Here am talking about some great content – viral content that spread across the internet like a wild fire. Everyone wants to create a great content, quality stuff that many people read, spread and ultimately to shoot up across various social sites and get links from every blogs. As you all know only a successful great content will go viral.
Content is king, how do great people (A-list bloggers) create content that are of quality stuff and goes viral immediately once they publish? What marketing strategy they use to attract readers? What makes the readers to click the link in first place to read the blog post? The TITLE OF THE POST is one of the major reasons why content goes viral on Social Media sites.
If you analyze a viral content, the major source of traffic for it will come from social media sites. If you carry out a detail research, most of the people first reTweet or Facebook share the content before reading it. So, if you take a pattern of viral content on the past – you can find almost all the content’s Title is unique and attracting the people to click the link.
I am not going to discuss about the article marketing strategy, but a point involved in it which explains “Great Titles Makes Content Go Viral”. You see, a good title will get a lot of more clicks and attention, be creative with it. Adding a Punch in your titles will get more clicks than a normal title for a blog post.
For example:
1. Samsung Galaxy SIII Review
2. Samsung Galaxy SIII Review – The iPhone Killer!
An exaggerated expression (superlatives) that you hear on TV advert promotions will be very much useful in generating the title for a post. Use words like new, improved, best, better, faster, easier, quicker, foolproof, unbeatable. Every word is there for a reason. You might want to be a bit more subtle in your post. After all, you’re not a 30 second commercial. But there are things to be picked up that are appropriate for you.
Before writing the title of the post, put yourself in the mind of your audience and ask what text would be so compelling that they need to click-through, read and then share it with their friends. Your title should get an immediate emotional reaction.
Targeting your readers mind with emotion based words that express amazement, anger, anticipation, curiosity, disgust, humor, sadness, trust etc. Also Controversial titles get higher clicks. Make sure if your title sparks the curiosity, then the content should satisfy it. Always keep in mind, the great title should make people to Click, Read and Share.
Still find it difficult to create great titles for your blog post?
Don’t worry. Visit social media aggregators like Popurls.com – these websites display the top links for the day. It will aggregate all the viral content that is being discussed in social media sites. So, obviously you get an idea to create your own title by seeing how most of the viral contents have their titles.
Never be afraid to experiment with the titles. Play with the combination of words, unexpected combination will work wonders. Try some rarely used word combinations in your titles. Odd ones stand out. Remember, all great viral content titles are short, crispy and exact to point. 65 characters Is your limit. That allows some space to get reTweets on social media sites. Not only has it given some space to share on social media sites, but also valuable room to comment.
When you do a basic research on what type of content goes viral, you can find a pattern there. Contents that become popular includes list posts, checklist to complete a process, useful tutorials or list of tutorials, success stories, failure stories, hot controversies, freebies, Giveaway, Breaking news, etc.
Now after great title, comes great content. It is not necessary that only a great in-depth content should go viral. Even a small picture of your cat goes viral if it interests people. Many of your in-depth thesis notes wouldn’t work. The content that are compelling, controversial, humor, unexpected, unique and useful will go viral without any doubt.
One method which I tested and works – Get personal with your title. If you share your experience, your content has a great chance of going viral. Make sure you keep the title more personal and meaningful. Write a headline that will blow your reader’s mind.
For example : How I made $900 using YouTube in 23 days, Why I Hate Facebook New Layout, 5 Annoying Twitter Features that I hate the most.
When writing a blog post it is important to make the effort to produce something that can create a buzz amongst your readers. It really takes persistence and excellent content to get noticed online.
The headline is the most challenging part for me. I agonize over how to create a compelling headline. Some that I thought were great ended up being duds. Some that I though were just OK became the biggest viral post I’ve ever had. Popurls sounds interesting enough to check out.
Thanks Suzanne 🙂
Hey Srivathsan,
No doubt Title play very crucial role in attracting readers attention, As a reader we see many article on daily basis but we don’t read every article. We only read one which can grab our attention.
Hey Aasma, you’re right. To catch the readers attention, great titles are must.
Hi,
All the above mentioned points are likely awesome and nice, that yeah to get tarffic to our blog we must write killer posts.
Good title and content tips, Madras Geek. Let’s see if my comment can go viral… Haha.
Hey Alicia, expecting your guest post here and am sure it will go viral.
Amazing post Srivathsan.Thanks for providing such an informative article. As you said, Content is King- I have always struggled getting ideas for writing a great blog posts. Your post has helped me out a lot in bringing up my blog. Thanks a ton!
Hey Nelson, glad it helped you 🙂 Cheers mate.
Great content. Equally beneficial, this post – itself – is an outstanding example of how to write a great blog post.
thanks bhushan.
Wonderful insights you have here. Thanks for sharing. It’s a great help as I am launching my new blog soon and I need to drive more traffic to it. Plus social media is free. Loving that thing 🙂
Hey Michael, thanks 🙂 Glad it helped you before launching your new blog. Some of these tips, I learned from experience. So happy that it is useful for people who start their new blog. Wishing you tons of traffic from Google 🙂
Thanks for the tips, Viral posts can generator alot of exposure and returning traffic if properly managed
I also have similar, You can also use this list http://www.smashpixels.com/blog-name-generator-choose-creative-blog-names/ to find viral blog and post titles
Hey gautham, thanks 🙂 Will check out your link and let you know my thoughts on it.
Nice find with http://popurls.com/ . Looks interesting to digg through some viral titles for blog posts.
Hey, thanks man. Also check inbound org.
Thank you for these useful tips. I have always struggled with what to write for the titles of posts, and it actually helps to take a bit of pressure off when you mentioned above to just play around with some to see how they work.
Hi Mike, I also try to use attractive titles like you. Title is the main thing that attracts users from social sites and search engine. I really appreciate your post Srivathsan, for making us understand in a great way.
Hi Avi Jit. Thanks 🙂 These kind of titles are attracted less on search engines than social sites.
Yes…The title is huge…People skim a page until something, usually a good title or image, is interesting enough to make them stop.
Hello Mike, Glad that the information helped you. Let me know how it works for you.