Whenever a video or blog is posted, the hopes are for it to go viral so it can reach a massive audience. While this might not always happen, there are some ways that you can increase the chances of your content going viral.
User Experience
The first way you can do is to increase the user experience. When you post blogs to your Facebook, Google+ or Linkedin, you have the option to select an image from your blog that will be scaled down when you post the link to your social media accounts.
An image, if it’s captivating and relevant, will grab the reader’s attention so that they’ll immediately be visually interested in what you have posted. You can use Flickr Creative Commons for this, your own images, charts and graphs, or you can hire someone to create a few quality images for you to use.
Make sure that your design is clean and easy to navigate. You don’t want to confuse readers by having too much going on. If you look at the blogs of successful companies, they won’t have too much going on so that readers can find what they’re looking for without going on a scavenger hunt for content.
You also want to have compelling titles and URLs so that readers know what it is you’re linking to. If you make them appealing, there will be a higher click-through rate.
Sharing
A great way to get your content out there so that it’s more likely to be read is to reach out to those sites that influence and get buy-in from them before you publish your content. If they think that what you are sharing with them is interesting, quality content, they’re more likely to share it with their readers.
It’s also a great way to get feedback from them about what they feel you should change in order to do better and resonate with your audience. You’ll have the chance of getting constructive feedback or compliments.
You can find these influencers all over the web, but you’re probably already familiar with them. They usually have a large following on Twitter, are in several Google+ Circles, etc. By reaching out to them, your content has a greater chance of doing better than normal.
What Works Best
The third thing you can do is to see what works best for your audience. You want to make sure you’re posting content when it’s being talked about so that you increase the chances of your content being shared.
If you reach out to people you know in the real world and ask them to share your content that their followers will find interesting, they’re more likely to share your content. You can always return the favor by posting some of their posts that will engage your readers.
You should also be posting your content throughout the week, especially Tuesday-Thursday. On Mondays people are usually just getting ready for another work week and on Fridays, people are ready for the weekend. You can still post early on Friday mornings, but you probably won’t get as much of a response if you post in the afternoons. On Mondays, you can post in the afternoon, because in the mornings, people are probably still half asleep.
By regularly posting content, you’ll find out what works for you and over time your content will be exposed to a greater audience than before.