If you run a business that thrives on lots of web traffic and brand awareness, there’s nothing better than that “hittin’ it outta the park” feeling you get when a piece of content you wrote goes viral on social media. When that happens in SEO, Omaha businesses are suddenly thrust into the spotlight, traffic and sales increase, and people start popping the champagne corks! Unfortunately, many of us have yet to see that kind of viral reaction from our audiences, but not for the reasons you might think.
For instance, you might think that only big corporations with million dollar internet marketing budgets can produce viral content. It’s true, big brands come up with marketing campaigns that go viral more often than small businesses, but for every piece of content that goes viral, there are hundreds more that flatline or backfire completely. So if the secret to viral content isn’t in how much money you have to throw at your internet marketing campaigns, then what is? We here at Big Red SEO, Omaha’s top SEO company, want to show you the most effective techniques we know of to develop your own viral content!
For Viral Content, Look to the Masters
There’s no question that the masters of viral content are companies like BuzzFeed and Upworthy, but to convince you, here are some stats to back that up:
- Buzzfeed’s monthly average for unique visitors has skyrocketed in the past 24 months, from 4.3 million to 19.3 million. According to Quantcast, Buzzfeed’s audience in the U.S. is 41 million, and its global audience is over twice that at 85 million.
- Upworthy has seen a similar growth spurt—since its founding in March 2012, its monthly unique visitor count has risen from 1 million to more than 20 million.
Clearly these companies are onto something the rest of us could use. Now we’re not saying that to be successful in your industry you have to constantly talk about Miley Cyrus’s meltdowns or worse, push your entire content strategy into Grumpy Cat GIFs, but there are some lessons to be learned about what kind of content people are drawn to that can help your SEO.
Omaha Viral Marketing Caters to Boredom
Most importantly, your content needs to breathe some life into your audience’s otherwise humdrum day, and that’s exactly what sites like BuzzFeed and Upworthy do. They cater to boredom. But unlike these companies, who simply provide entertainment to millions of people who are bored at work or bored in line, your business likely has a leg up in that visitors to your site are already looking to buy (or at least research) what you’re selling. You just need to be the most infotaining source for the information they’re looking for, which for many of us isn’t that high a bar.
How Content Spreads Depends on the Platform
When it comes to creating content that spreads like a virus, you have to understand how different social media platforms cater to different audiences. BuzzFeed, for instance, knows that its primary social media platform is Facebook. In August 2013, BuzzFeed was the most shared site on Facebook, with 15.9 million brand and content interactions. So here’s the question: why do Facebook users like BuzzFeed so much?
Much of Buzzfeed’s content is tailored to be attractive to the kinds of people who are attracted to Facebook. People who use Facebook treat their walls as part of their identities, and they share content that affirms their opinions and interests. For BuzzFeed content to get shared on Facebook, it has to say something about the person sharing it. And that’s no different than what you need to do—make your content personally compelling to visitors, make it a statement of their identity, and people are more likely to share.
Content Types that Get Shared
When it comes to getting the social shares that are great for effective local SEO, Omaha businesses should take note of the types of content that get shared consistently. Simply looking to BuzzFeed’s popular categories will give you a good idea of where to start:
- Fail: This is content that points out, you guessed it, an individual or societal failing, much of the time with humor. Fail content lets us poke fun and vent our collective frustrations.
- Win: The exact opposite of Fail. This content gets to the heart of what makes it great to be a human being. Win content isn’t always positive, it just has to be triumphant.
- OMG: This is content that’s just a shock to the senses.
- LOL: This is content that makes us laugh—it can be Win, Fail, OMG, or anything else.
- WTF: We all know what this means. This is strange content that triggers our curiosity and makes us want to know more.
There are more categories, but if you stick with these general concepts to start with and develop your content strategy with these base emotional triggers in mind, you should be on your way to creating share-worthy content!
Big Red SEO, Omaha’s Top SEO Company
With our team at Big Red SEO, Omaha businesses have a search engine optimization partner that can cover all the bases, from web design to individualized SEO strategies to content creation and more. Whether you need help getting more traffic to your site, your website needs some work, or you need to develop a strategy for viral content, contact our team at Big Red SEO today at (402) 522-6468.