Create Viral Content With These 5 Simple Tips
Everyone wants to create viral content these days. Everyone wants to be famous or a digital influencer with hundreds of thousands of followers. That is what viral marketing is all about today; the science of persuasive use of language to capture the attention of millions of social media users to make your unique content go viral.
To improve your chances of going viral, you should follow the simple steps below:
5 Simple Tips to Create Viral Content
1. Short Words Win
We all can agree on one thing that Shakespeare is the most renowned viral content creator of all times. Did you know that the average word length in Hamlet is 3.99 characters? It’s clear he understood that big words are less persuasive and less memorable than simple ones.
How many of us can understand Shashi Tharoor’s words in the first go? Very few, I guess. But we are aware of his sentences because it makes us feel intelligent to use those words. On the other hand if you follow any motivational speaker, they will give you life lessons in words you will understand and absorb it thoroughly.
Now, think of some of the most iconic advertising and political lines and slogans in more modern history used to create viral content on media platforms:
- Just do it
- No Means No
- No Child Left Behind
- Make America Great Again
- Pehle Istemaal Kare, Fir Vishwaas Kare
- Apni Dukaan
- Think Different
- Because You’re Worth It
- It’s Finger Lickin’ Good
- Taste The Thunder
- Desh Ka Namak
- Daag Acche Hai
- Wah Taj
- Bajate Raho
- Connecting People
- Dimaag Ki Batti Jala De
- Have a Break, Have a KitKat
- Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola
One and two-syllable words are able to create a deeper emotional connection with the reader very quickly.
2. Repetition Rules
Of all the videos on YouTube, the most viewed videos are pop songs. That is because of their repetitive nature of the verses. We get stuck on that verse and the next thing you know, you are hooked on to the song.
But music producers and songwriters don’t just repeat choruses, lines, and rhymes in each song but also chords and general sounds that are used repeatedly from song to song and performer to performer.
While you create viral content, you can repeat words, ideas, sounds, letters, or ends of words (as in rhymes) to drive your marketing message.
3. Alliteration Acquires Attention
Alliteration is the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.
The magic of Alliterations is always in the background. The consumer almost never outrightly observes it, but if alliteration is missing, then it definitely makes the void echo.
Copywriters use this technique frequently to create viral content with memorable marketing campaign slogans. Like repetition, alliteration gets used mostly in headlines, which are what get read mostly anyway.
It’s no coincidence that some of the most memorable names out there use alliteration.
- Dunkin’ Donuts
- Gold’s Gym
- Ted Talks
- Coca Cola
- Big Bazaar
- Cafe Coffee Day
- American Airlines
- Range Rover
- Bruce Banner
- Bugs Bunny
- Daffy Duck
- Donald Duck
- Fred Flinstone
- Mickey Mouse
- Minnie Mouse
- Road Runner
- Willy Wonka
- Charlie Chaplin
- Marilyn Monroe
- Ronald Reagan
…the list goes on and on.
Similarly, using rhyme and alliteration in headlines is a great way to break through the clutter and create viral content which tests time.
4. Headlines are the Best Time to Rhyme
There’s strong psychological research that says rhyming in titles will actually entice readers. Our affection for rhyming is an age-old tradition that has been used in the west as far back as the medieval period and can be traced further back in the east as well.
Some of the known rhymes used to create viral content are:
- Washing Powder Nirma
- Ghadi: Pehle Istemaal Kare, Phir Vishwaas Kare
- Vicks Ki Goli Lo, Khich Khich Dur Karo
- Tide Hai To White Hai
- Isko Laga Daala To Life Zingalala
- Daag Acche Hai
- Thanda Thanda Cool Cool (Very good use of alliteration and repetition for maximum impact)
Pro Tip: If you are not able to create viral content using rhymes, check out Rhyme Zone. This site will help you find rhyming words and phrases, as well as search popular sayings from songs and literature.
5. Metaphors are Memorable
Companies use metaphors in advertising to convey a certain feeling or claim about their products without directly saying what it is they want consumers to know or feel about their products. Metaphors appeal to a consumer’s imagination and allows them to come up to their own conclusion, albeit suggested in the advertising.
This type of advertising isn’t exclusive to large, national campaigns and can be done on a smaller scale through print ads in local papers and magazines to TV commercials in regional network stations or local cable channels.
The process of decoding a metaphor is memorable when you properly create viral content. The visual and mental connection a metaphor brings to the customer makes it a memorable metaphor and hence a good campaign.
Here are some famous metaphors we’ve probably heard at some point:
- “All the world’s a stage.”
- “Connecting People”
- “Always be yourself. Unless you can be Batman. Then, always be Batman.”
- “Land Rovers Are Exciting”
How Metaphors Make Online Content Go Viral
- A good majority of people are visual learners, and metaphors often use visualization to get a point across. That picture in their mind that sticks with them long after the rest of your words have disappeared.
- We have to exert some degree of effort in order to decode the meaning of a metaphor. And we tend to remember that thought process.
“The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor…,” wrote Aristotle and he wasn’t wrong.
5 Simple Tips to Create Viral Content
If you want your marketing efforts to go viral, remember the five rules:
- Tell a story: Make your message an “if, but, then” narrative.
- Use figures of speech: Rhymes, idioms, metaphors, etc.
- Trigger an emotion: Invoke the three A’s: awe, anger, and anxiety.
- Paint a picture: And use metaphor to engage the reader in decoding the message.
- Test your message: The single most important thing in all of marketing is testing.
The sooner you start using these elements while you create viral content and lead generation campaigns, the better you’ll be at using viral content marketing techniques to break through the clutter.
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Sharvari kardile
September 22, 2020
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