Marketing Strategies Today: How do I make my social media posts go viral?

All good intentions taken into consideration, the Internet has become a place where chaos reigns for better or for worse. It is filled to bursting with people selling everything imaginable, from the possible to the impossible, from the sensible to the totally senseless. There are also the chronic chatters who can't seem to get through the day unless they've spoken at length to at least 25 of their 300 or so "friends." Add to this mix the personal blog sites featuring everything from pets to children and you get the idea that the Internet can be a pretty active place.

So how do you make your social media blog posts interesting enough so that they will hold the stage against all the other posts out there and go viral in social media? Well, the key to this is understanding who your readers are and providing them with exactly what they want. Not until you've accomplished that neat trick will you be able to write the type of content that will get readers to participate and share it with their fellow users on Google and Facebook, etc.

Communication

Now this is where the art of communication comes into the picture and this is one of the most crucial skills you can learn for doing business on the Internet. You have to become friends with your customers and potential customers. Talk to these people directly by emailing them and becoming their friend through your blog, also share personal information of your own so that they will get to know and trust you. Ask them about their lives; cover everything from their children and pets to their hobbies. Act interested in what they have to say and they will respond to that and gradually you will begin to learn about their needs and wants.

Then you will have the golden opportunity to discuss your products with them and explain how they will benefit from purchasing them. Just be careful not to try and push them into anything. Of course you want sales, but give people a chance to make up their minds and weigh the pros and cons of a situation.

It doesn't happen overnight, and with some people it will never happen simply because it isn't their nature to trust easily, but it's always worth making the effort. Once you begin to build that bond of trust with your customers they will actually start to ask you for advice and suggestions about how your products can improve their lives. This same talent for communication will work with potential customers as well, and in a short while you should begin to see the difference as your sales numbers rise.

The Art of Persuasion

Posts that discuss what people should be doing, where they should be going, how they should be doing something are popular, almost immediately. So if you want to increase the chance of your post being popular, placing a number in the title is something you should try. It's guaranteed to get you more readers. For example, if you post content that discusses the "Top 10 Early Morning Exercises You Should Be Doing Daily,” you'll soon have readers swarming over to take a look at your article. People are always interested in improving their health, and they want to know what they've been doing right or wrong in maintaining their health. Whoever reads this type of post is apt to share it with their friends and see what their opinions are about the list. That's all it takes and your post is headed viral.

Bullet Points and Subheadings

It's a fact of life that most individuals who go online are really not searching for a lot of information. This is certainly true at first, although you might catch their interest for a longer post later on. They start off by finding a webpage pertaining to what they want to know about and quickly scan the descriptions of that webpage before finally clicking through to the actual page.

What this all comes down to is that if you aim to have your content go viral, you are going to have to break it up into small chunks. Make your sentences short and for heaven's sake don't write overlong paragraphs. Limit them to about four or five sentences. People don't want to read sermons, they really do want just the facts, especially in this day and age where everyone is so busy running back and forth from home to work, work to home, to the supermarket, to pick up their children, etc. Time is of the essence, and everyone wants to save as much as possible. So the best thing you can do with your blog message is to make it short and sweet and more people will respond to that.

This is where bullet points and subheadings come in as they serve to break up the lines to be read and actually make it easier for people to read.

Educate

People don't want to read the same old tired things all the time, no matter how cleverly they're worded, you have to give them something new. Going by whatever audience you are trying the most to reach, do a little online research and delve into your own mind to determine what you know about these people and their interests and needs. Try to write up something that will open new doors for your readers, get them excited about trying something new, provide useful and interesting tips on things which affect their daily lives, preferably something you haven't written about before, and do your best to make all of your information fresh and new.

Want to spice up your blog a bit? Well, even if your blog is about knitting you can still restore some life to it by giving your readers a good challenge. It can pertain to anything from a recent newspaper headline to a controversial television show. Just pick a topic and go with the flow. Give your opinion and then ask your readers to respond.

The one thing you need to be cautioned about, though, is that if you opt to do this, be certain that you can back up whatever you are saying, with knowledgeable, sensible arguments that show you've given the topic some thought. You can be controversial; you don't have to come across as rude or ignorant. If you select a topic that is a hot button subject, you could end up launching a long running and entertaining discussion with spin-off posts that come from other bloggers and link back to your original post.

Quality Content

Just because some of your customers or followers take the time to read your content, doesn't necessarily mean that they are satisfied with it, especially if it is simply trivial chatter. The bottom line is if you want to write a blog post that is apt to go viral, you must use quality content. If you do, you can be sure that Internet users will read it.

Additionally, make an effort if at all possible to write positive content as often as you reasonably can. Now of course you can't always put a positive spin on matters, but keep in mind that people are more apt to share content if it is written with a positive slant rather than negative.

People want to feel good, and they want what they read to make them feel that way as well. Nobody wants to read depressing, uninteresting, or just plain old discouraging articles, so keep that in mind when you write.

Images or Video

The fact of the matter is that people really enjoy seeing images and videos online so you should make an effort to give this sort of thing to them. Doing so will help to spark interest in your blog, plus it happens to be easy to share such materials. They can be funny, entertaining, unusual, but just keep it upbeat. Be certain that your images have a link to your blog post for SEO purposes.

Share Buttons

Your readers will love you if you add share buttons to your blog because it will make it child's play to share the posts they like with their friends and family members. It's a fact that your average Internet user has an attention span of merely a few seconds, so that doesn't leave you with a lot of time to make an impression. They may recall reading something or other about your idea somewhere but once they click away from your site they probably aren't going to remember exactly where to find it to share with their friends.

You are going to have to make it easy for them to share your post immediately by having the share buttons for Twitter, Google, Facebook and various other social networking sites ready so that the reader need only click on them.

There may be no surefire way of knowing which blog posts will ultimately go viral, but following the above suggestions will give you a better chance of having your posts shared by a lot of readers, who will send them out to their friends and followers on social networking sites. 

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Mitch Carson has been a pitchman on Home Shopping Network, CBS Radio host, and is the CEO of Impact Products Marketing in Los Angeles, CA. Reach him at [email protected] or https://www.mitchcarson.com