There is no formula to going viral, but there are wise steps that can make you stand out

“I need you to make this go viral now!” Words that can make any honest marketer roll their eyes and sigh. Unfortunately, thanks to the mind numbing success of Kolaveri di and Gangnam Style, every business owner, small or big, aspires for their content to go viral on social media, to have content which so overwhelmingly resonates with the audience that they feel the intense urge to share it with all their contacts immediately. So much so, it’s practically the Holy Grail of most social media and marketing campaigns. Think of the traffic, the audience growth, and the brand awareness! The fact of the matter is that you just cannot guarantee anything—neither your insanely cute puppy video nor your business’ new product campaign—will go viral. There is no formula that can, with any certainty, predict whether or not your content will go viral. Of course, that doesn’t mean that you blindly go out and produce just about any content and then pray to the Twitter and Facebook deities to make the magic happen. Having followed truly viral successes online for many years, here are some tips, broad guidelines rather, to ensure your video, blog post, marketing campaign or Facebook post has what it takes to go viral. Be creative: While that may seem to be a no-brainer, bear in mind that most viral content that you end up sharing and remembering has that extra special something done creatively—something that sets it apart from all the cruft. When you are sitting down and planning for your content, do not be afraid to be a little absurd and think outside the box. It’s usually the stuff regular folks find too unusual to attempt that catches on. Ask yourself this, “If I saw this in my newsfeed, would I share it?” If the answer is “no”, think about why and keep improving the content until you would be proud to share it yourself. If you would not share something, why should anyone else? Be engaging: Gone are the days of fireand- forget one-way messaging. Increasingly, brands are engaging fans through interactive content and user generated content contests. Be engaging—talk to your fans via Facebook, conduct fun quizzes and run buzz-friendly contests—you will find that the more interactive your content is, the more it gets shared. Be current: While your content should without doubt be original, bringing in a current popular trend and putting your own spin on it can be really effective to make that connect with the audience. Capture the moment, and keep it relevant— engage with your audience to find out what they’re talking about and roll those themes into your messaging. Be connected: You could, if your budget allows for it, pitch your brand to big-name social influencers on Twitter and Facebook. I mean, one tweet from them can potentially send your campaign into the viral content hall of fame! But this approach has its downsides as well, since these internet celebrities are hounded day and night for their marketing value and often come across and being “paid sellouts”. What probably has longer-term value is to create content targeted towards smaller connected influencers who share content within their own tribes. Research shows that the million likes often come from thousands of smaller networks internally propagating your content virally. Be genuine: If your content is promotional in intent, do not mask it under the garb of creativity. Be straightforward in your communication with your viewers, and do not try to deceive the consumer about who’s running the campaign. It’s perfectly possible for branded content to go viral—remember the 2010 Old Spice made-for-Youtube commercials? Be shareable: Your content isn’t going to be anywhere even in the same pin code as viral if it is difficult to share, and people have to jump through hoops to share it. Make sharing your content easy-allow video to be embedded in other blogs, put share buttons on your web or blog page, and push the content out on Facebook and twitter where sharing it is just one easy click away. Also, incentivise sharing—if you are running a social media contest, you can reward participants with an extra entry for retweeting the contest message. Be mobile aware: Phones, not PCs, are where your audience consumes little tidbits of information all through the day, so if your content does not work on mobile phones, it can not go viral. Plain and simple. Make sure you have a mobile web version for your site which places the content front and centre, making it easy to consume and share. Be humorous: Take a look at your Facebook news feed, or your email inbox. Do you not notice a lot of funny stuff getting shared? Laughing together brings millions of people closer each day, and if you can tap into that emotion with your content, go for it! Be positive: If you want to see your content getting some share-love, focus on the positive. Studies show that content that evokes high-arousal emotions (i.e., awe, anger, and anxiety) is more viral, with awe-inspiring (positive emotion) stuff edging out sadness-inducing (negative emotion) stuff in terms of virality. Be list-friendly: Would this column have grabbed your attention faster if we’d called it “The 10 Best Ways for your Content to Go Viral”? It’s a proven fact that headlines with numbers drive greater response than those without. Keep that in mind.