Virality at Will: Triggering Viral Posts
Adding Virility and Vitality to Virality
Adding Virility and Vitality to Virality
With the advent and ascent of social-media, everyone worth his salt on the Internet sees his share of 15-minutes of fame very much within his reach. Ordinary-looking posts are known to go viral nationally as well as internationally, making instant celebrities out of a bald, dancing Indian Uncle or a winking, dainty South Indian girl, who’s barely turned 18. Preceded by an era of costly, over-priced and ineffective advertisements on the print and electronic media which required “burning billions to build brands”, any person can now dream of getting hundreds of thousands hits, if not a million.
However, viral posts remain elusive; a study of the recent viral hits reveals no golden formula. Just as viral infections generally have no known cures, viral posts do not appear to have any precise conditions for incubation that would ensure their exponentially growing dissemination. However, we present a compact package which, with a bit of luck, can propel your social-media posts into the coveted but exclusive stratosphere of virality.
Time and Day to go Online
This is very important. Weekends, from Friday evening to wee hours of Sunday, are a good slot to go online. Do not forget National Holidays, festivals and long weekends, when the audience is more likely to be engaged. One must, however, keep in mind the Time Zones in accordance with the geographical location of the potential readership.
Choose the right type of media
“More the merrier” is a good first principle. Having said that, choose carefully amongst Facebook, Instagram (for photos), YouTube (for videos), Twitter (trending news and one-liners), LinkedIn (professional network), Medium.com (articles). It’s very useful to inter-link or cross-reference as much possible to drive traffic between various platforms.
Hashtag (#) like mad
Hashtag (#) is the single most important and effective tool for your post to be discovered on the Internet over a number of social-media platforms. Hashtag shamelessly and use anything between a dozen to a score hashtags, however, making sure that these are relevant. Instagram is particularly unresponsive in absence of hashtag. Be sure that you capture trending hashtags, especially on Twitter and Facebook.
Frequency of Posting and Consistency
This is more of a subtle art than a precise science. Going overboard with even good quality posts may effectively lead to you spamming the feeds of your friends, followers and contacts, impelling them to hit the snooze, mute or the dreaded block button. However, the optimal frequency varies from media to media. Twitter may support a relatively high frequency, whereas not more than three or four daily posts for Facebook are recommended. In Instagram, which does not have an archive option, anything more than two photo uploads, unless catering to an esoteric audience, may do more harm than good. “Nothing succeeds like excess” is NOT a dictum that succeeds on the social-media. Therefore, when in doubt, it’s better to leave your audience gasping for more rather than cloying them with surfeit (of) posts. Also, be consistent in terms of the timing and frequency so that your audience is not kept waiting or guessing.
Quality versus Quantity
We have discussed the frequency of posts in the last paragraph; frequency is practically the same as quantity, with the differentiation that keeping in view the time zones of your internationally scattered audiences, you may like to re-post the same post, especially on Twitter, at appropriate local times. On the other hand, aiming at perfection and aspiring for ideal quality may lead to a perceptible decrease in the number of your posts, resulting in your fans losing interest. A fine balance has to be achieved and maintained — not an easy task.
Engage with your audience
Your friends and fans may share, comment or like your posts. It’s always a good idea to engage with them, especially the regular ones who comment sensibly. Be open to criticism and do not opt for the delete option unless the comment is really obscene or offensive. Also be liberal in visiting sites, timelines and posts of others and commenting effectively but honestly. Reciprocity can be a great pillar in expanding your cyber-reach.
Make your posts “Public”
This seems to be a no-brainer but many good posts get lost because they have been made visible to or accessible to only your friends or followers. It may also be noted that when a friend, who’s default setting is “friends only”, shares your public post, the same shall be visible only to his friends. Personal posts, however, should normally be shared on with friends, unless these are of wider interest and significance.
Is tagging nagging?
Unlike hashtags, tag modestly, but effectively. Normally, tagging is like nagging and can very easily irritate the person tagged, inducing him to hide or block your posts. However, it can be a very effective tool, if used with discretion, so that influencers in whose general area of interest your post falls, can notice them and hopefully, share.
Pictures and Videos
The written word constitutes a bulk of the social-media content. However, remember the old adage: “A picture is worth a thousand words”. Use photos and videos effectively but be sure these are relevant and that you are not violating third-party copyright. Acknowledge a source gratefully. As far as possible, use your own photos and videos. This is not difficult with the present-day smart phones. Choose pithy titles and captions to lend a context to your visual feast. LIVE videos have a far higher probability of catching he attention of your audience: use it sparingly, but effectively.
Click Baits
This tool can be pretty effective to encourage a click but before that can happen, the post needs to land up in the post of a person. The click bait ends a sentence like “This seemed quite ordinary but what happened was totally unexpected.” This ignites the curiosity of the reader and more often than not, they will bite the bait. However, make sure that the stuff that follows is truly interesting and that your reader does not feel cheated.
Links are not promoted as much as original posts
Although the exact algorithm of social-media sites such as Facebook and Twitter is not known one thing is pretty certain — your original posts are more likely to be pushed into the feed than third-party links. After all, no company would like to freely and disproportionately promote the content of others.
Ride the “trending wave”
Waves and ripples of news and views rise and fall on daily basis on the Internet. A post that takes this surge “at flood” is more likely to lead you unto fortune, than one which is not topical. For example World Cup Soccer could be a good event to sync in and tune your posts. It’s all about time and timing. Don’t forget to use hashtags, especially if you are trying to capture such trending phenomenon.
Know thy audience
It’s really very important not only to know the profile of your existing audience and also the audience you seek. Tailor your posts to their tastes. Geographical and cultural sensibilities need to be appreciated as also the language/ script that you use. Also try and expand your audience by encouraging, “like a Page”, subscribe to your YouTube channel or “like first” option on Facebook. These choices will make sure that your post definitely lands up in their feed ahead of everything else.
Trolls are good!?
Whether your posts are controversial or not, some people are bound to criticize you. The criticism can be very pungent and the comments bordering on being offensive. However, any person who wants to expand his domain on the social-media needs to be fairly tolerant of the trolls. Trolls also generate a buzz around your posts and many well-meaning friends and followers may pounce at them and jump to your defence. All this contributes to the probability of your post going viral.
There’s nothing like loyalty
You have to set and maintain rigorous standards for yourself. There’s nothing like perpetual loyalty of your audience. If your standard falls, or you are absent from the social-media sites for inordinately long time, you may lose crucial members of your audience. And, mind you, not all of them may come back, once you return in the right earnest. Like elsewhere in business, retaining a customer is as important as gaining one.
Keep it brief; originality matters
“Brevity is the soul of wit” is particularly applicable to social-media. Keep it short, simple and pithy. Of course, nothing like Twitter to enforce brevity but even otherwise no article should ordinarily be more than 5–7 minutes of read. In a world where “cut-and-paste” is an unfortunate reality, originality stands out and shines. Copied stuff can be easily detected (highlight; right click, Google search) and repels your followers. Originality is appreciated. But be careful to assert and protect your own copyright as IPRs.
Promotion and Advertising
This is may be seen as very anti-thesis of and contradictory to the concept of virality but modest promotion can really set the ball rolling. Promotion on Facebook and Twitter can help grab eye-balls if you are promoting a “note” on Facebook or an article that you have already published on Medium. Choose the campaign carefully, and target it properly. Such a promotion can act either as a catalyst or a nucleus for further crystallization or the snowball effect.
CONCLUSION
In spite of all these efforts, your post may or may not go viral but it shall sure garner more likes and views than a random post unsupported by this strategy. There’s no harm in trying. May you be blessed with “viral infection”!
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KBS Sidhu. The Author is an IAS officer of 1984 Batch of Punjab cadre. The views expressed are his own.
He can be reached on kbs.sidhu@gmail.com or @kbssidhu1961 orhttps://www.facebook.com/kbs.sidhu