As a content marketer you understand the challenge of making content go viral. What is the secret? Emerson Spartz has it down to a science – literally. Emerson Spartz is the CEO of Spartz, Inc., one of the fastest-growing digital media publishers with 50 million unique visitors per month. His company has developed predictive science tools to measure the viral potential of websites with a 90 percent success rate. He recently spoke to a full house at the Social Media Masters Summit – and here are some tips he shared.
- More emotion! “The more incentive you give people to share your content, the more likely they are to share it,” said Spartz. Okay, how do you give people incentive? MORE EMOTION! People share content that strikes a chord. Make it emotional, cute, funny, nostalgic, or intriguing. Make it WORTH sharing.
- Additional tip: You don’t have to constantly be coming up with new, emotional content. You can share existing emotional content. Sharing content can make you a star as long as it’s the right content for the right audience. You just need to ask yourself this question: “Am I creating value for the audience?”
- Post the same tweet 3 times a day. Yes, that’s right. The exact same tweet 3 times a day, 8 hours apart. You will reach 3 different audiences and rarely the same people, including international audiences with the overnight tweet. No one goes back through their Twitter feed, so if they don’t see your tweet immediately they don’t see it at all. This allows you to reach more people.
- Additional tip: Don’t want to stay up all night tweeting? Schedule your overnight tweets. In fact, you can schedule ALL of your tweets and save yourself oodles of time!
- Use fewer words. Less is always more, right? To create the most digestible content use fewer words. And fewer sentences. Break up your sentences. Get to the point.
- Additional tip: Stop over hash-tagging! No one can read the block of blue at the end of your tweet.
To see these tips in action, check out Spartz’s sites Dose and OMG Facts.
About the Author: LuCinda Hohmann is a marketing professional with expertise in digital marketing and consulting for business and non-profit sectors. She is a recent graduate of the Integrated Marketing Communications Master’s program with Medill at Northwestern University. You can find her on LinkedIn.