For those entrepreneurs who look to social networks as an opportunity to build a stronger and more popular brand, making content go viral on Facebook is always a consideration.
As wonderful as the idea of viral content might be, very few online marketers have a firm grasp on exactly what's involved in achieving the goal. As a matter of fact, many business owners look at viral content as more of a reward. If a blog post or info graphic should be successful, well that's simply icing on the cake. This is an unfortunate attitude, as crafting viral content is well within the grasp of any individual or team who is willing to put in the effort.
Content Curation
A fundamental step in creating viral content on a social network like Facebook is to adopt a very discriminating posture when selecting the subject matter. Viewers want to be engaged even when killing time, and content that is not up to the task will simply fall flat, and your efforts to go viral will probably end after a few half-hearted likes or shares.
The User Experience
This is by far the most important aspect of creating a viral campaign on Facebook or any other social platform. The idea of UX design, or user experience design, is a critical factor when delivering content to the end-user.
Even when armed with engaging and original content, ineffective delivery will prevent any hopes of a viral result, and it's important to consider the entire process from start to finish.
Visual Appeal
From graphic elements to the way that written copy is presented, shared content should be easy for any viewer to consume. This is not as straightforward as it might seem. While your visual presentation might look wonderful on a local desktop, how will it translate once the share button is hit?
While every social network subscribes to their own set of protocols when presenting content to viewers, creating campaigns that are easy to consume begins with your own design team. This means images that are clean and sized correctly, articles that are written with a focus on rock solid SEO, and sharing attributes that ensure social networks are given the right data to deliver your campaign effectively.
Regardless of the information that Facebook requires when building a shared post, if you don't make that data readily available and easy for Facebook to digest, your beautiful campaign will fall apart once the sharing process begins. In order for your content to go viral, your marketing team needs to look under the hood.
Work With Facebook
In order to have any chance of making your content go viral, you need to play by the rules. This means understanding Facebook's Open Graph Protocol and making certain that it's implemented on your websites and your client's websites.
Open Graph meta tags are an important part of search engine optimization and should not be overlooked if your marketing efforts are dependent on social media sharing and a positive user experience. While Facebook and other social networks will always make an effort to gather the appropriate data from your site, your shares may not translate effectively unless you take the time to give Facebook what its looking for.
Put quite simply, you need to make the user experience as pleasurable and painless as possible. This means content that is shared easily and delivered effectively. You want the beautiful design on your desktop to be exactly what the user sees when they access their Facebook Timeline. There should be no hiccups along the way, and there shouldn't be any point in the process where too much is expected of the user. Click and share. It's only rocket science if you don't pay attention to the details.
Making content go viral on Facebook is not necessarily a fluke. A well engineered campaign will certainly increase your chances, and will create a formula for future posts and engaging content.
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