Every blogger dreams of a bigger audience. It is human nature to want to be recognized and to receive attention and praise. So just what makes a blog post go viral?
1) Have you grabbed their attention with your title? Opening lines should pique interest and curiosity, show a benefit, highlight a need, promise to entertain/inform/teach, or offer something of value. Work hard early on at hooking your reader into your post.
2) Have you made it easy to read? Readers scan pages online looking for keywords, phrases, and visual clues like numbers and bullet points. Use lists or other formatting techniques to emphasize points. Your content must be appealing, entertaining, engaging, and interactive.
3) Does anybody really care about your topic? No one wants to know what you had for breakfast–unless maybe you had breakfast with a celebrity. Giving people the “inside scoop” on a famous person’s thoughts and secrets will make your blog incredibly popular.
4) Have you had personal experience involving your blog topic? Accomplishments speak volumes to your readers. This does not mean you have to be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or featured on the cover of People magazine. What lessons have you learned along the way? People tend to respect you more if you share past obstacles or mistakes and how you overcame them.
5) Is this a brand new topic? If you are in the fields of medicine, science, or technology you may very well have cutting edge information to share with the world. We are listening!
6) Is your perspective different and maybe even controversial? Sometimes blunt opinions can get people in trouble, but they can also get passed along. Do you have a hot topic that will lure comments? Be sure to respond to your comments. This is what makes your blog interactive.
7) Is there something fascinating about your topic or are people sick of reading about it because everybody in the world has been covering it? There is only so many times people can take hearing about the celebrities that tend to get all the media attention. It can be annoying when they compare two celebrities who wore the same thing and then make comments on “who wore it better?” Most people don’t care!
8) Is there something hilarious, quirky, or unbelievable about it? There is a large dog in my neighborhood who, from behind his fence, will jump up and down like he is on a pogo stick all across his backyard when he sees my dog and I walking together. I need to get that on video! Speaking of…
9) Do you have a good graphic, photo, or video available? Humans are very visual creatures. That is part of the reason why Pinterest other image sharing social media sites like Instagram have done so well. Did you know Pinterest has over 70 millions users?
10) Have you shared your blog post on every relevant social media channel? You may want to describe the post differently depending upon the platform. Since Linked In is for business and career-minded people, you may have a different way of promoting your blog post to your Linked In connections than to your Facebook fans and friends.
How will you know if your blog post was successful?
- Number of unique visitors to your blog post
- Re-tweets, shared links, social network mentions
- Quality of the blogs and websites where your blog post is referenced
- Frequency of approaches by people interested in working with you
- Quantity of traffic where sales take place
- Amount of paid opportunities that result from your blog
- Blog subscriber numbers
- E-mail sign ups
- If people who have powerful influence refer to your blog
- The number and quality of comments from your readers
Trust me, you will know! Do you have any ideas about what makes a blog post go viral? Please share below. I read all comments and respond when appropriate.
