“It’s gone viral!”
If you have any online business or are involved in the online world, those three little words are likely music to your ears. And if you’ve never heard them before with regards to your content, the chances are that they are somewhere on your bucket list. We all know the key to online success is visibility, and there is a direct correlation between your success and the number of people who get their eyes on your stuff. If you are in the online world, you’ve probably heard the saying “it’s a numbers game.” So, in this case, all you have to do is get millions of people across the country and world to see your website, and you’ll become successful in your business. Sounds simple, right?
Content marketing is an art. And just like all artists know, perfecting your skills takes time and requires honing in on what sells and what doesn’t. Social media has been around for several years now, and while it is continually evolving, the foundations of successful online marketing don’t ever change. In fact, according to viral content marketing genius Jagrit Pratap Singh, consistency is the most critical key to success. Here are some of the most preferred tips for making your online content go viral according to the viral content king who has become a media maven over the past several years and now started his viral portal.
Do Your Research
If you want people to seek you out online and spend more than 3 seconds looking at your content, you have to know what people want. So many entrepreneurs and online marketers make this rookie mistake: they think they know what their audience wants without doing any research to validate their assumptions. The truth is: if you don’t do your research, you will come up short. Go out and do your homework. Take polls, interview your target market, test the waters and see what sticks before spending days, weeks or months creating content or products. When you find out what your potential clients want, your chances of success are greatly magnified.
Market research isn’t a one-time shot either. New trends are constantly evolving, and the preferences of your audience will change as well. If you want to be successful, you must stay on top of the trends and always know what it is your ideal clients want most.
“I’ve observed that many successful brand pages look to fizzle out continuously as they keep using the same content for many years while most of their connected audiences have switched to newer interests. The real success mantra is to introduce older fans to new content while simultaneously using this new content to connect with new followers.”
Keep up with the Latest Social Media Tools
There are multiple social media platforms that you can use to grow your business from Facebook to Instagram to Linkedin and beyond. Learning and using all of these platforms takes time and practice, but beyond that, you must also keep up with the evolution of these platforms and social media in general. All of the successful social media outlets are continuously updating their algorithms and adding new features and tools. If you don’t keep up, you’ll be left in the dust. Do your research, learn the platform and keep up with the latest social media trends. If you can’t keep up with all the platforms, focus on just one or two that are most beneficial for your business. If you can master even just one platform, your content has a lot higher chance of going viral and maintaining a higher reach.
Use Social Media for What it Actually Can do for your Business
Building and maintaining a fanbase on social media is an investment of time, energy, and money. So, why are you doing it? What is the main reason you invest that time and money into building Facebook pages, engaging with your audience and pumping out loads of free content? If you aren’t out there for the right reason, most likely you will fall flat on your face. Your content will not go viral, and your business will not grow.
The real reason you should promote your brand on social media is to move potential customers forward into your marketing funnel. What is the benefit of a piece of viral content if you get no return on investment from that piece?
According to Jagrit (whose page has over 6 million likes today and has helped drive hundreds of millions of audiences to various websites), the core functions of social media, in order, are:
- Acquisition of new fans
- Retaining fans by sharing relevant, interesting content
- Converting fans into prospective customers
- Converting prospective customers into actual customers
Social media can easily become an overwhelming time suck for busy entrepreneurs and online business owners. While “going viral” can help you become an overnight success or at least get your business heading in the direction you want, it doesn’t happen overnight. Social media is all about strategy. Instead of focusing on the outcome of going viral, Jagrit suggests focusing on the actual outcome you desire – which is customers. And in order for that to happen, you must do your research and find what your audience wants and then provide that to them in high quality and consistent fashion. Social media is a long-term game, but one that has the potential for a significant return on investment if used correctly.
