5 Reasons Why Viral Content is the New King

For the last few years bloggers have been endlessly hearing the refrain: “Content is king”. While content is incredibly important, another old saying holds true.

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Not all content is born equal.

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Have you ever seen one post talked about across a number of blogs you subscribe to? Has social media ever led you again and again to the same place?

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If so, chances are you were witnessing viral content in action.

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In this post, I want to introduce the concept of viral content and outline five reasons it’s worth your attention.

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What is ‘viral’ content?

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Seth Godin coined the term ‘viral’ as it applies to ideas. His definition can easily be adapted to blog content. Viral content is:

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• Easy to comprehend

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• Worth sharing and speaking about

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• Simple to spread and share

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• Rewarding to share

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Viral content is remarkable: it might be a big list of resources, a compilation of inspirational quotes, a new way of thinking about things, an eloquent argument for a point of view, and so on.

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Regardless of the form it takes, it causes the following internal reaction in the reader: “I’ve got to tell someone about this!”

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The good news for bloggers is that viral content does not require a strike of brilliance to create. One you begin to appreciate the common characteristics of viral content, you can start to emulate it — with a bit of work.

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Why viral content is the new King

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1. Social media loves viral content. Viral posts are made to be shared, and what superior way to share than through social media? As your post is passed along social media networks you can anticipate it to be championed by various users, creating a snowball effect for the content in question. This kind of social media success has the potential to bring hundreds of new visitors and subscribers to your blog.

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2. Viral content generates inbound links. As viral content is both shared and talked about this will commonly occur through links into your blog. This will boost your Technorati ranking, bring new, targeted visitors, and possibly contribute to an SEO boost if the anchor text is good.

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3. It can bring streams of traffic over long periods. The ideal forms of viral content are timeless, and the snowball effect of such posts can roll on for long periods of time. The strongest viral post I’ve written is 50 Tips to Unclutter Your Blog: it never reached the front page of Digg or achieved booming social media success, but has still managed to receive 37 trackbacks and 91 comments, and continues to generate new comments and trackbacks to this day.

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Content spread via word of mouth can contribute to your blog’s growth over a long period of time, whereas social media success alone tends to explode, then fizzle away to nothing.

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4. It creates buzz around your blog. Viral content is great for spreading your brand throughout your niche. Your name and viral articles will seem to be turning up everywhere: in link round-ups, in social media, and so on. That kind of visibility will ensure your chosen niche begins to recognize your name.

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5. It encourages comments. Viral content is meant to be talked about and much of that talk will occur in comments. In my experience, posts I’ve written that have become viral have also resulted in a high comment count. This is great for the social proof of your blog.

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Where to next?
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Give some thought to the idea of viral content. Have you seen any content lately that qualifies as viral? What is everyone talking about in your niche at the moment?

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If you can, write down some of the reasons why you think that post was so widely shared and talked about. Chances are each one of those characteristics can be applied to your own content in order to create your own viral post.

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The next time I write about viral content here — which will be soon — I want to advocate a number of strategies you can use to create your own viral content, and in doing so, launch your blog’s growth into the stratosphere. Stay tuned!\n

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