Hey man! So, you see, these days, going viral isn’t just a ‘nice to have’, but an integral part of every piece of content you generate. If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to make something go viral, then you’re in the right place. We’re going to explore the most critical secrets of shareable content that inspires people to read, share and spread the word to their networks. Making your content shareable isn’t about being flashy or posting a few cat memes every now and then. If you want to make content that travels farther than ever intended, you’ll need to take your viral strategy to the next level. Here’s what that means in practice: how do you create content focused on shareability and go viral in today’s digital world?
Why Shareability Matters More Than Ever
It is worth highlighting the importance of making your content shareable in the age of content madness, when 2 million pieces of content are produced every 60 seconds. Shareable content doesn’t just increase your reach; it embeds your brand in the psyche of your consumers.
Virality Equals Visibility
If what you’re posting is shareable, it’s being seen by more eyes: the more it spreads across platforms by means of a retweet or a repost or a share, the more exponentially your visibility grows—that’s the basis of organic growth on social media today. If something is shareable, then it is being validated by someone else, which augments the trust and credibility your brand can have.
For instance, consider BuzzFeed quizzes. You might not know what your true Snapchat bitmoji is—if you even know what the cartoon symbol stands for. But because these quizzes are easy to understand and crafted for almost every possible interest, it’s easy to engage in a quiz that leaves you feeling entertained. This incentivises you to click the Like button (or its equivalents) and share the quiz on your social media account if you think your friends would find it amusing, too. It’s a simple, fun cycle that ensures digital objects catch fire.
The Psychology Behind Shareable Content
It is the craft of understanding what makes people not just display the behavior but click, engage and share. It is what it takes to optimise something to travel way beyond your network.
Emotional Triggers
Emotional impact is a major driver of shareability, too. Emotionally charged content is much more likely to be shared, whether it hits people humorously, awe-inspiringly, or angrily. People share content that amplifies their feelings or that resonates with something they’re feeling.
The most common explanation offered was that happy, excited or inspiring posts (‘positive content’) are more likely to go viral than negative content, such as stories or videos that deride other people. A study from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York verified that the most viral content is positive in tone; negative content does not spread on social media very far at all.
Humor people can relate to: A well-placed joke or meme can earn your likes and a laugh from your audience, who will then be more inclined to share it with friends.
For example, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge channelled humour, challenge and charity so that the meme was sharply shareable and went viral.
Crafting Visually Engaging Content
With so much content coming at the average user all the time, how your post looks is paramount to having it seen, and the right images could mean the difference between being skipped or the sharing it with all their followers.
Make It Eye-Catching
If creating text is part of your job, bear in mind that it should look good. If you were writing for a magazine, your story might have a picture, a video, an infographic, or even a GIF.
Use bright, bold colors that align with your brand’s aesthetics.
High-quality images or videos outperform those with poor resolution.
Interactive visuals like polls or animations are more engaging than static images.
Hack: You don’t have to be a designer to build a visual that cuts through the noise. Programmes such as Canva or Adobe Spark make it easy to generate eye-catching material.
Telling a Compelling Story
Indeed, the suggested reason why great coverage appreciates good data and grounded journalism isn’t based on subject matter in the content, such as facts or images, but rather because there’s a compelling reason to share a narrative that relates to people’s own experiences, draws them in and, perhaps most importantly, has them thinking.
Stories that Resonate
Write the copy as if it were a narrative. If you have a testimonial, build up your narrative around it. If it’s a behind-the-scenes look at your product, write that. Or if it’s that thing I mentioned earlier, where you’re talking about something else entirely, make sure you’re walking a narrative. That seems a little vague. What do you mean? We literally mean that you can be talking about how nobody is making you stupid because you’re reading this and end it on whatever the main thrust of your explainer is.
Keep it Personal: Stories that have some personal connection tend to get better engagement. Write about something that relates to an experience you’ve had—success or failure.
Structure: Make sure your story has a beginning, a middle, and an end so that your audience is hooked from the start to the finish.
The Role of Authenticity in Shareable Content
Authenticity is the Holy Grail of sharability. And to capitalise on this craving for sharing, content consumers are veering away from carefully edited stories presented by editors trained to serve up what the big brands publish and seeking instead stories presented by real people with whom they can relate. They want the real you—your story, your faces, your results.
Build Trust Through Transparency
Show ‘insider’ footage, discuss your challenges and struggles, and generally appear to be yourself. When your audience believes they know the real you, they are more likely to share.
Showcase your brand’s values and missions.
Engage directly with your audience by responding to their comments and questions.
Avoid the temptation to appear perfect—authenticity is what will ultimately resonate and spread.
For instance, the superstar teen influencer Emma Chamberlain started as a solo Youtuber who became infamous for being unapologetically unprofessional. To date, Chamberlain’s Chelsea-meets-Reddit aesthetic has grown her business to a multi-million-dollar empire, with millions of loyal fans.
Optimizing Content for Social Media Algorithms
As with everything else in popular Internet media, you don’t necessarily have to create the best writing, photos, or videos to get your content shared; you just have to make sure that your content appeals to the particular algorithm of your chosen social media. And until the nebulous’secrets’ of these algorithms are revealed, no one is completely sure what form that appeal should take.
Timing Is Everything
Certain formats do well at particular times of day, and tweaking when you post can boost engagement as your content catches an audience when they are most active.
Use tools like Later or Buffer to schedule posts when your audience is online.
Additionally, post at different times and monitor engagement rates to see what works best for your niche.
Tip: On Instagram, engagement is best in the morning and evening hours; mornings and mid-afternoon (or early evenings) are peaks for Facebook.
Leveraging Hashtags and Trends
Hashtags, especially when the topic is trending, can still help make your content more discoverable and more shareable. It’s true that the algorithm does some of that work for you, but do we really want it curating what we see? Not if we want to stay on top of trends.
Use Relevant Hashtags
Using hashtags helps to sort your content, making you findable by other consumers of related content. But knowing when to use them is important.
Use 10 to 20 relevant hashtags: bombarding your post with hashtags will give it a spam-like feel.
Where germane, use hashtags that are hip to the moment, but don’t use them for exposure’s sake.
Create branded hashtags to encourage UGC (user-generated content).
PSA (as any pro tennis fan knows): #ThrowbackThursday and #MotivationMonday are social media’s most successful hashtags, because enough people use them regularly enough to make them standouts of shareability.
The Importance of Call-to-Actions (CTAs)
Even if your news and thought leadership is beautifully designed, emotionally compelling and timely, you’re unlikely to get people to share it unless you ask them to do so. Call-to-actions are a straightforward way to drive interaction.
Ask Your Audience to Share
Wrap up your post with a call to action: whatever action you want them to take next (to like, share, comment, tag someone), make sure they know!
Encourage them to act—either share or tag someone directly—with invitations such as ‘Tag a friend who needs to see this’ or ‘Share if this speaks to you’.
Make your CTA super-clear and simple to follow—don’t give your readers too much to remember.
Conclusion
Navigating the space between creativity and strategy is essential for creating sharable content that speaks to the reasons why people share, as well as fostering visually appealing and emotionally moving content and optimising your posts for social algorithms, which will maximise your opportunity for going viral. And by going viral, your brand is reaching an audience far beyond your immediate one and extending influence to ever more new eyes, often without cost. Are you poised to create shareable content that is on fire?
FAQs
What types of content are most likely to go viral? Things that are funny, inspiring, shocking or emotional in some way are more likely to be shared; things that tell a story are inherently viral.
How many hashtags should I use to increase shareability? Avoid using more than 10 hashtags, as it can make your tweet look cluttered, but fewer than five may reduce its visibility.
How can I track the shareability of my content? Monitor shares, engagement, and impressions via Hootsuite Analytics, Sprout Social, or other native platform analytics.
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