads have to add.
So we want to consider how powerful organic or free ads that are within a Google Search. The visitor’s search query has discovered and selected that company. Then they contact that company regarding their products and services. Consider that company is not soliciting for business, which positions them trustworthy and likable and much more persuasive.
Conclusion
Now that you know what is involved in social media success, what should you do to improve your odds of going viral to get tons of traffic? Before you share anything, learn what your audience wants. Remember, just because something is data-backed does not mean you will have the same results.
Ask yourself how we can build content both online and offline that people will speak about and share?
Too much focus has been on web-centric solutions; we are not trying to minimize the crucial role the web plays in all of this.
Much more word-of-mouth is offline than online; there’s been so much focus on social media technologies such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Pinterest, and Instagram.
Social platforms and their tools are not the be-all-end-all for Social Media.
The best social success method is to make sure you know your audience, analyze your data, test different social media content types, and develop a robust social media content strategy.